Preparing for the J/24 Women's Open Championship in Marion, MA June 27-29th.

Next week myself and my newly formed team will be sailing in the J/24 Women's Open Championship in Marion, MA. Preparing for such an event is no easy task. The first task I needed to accomplish was crew. for the past 6 years or so I have been sailing my families J/24 in Newport, RI on Thursday nights (J/24 night) with a mostly male crew. Every year this women's regatta in is Marion, MA (my backyard) and this year is the first time I will attend the event. I have never sailed this women's event before because I had been unable to put together a talented team until now.

After many phone calls, emails, and brainstorming sessions I have been able to assemble a really talent crew. My crew consists of women that all sailed competitively in college sailing, Lindsey Nahmias (myself, Eckerd College), Gabrielle McCoy (UVM), Katie Smith (St.Marys), Gretchen Curtis (Tufts), and Kirsten Barton (Conn. College).

The second step is practice, practice, and practice. Sailing a J/24 is very much about teamwork. We went out and practiced with a goal each day. Practice Day 1 was all about crew work, and learning their positions. Day 2 we continued to work on crew work, but also added boathandling to the list. Day 3 we enlisted a local J/24 sailor to come out with us and coach us on the boat. This was really the turning point for us, each of us learned something about our position and about the boat. After many more practice days, our first practice race day is upon us.

Tonight is Thursday night J/24 racing night and I have kicked all the boys off the boat so we can go out and sail against the most competitive J/24 fleet in the country. I plan on writing tomorrow about tonights racing!