70 Days Until the Olympic Trials

NB470 Racing checking in again from our training overseas! We are now 70 days out from the US Olympic Trials taking place in Miami on January 6-13, 2024. All gas no breaks as we accelerate towards this exciting culminating event. The athlete selection procedures outline our qualification system for the Paris 2024 Olympics, and for the mixed 470 class, our qualifying event will be this one week event, winner takes all!

Our goal for this next period of time is to arrive at the trials as the best prepared team to take the Olympic spot. Over the past few weeks, we've had the privilege of training in Weymouth, a location that holds a special place in the hearts of sailors worldwide as the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. The history and prestige of this venue inspire us daily as we strive to reach new heights, working with the Olympic rings in the background.

We are here in the UK to continue pushing our strengths while also working on our weaknesses. Our British training partners, Vita Heathcote & Chris Grube, have been fantastic sparring partners and a critical component to our development and ability to push forward. Also massive shoutout to the rest of the British Sailing Team for being such hospitable hosts, especially the Heathcote family, Elliot Hanson, Mickey Beckett, and Ellie Aldridge! We've managed to become honorary members of their team, participating in closed BST Training camps, sharing housing, and even coaching. Our good friends and USST teammates, Steph Roble and Maggie Shea, have been following suit in training with the Brits, so we are not alone in flying the stars and stripes proudly while here in the UK.

A mix of conditions during this past month. We've been fortunate enough to get to experience some classic Weymouth conditions while training here. Big breeze, waves, and cold temperatures! We've also had some beautiful days in the harbor for some flat water training.

Additionally we've been pushing our fitness to new heights while exploring all that the UK has to offer. Cycling, trailing running, and our newest favorite hobby, wing foiling!

What's next?

• UK Training - October

• Portugal Training - November

• Miami Training - December

• US Olympic Trials - January 6-13, 2024

A massive thank you to our supporters who believe our team! We are pushing hard every day thanks to you. A special thank you to the Sailing Foundation of New York and St. Francis Sailing Foundation for supporting sailors like us and allowing us to follow our dreams! Stay tuned for more updates from our training adventures in Weymouth and other exciting developments. We are grateful to have you alongside us on this incredible journey.

From the World Championships to Olympic Trials: Our Sailing Journey Ahead

Worlds is done and dusted... 21st overall finish. Now everything looks towards the upcoming Olympic Trials.

We had an intensive training block in the lead up to the Worlds, as detailed in our previous newsletter. Because the Worlds venue was closed off until right before the World Championships, we decided to spend our time in the lead up in a venue that has similar conditions to the Hague. Along with many other 470s, we trained down the coast from the Worlds venue, the little town of Niewpoort, Belgium! (Not to be confused with the Harbor Court New York Yacht Club venue, Newport, RI) Big breeze, big waves, and even stronger tidal currents! It was an epic week.

We came into the Worlds ready to give it our all. This was the first combined-World Championship event Trevor and I have ever taken part in. This event only happens once every four years in the lead up to the Olympics, and is arguably even more competitive than the Olympics as countries will have all of their top sailors present to compete. An electric environment to be a part of. It was made all the more interesting with the challenges presented by the sailing venue. The Hague is characterized by extremely strong tides, often racing in more than 2 kts of current, which changes a lot of the dynamics of sail boat racing.

We had a great event overall, with so much potential shining through. We are really proud of the gains we've made during this long European season. It's not easy being away from home, putting absolutely all of your energy and resources towards a goal. The Worlds was a very challenging event that really put our team to the test. In some ways we succeeded, making a ton of progress on our pre-event goals, and in other ways it exposed some weaknesses in our training, guiding us towards new objectives as we game plan towards our best performance for the upcoming US trials. To be honest, 21st overall was not the finish we were looking towards. Looking at the results now, we were merely one good race away from potentially taking part in the medal race. But that's what it comes down to at this level. Every point counts.

We were really happy with our boat speed at the event. Once we got off the starting line well, we had great speed upwind, even in the bigger breeze. This was a big jump for us, and shows that the hours put in on the water and on our fitness have been paying off. The game plan now is to continue chipping away at our goals, spending as much time as we can on the water and making progress in every way we can.

A big component of being able to accomplish our goals is financial support, without which we couldn't spend nearly as much time on the water as we do. Thank you so much to our newest partner, Engineered Yacht Solutions @EYS, for their support to our campaign! EYS is a class-certified marine welding and custom metal fabrication service based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They are pursuers of perfection, just like us! You can now see their logo on the front of our spinnaker!

What are we up to now?

In the wake of the World Championships, our team took some well-deserved time off to recharge and regroup. Louisa had the privilege of attending the Golden Spinnaker Gala hosted by the New York Yacht Club, a fundraising event for US athletes for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics. It was a beautiful evening and a great opportunity to meet many legends and supporters of the sport of sailing.

Meanwhile, Trevor ventured to Lake Mendota for the 2023 E Scow Nationals.

We are back and feeling refreshed to get back on the grind. For the past month we have picked up training again in the UK with our British training partners. While the temperatures are slowly dropping, the UK waters have been fantastic for working towards our goals.

The next goal is to qualify for the Olympics at the US Olympic trials, taking place in Miami, FL January 6-13th. Basically the US trials are a single domestic event, meaning racing is exclusive to only US boats. Whoever wins, qualifies for the US spot at the Olympic Games. We still need to qualify the country for the Olympics, for which, the next opportunity is the continental qualifier taking place at the upcoming World Championship in Palma, Spain in February 2024. Because there are currently no other North American countries competing in the mixed 470, our path to the North American spot is relatively secure, provided we finish in the top 90% at the Worlds – something we're confident in based on our previous results. So, our primary focus is on clinching victory at the Olympic trials, followed by the quest to secure the country's qualification.

Planning our time up through the trials is the next challenge. What is the most efficient way to spend our time and resources to be in the best position to win the Olympic trials? That is the question. For now, we are trying to be as frugal as possible, which for us means staying in the UK to train. We spent most of our resources training in Europe up through the Worlds, and so money is tight. That being said, we are pedal to the metal when it comes to training and are pouring everything we have towards the best build up possible for the trials.

Training in Hamble with Vita Heathcote and Chris Grube!

Exciting news on the equipment front: we're thrilled to announce the acquisition of a new boat for the Olympic trials! Being at the top of our game will require having the best equipment! We have earned a build slot with Ziegelmayer, the top 470 manufacturer. As the trials will be taking place in Miami, we need to ship a container from where the boat is being built in Germany to the US, which is quite a substantial cost.

If you'd like to contribute towards our new rocket for the trials, please click here to find details of how to make a quick donation through GoFundMe, or a tax-deductible donation via check!

We are well on our way towards our goal of representing the USA at the upcoming Olympic Games. Thank you for being part of this journey with us! Stay tuned for more updates soon! In the meantime make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and keep up with us on social media @nb470racing!

Postcard from the UK: Pre-Worlds Update

Greetings from the UK!

Everything at the moment is winding down towards the upcoming World Championship in the Hague, Netherlands which will take place from August 11-17. The Worlds venue is quite unique, characterized by a heavy tidal flow of the North Sea. Strong current changes racing dynamics quite a bit, especially around fixed marks-- making starting and mark roundings much more challenging. When structuring our training in the lead up, we wanted to clock in some hours in strong currents. We've spent quite a bit of time in Europe this summer, and with limited EU days, we are quite fortunate that Brexit occurred as we can seek reprieve in the UK. After the conclusion of our epic month in Marseille, we packed up the boat and drove North through Europe and after passing through the Eurotunnel, switched from driving on the right to the left side of the road. Coffee and pastries were exchanged for tea and crumpets. We've become quite frequent visitors of the UK recently, and we're very fortunate to have such great friends that have become like family to us in recent years. Vita Heathcote and her family run Warborne Farm, a 100-acre farm in Lymington, a few hours South West of London. This beautiful little spot on the Solent has produced several famous Olympians and sailors, like Sir Ben Ainslie. The Farm itself is a special place, located just minutes from the sea and minutes from the massive New Forest, it is a peaceful haven; the perfect location to come to for a post regatta cool-down. Rest days become filled with activities like winging, kiteboarding, bike riding, and trail running, in addition to tending to the animals and helping around the farm.

When it comes to getting back to training, the farm is well equipped, as one of the barns has been transformed into a boat shed-- perfect for 470 boat tinkering! With the recent acquisition of our newest 470 hull, we've had to spend a lot of time boat-working to get the boat perfectly set up to our liking before the upcoming World Championship. We are immensely grateful to the Heathcote family for taking us in as their own; housing, feeding, and often clothing us when we come into town! We have spent more time on the farm this calendar year than we have at home, and the Heathcote family's generosity and kindness has made our long stints away from home so memorable. Thank you! We got special allowance to join in with the British Sailing Team at their squad camp in Hayling Island, a strong tidal venue. We didn't have any accommodation planned for the trip, and when we asked Kate and George Heathcote, they offered us to live on their classic yacht, Alice, with the caveat that we have to sail her there and back! Trevor handled the trip there with ease while Louisa transported the 470s via trailer. We lived onboard Alice for the whole week at the Sparkes Marina in Hayling, and trained out of the Hayling Island Sailing Club with the BST. We had great conditions and made a lot of progress on starts and leeward gate mark approaches. The Worlds venue is closed off, and so because we are unable to train at the venue itself it was great to get hours on the water in a venue with similar conditions.

On Friday we packed up for the trek back to Lymington on Alice, what would become a 7 hour upwind adventure! We were looking great as we started our journey, 3 sails up and cruising upwind, but inevitably, we had some challenges along the way. Our main jib halyard broke, so our front sail came crashing down, and later as we began motoring against the incoming tide, we ran out of fuel! Luckily George Heathcote came to the rescue and after getting refueled we made it back to Lymington just before 1 AM. An adventure to say the least!

This coming week we are training in Hamble in a small group training with the Brits before heading off to Nieuwpoort, Belgium to connect with our American training partners at the end of the week. The Worlds venue is closed until the very beginning of the worlds, and so most of the 470 fleet is connecting in Belgium to do some training before the event starts. We are feeling fast and excited for the Worlds to begin! This regatta is important, as it is the first chance to qualify the United States for an Olympic berth. Our Olympic trials are still taking place in January of 2024, and that will determine which of the American teams actually gets chosen to represent the country at the Olympics, but first we must qualify the United States for a slot. Last week we began our final fundraising push for the Worlds! It costs a lot of money to do an Olympic campaign. Unfortunately, our US Sailing Team organization is very limited in resources, and it is left up to the athletes to raise funds and campaign in order to represent our country. We have garnered a lot of support from so many individuals, for which we are so very grateful

. They say it takes a village - we are asking everyone to help carry the torch and join us in the final six-month push to the Olympic Trials. By passing the torch, it allows us to continue to focus on our training. Our goal is to raise $17,000 which will cover the following:

• Accommodation and Food: Training with the British Sailing Team, the US Sailing team, and the World Championship.

• Coaching: Cover coaching fees + expenses in the lead-up to the Worlds. (Note: US Sailing will not be providing any coach or training support)

• Boat transport: Delivering our boat + coach boat around Europe

• Transportation: Rental car in Europe and Flights

• Sails: New sails for Worlds and training

We have already made significant progress towards this goal, and are really proud to have been able to acquire a newer hull since our equipment failures at the Europeans. To be the BEST requires top-notch equipment, coaching, training, nutrition, physical therapy, mental coaching, and so much more. We believe we have the ingredients to be the top team, have a proven track record, and have been training together as a team for nearly 3 years. What we lack most now is financial and equipment resources. HOW YOU CAN HELP! Join our team and help carry the Torch forward on our path to Paris! Anything and everything helps. If you know of someone who may be interested in supporting us or learning more about our team, please pass this along to them! They will be a part of our team and receive our Newsletter and our gratitude for helping us reach our goal. You can make a quick donation of any size to our GoFundMe by clicking here. Alternatively, we are set up with the Sailing Foundation of New York - nonprofit 501 (C) (3) organization. Tax-deductible donations can be mailed to: Sailing Foundation of New York, PO Box 124 Rye, NY 10580 Check payable to: Sailing Foundation of New York Memo: Nordstrom/Bornarth

If you have friends in Europe or the States that would be interested in providing accommodations at their home, Airline mileage points for airfare, Visa/AMX, or MC gift cards just to name a few helpful items. Please feel free to reach out.

Thank you so much for your consideration in joining us on our path to represent the USA at the 2034 Paris Olympic Games. Go USA! Stay tuned for more team updates to come as we get near the World Championships!

With regards, Louisa Nordstrom