today's practice

turns out the breeze peaked in the lower teens this afternoon (started less than 10, picked up and shifted left and stayed left) and held on until the boys came in after 5p. as in the past few practice days, they raced with about forty kids (peru, argentina, chile, slovenia, others) on an opti trap (just a leeward mark, no gate) set up and managed by the coaches. something of an honor system at starts and roundings, and some countries' sailors are more honorable than others. in 3 races today, our guys had mixed to good results--a bunch of top 10s and some tops 5s--and came off the water feeling good. after the day off and the longer-than-expected-but-not-really measurement process this morning, lucas has them back into serious training mode. lucas won opti worlds in 2001 (after a second in 2000) and the coach for chile (with whom we share a coach boat and practice very closely) was 4th in worlds a few years before that, so our kids are with coaches who know how to achieve success...