• 2004 Worlds Report on US Team

• This will be an article about the US 29er Team, both as a team and like individual. This will not be an article about the Worlds in general.
  
  I would like to introduce my self. My name is Martin Kirketerp, I come from Denmark. I am 22 years old. I have been driving a 49er in 4 years, trying to make it for the Olympics in Athens, but missed. I was the coach of the US 29er Team.
  
  I did not know any of the US sailors before I arrived at the train station. Bill Goldsberry, Dan, Trevor and Matt picked me up, gave me a warm welcome, and gave me a good social feeling about the team in general. Getting the team pumped for the first start of the worlds was on top of my agenda. Therefore I held a meeting 1 hours after my arrival, talking about the team spirit, the importance of a good team spirit, and the team spirit later on showed its worthÉ The meeting was also to get me in the group, because being friends, and on the same time having authority as a coach is important and a hard balance.
  
  
  
  The US team impressed every one by having 5 boats in the gold fleet, and 1 boat qualifying 27th. Unfortunately we had a lot of bad luck in the finals. A lot of broking charter boats, disease, and protest and so on. Regarding the charter boats, we now know that they are not perfect, and you need to change some thing, the blanket for example. Otherwise we would have had 2 teams in top ten, Johnny and Marcus, Matt and Brookes É.. In the hard times during the final series the US team spirit showed its worth. We all sticked together, helped each other and did what we could, in order to get the entire US fleet to perform well. It is so important that you understand the value of being a helpful, and social good working group. I can go on and on writing about that, but I will write no more but only say, US will never have a 29er World Champion without a good group to work with, to train with, to talk to, to be friends with. You guys seem to understand that.
  
  
  A beautiful Swiss backdrop
  
  We had some training sessions on the water the following days; I did not have a motor boat, so therefore discipline was a key word for the sailors. They had to manage the training on the water. After a meeting every one agreed to be on the water at 10.30 for an example. But in here lies something to work with for the US team. Being responsible for all the other boats training as wellÉ And knowing the importance of discipline. Some times boats were not on the water before 12.00, and the first boat would be one the water at 11.00, even though every one just agreed 10.30. A lot of people came a bit to late for our meetings as well, It might sound like a minor thing, but I think it reflects your personality, your way of working, professional or?? Professional sailors, top bosses in the finance world and so on, do not come too late. ItÕs not hard to tell the difference between a pro boat and a non pro boat when you are on shore. I tell you, because in the Danish 49er fleet we have some pro boats, top 3 in the world, and some non pro boats, and the difference between is huge on shore as well. The whole conscience about what you are doing. But I am also talking about adults, but that is a huge difference between 49er teams and 29er teams in general, the conscience, something to work with on every 29er team, not just the US team.
  
  
  
  The boat handling was not good enough, thatÕs simple. Dan and Trevor did some nice rough wind boat handling, Johnny and Marcus and the Biehls brothers did some nice light wind boat handling. But three boats in the entire fleet had really good boat handling, the finish team Arcada, the British team Crewsaver and the Australian boat, the rest still has a lot to learn. But rumours told me that a lot of the US teams does not train in light winds, I think that speaks for itselfÉ.
  
  Speaking of the three magic boats in that fleet. One difference is their ability to make it look so simple. They were leading from the beginning till the end. Why?? One thing is that they positioned them self in a position to do the right thing every time. During our training we found that there was a big gain going under the rocks. The three boats was there almost all time, because the planned their races so that they could go there. The rocks was on starboard side of the course, so they would start starboard, unless they could see it was possible to start pin and cross the fleet. There upwind speed was also a lot better; they were able to go faster than the rest of the fleet, even though they were not heavier than the majority of the fleet. They think speed much more, most of the time we have flat water and around 20 knots, then you want the boat to go fast. Because of that you make the boat go fast, and then you can get the boat to point as well. They had more vang on than most, some of the US teams told me could not sail with that much vang on, but I believe you can, if you train hard at homeÉ. And do miles and miles of speed testing. Those boats had obviously done much more speed testing than the rest of the fleet.
  
  
  Derick Vranizan and Blair Sargent going upwind
  
  The Biehls and Goldsberry and Marcus impressed me with their downwind tactics. They had the courage to jibe away from the train going on starboard after the mark with the kite. They jibed very beautiful on puffs. The Biehls also won a race with something like 3 minutes and Johnny and Marcus also took a bullet! I think that some of US teams have tendency to sail to defensive when they get to the top of the fleet. In skiff sailing the best defence is to get to the mark as fast as possible, and take all the gains you can all the way up, including leading and tacking away if you really think that is the fastest thing to do. Because a lead in the 29er class can be 10th in seconds, you just miss one puff because you are to defensive, wont work in the end. Aggressive tactics, but not stupid, donÕt take a chance just to take a chanceÉ
  
  I would like to give my compliments to Matt and Brookes for there consistent sailing. That was more than beautiful; you qualified some where in top ten. It was a pleasure to watch those guys during the qualification, they were ready for the first race, and just got more and more pumped as the races progressed. Nice boys. Always remember that feeling of self confidence, and know have to get in that state of mind. You had the look in your eyes. In order to win you need the right state of mind, you guys had that, you just need better speed and tactics.
  
  Alain and Matthew, you guys need to learn to be in top of the fleet. You had a lot of great first laps, and suddenly you dropped 10 places. My advice is to sail a lot of races in big fleets, in order to learn to sail in big fleets that will minimize your amount of mistakes in big fleets, because every one makes mistakesÉ
  
  Gutenkunst came to me after the last race and said: "We tried to start pin, as you told, because it was favoured big time. (They had started closer to the middle the other times) We were there with Finland and UK, and we started side by side, and fought and fought and only in the end we could not keep up!Ó I say you learned more in that start than the rest of the starts all together. Always try to go for it, donÕt be afraid, thatÕs the only way to learn. And my last advise, PUSH IT AS HARD AS YOU CAN!
  
  
  Team USA!
  
  Thank you for your time,
  
  US 29er coach Martin Kirketerp

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