OLYMPIC SAILING-  Newberry and Casey 2012 Team Review and 2013 Preview

2012 was a groundbreaking year for Sarah and I. Halfway through the year, we became a team and started to work toward our ultimate goal of being the best mixed multihull team in the world. We’ve made our first steps in the right direction, but we want to continually improve this year to peak in August at the Nacra 17 World Championships. To do this, we need to take a look at 2012 and see where we can improve. Let’s take a look at a timeline of 2012 and how I felt during the events of the year.

January: Sarah came sailing the F16 strong out of the gate with a win at the US Sailing Development Team trials in Key Largo, FL. The win cemented her as the top female cat sailor in the U.S. against top competition including female Olympic medalists. I sailed with Sophia Schultz and on Saturday I came off the trapeze and my metal trapeze ring hit her in the eye leaving her bloody. Even though she didn’t want me to go in, we ended our day after the first race. On Sunday we came out strong and won the day, even though we ended up 10^th for the regatta. Overall, Sarah and I both felt we had a strong event.

February: Dalton and I on the F18 won both the Charlotte Harbor OD Regatta and the St. Pete NOODs. We sealed the deal in both events in the last race, Charlotte Harbor in very light air and St. Pete NOODs in very heavy. We were getting well-rounded. I was still a helm at that point.

April: I trimmed on the Melges 24 with Bora, Jeremy and Brad where we won Charleston Race Week. I also crewed for Bret on the Marstrom 20 for a win in the Miami-Key Largo Race. This was the second year in a row we won Charleston. I felt really strong, but I was definitely rusty on the Melges sheets. On the Marstrom we sailed really smart in 30-knot breeze on the fragile M20.

June: Dalton and I teamed up again for a spectacular come-from-behind win in the Great Texas 300 long distance catamaran race. That wasn’t the biggest deal of the month though. This is when Sarah and I started talking about teaming up for 2016. We did a test event where we worked together really well and we heard the news that Sarah was #3 on the list for getting a Nacra 17, which meant we would definitely get a boat in the first shipment which was huge. Instead of sailing in the big breeze the last day of the event, we started planning for 2016. We threw our ideas together about our website, funding and how to start training.

September: Sarah and I both went to F18 Worlds in California. She started off strong with a 1-2 in the first two lighter air races. The breeze and the fact she and her crew didn’t speak the same language wore on her through the regatta, but she stayed in Gold fleet. Dalton and I placed in the top 22 but didn’t have a good event. We had a new boat that almost didn’t make it in time from Europe for the event and we didn’t have enough training going in. Training is very important and that is where we just didn’t have the time together enough on the boat. We had flashes with a top five and a few top 10 finishes but not enough consistency. I wasn’t happy with our performance. This is the only event we didn’t have a podium finish for the year.

October: This was the month when Sarah and I really started putting work in. We had some training sessions in Miami and we improved literally every minute. We went to the Buzzelli Multihull Rendezvous not thinking about results but communication and teamwork. We had a razor edge win but we were there just to improve as a team.

October was also the month we started selling our team shirts! We’ve sold almost 100 so far.

November: Really fun month! F16 Nationals was an event where all of the current mixed teams found out where they were in their program. Again, we came in not really thinking about results. We wanted our teamwork to continually improve and let the chips fall where they may. We improved every lap and had a very consistent regatta with our worst keeper score as a 4^th in a 28 boat fleet. We ended up winning the event with a strong performance in the last two races. During this event (our third total) we became a very technical and professional team.  The tuning changes we made to the Falcon F16 worked, and we really gelled. I also just realized I’ve won a national championship as a skipper and a crew. I feel more well-rounded now!

Sarah carried that pace to the US Sailing Multihull Championship with Kenny Pierce, winning every race on the way to becoming the first female skipper to ever accomplish the goal.

I left for St. Barth for the CataCup and placed a close second to our training partner, Enrique Figueroa, in the four-day long distance event. The speed of our Sotheby’s St. Barth Properties Cirrus R F18 was vastly improved from World Championships in September. We felt we were the fastest but not the smartest team on the water.

December: This month we haven’t been able to sail much. The Cirrus R F18 is in a container still in the Caribbean and we had to give the F16 Falcon back to Falcon Marine. We did find out our Nacra 17 is showing up in a matter of days though!

Even though we’ve had a ton of success this year, at 190 lbs. I felt I was a little too big for the F16. The result has led me to a scientific approach to my diet and fitness. I’ve always been fit, but I’ve had a little cushion built in that allows me to go for hours at a time in distance races without refueling. I’ve been creating a meal plan and fitness routine to push me to the next level. Sarah has also been getting it done in the gym and pavement.

January 2013: Moving forward, we’ve decided to be extremely fit so we can get the most out of every minute of training on the Nacra 17 from the very beginning, leading up to the first World Cup event for the Nacra 17 on January 26^th in Miami, FL. Almost every event in 2012 was some kind of come-from-behind victory which means we are mentally tough but a little slow off the blocks. Even though it’s better to be first in the end than in the beginning, we will work on our preparation more this year and shift gears since our teamwork is so improved. It’s all happening fast and we are real.