Far From Finished.

This past weekend we competed in the final event of the US Open Series -- serving as the qualifier for the Olympic Test Event that will take place in Marseille this summer. After finishing second in our first event, we needed to win the second event to claim the spot. It was a tough event with a lot of mental challenges. What was supposed to be a 4 day event got cut to 2 days due to uncooperative weather— one day the breeze was too light, and the next it was too windy. After a lot of pacing on shore, we managed to get 2 days of racing in great conditions. We are happy with the improvements we’ve made since our last event. A lot of match racing scenarios played out against our great competitors and US Sailing Teammates, Stu McNay and Lara Dallman-Weis, and it highlighted a lot of our weaknesses. Ultimately we didn’t end up on top but we left the event feeling very satisfied with the fight we put out and are excited to continue building in the lead up to the events in Europe this Spring.

What's next?

That leads us to our next challenge. Throughout our campaign we have had very generous support, however the foundation we have worked with previously has decided to shift strategies and is no longer supporting our Olympic venture. We are very grateful for all of the help we have received to get us where we are, but the job is far from finished. We have accomplished so much as a team during the past two years sailing together, and we know we have what it takes to become the best, but we need more time. With the right support, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.

That is why now more than ever, we are asking for your help.

We have started a GoFundMe page to kickstart our fundraising for our next event, the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma, Spain. This event is a key regatta this spring and is the first of several events in Europe. We have set the goal of raising 15K to help cover the costs of sails, transportation, housing, flights, etc.

Here's a cost breakdown of our proposed budget:

Full set of sails: $2700

Transportation (Van + Trailer + Container fees): $8,000

Regatta fees: $450

Accommodation: $2500

Flights: $1600

To donate to our GoFundMe click here.

This is obviously a drop in the bucket in comparison to all of the costs that go into making a successful Olympic campaign. If you're interested in making a larger tax deductible donation to our campaign, click here for more details.

Additionally if you’d like to contact us for a more detailed campaign budget breakdown, feel free to reach out to us via email:

louisanordstrom@ussailingteam.org

trevorbornarth@ussailingteam.org

As for what’s next, our biggest focus at the moment is to fundraise to allow us to continue to train and compete. Once we have raised enough money to cover our costs, we plan to train in Miami before heading off to compete in Spain, and afterwards, staying in Europe to train in France, Italy, and then Marseille, the future Olympic venue.

Other big events coming up:

• Apr 22- 29 - Hyeres French Olympic Week, Hyeres, France

• May 15-20 - 470 European Championship, San Remo, Italy

• Aug 10-20 - 470 World Championship, The Hague, Netherlands

Now more than ever we are turning to you to help support our journey to represent the United States on the European circuit. Every little bit helps and is greatly appreciated. By supporting us, you are not only helping us make our Olympic dreams a reality, but you are also investing in the future of sailing. Competing in these events is critical in the lead up to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Thank you for considering supporting our Olympic journey. We’re grateful for any help you can provide.

Miami Winter Begins!

Happy holidays from NB 470! We are "home" for the holidays, and have clocked in a lot of time on the water this month together with the growing domestic 470 fleet in Miami, FL. We took part in a series of camps run by the US Sailing Team throughout December.

Our days looked like this:

7:45 AM Gym session together with the USST at Train8Nine

8:45 AM Team breakfast

10:00 AM Presentations from various experts in the sport

12:00 PM 470 class briefing

12:45 PM On the water training

5:00 PM More presentations

6:00 PM Team dinner

In short… some very full-on days! It was such a great opportunity for us to make closer connections within the US team – other athletes, coaches, and partners – people we work alongside with much of the time, but it’s not often we get the chance to sit down and get to these people on a personal level. There are many athletes competing in different Olympic sailing classes, all with differing schedules and training plans, but we are all training under the US flag with the same goal in mind. This month we really felt like a team, and we are proud to be a part of it.

We had some stellar days on the water this month. We were sailing out of Miami Yacht Club and so we got to train out in the ocean with big waves and better breeze than you see in Biscayne Bay. We had a lot of new faces joining us throughout this month as domestic training is grounds for new budding 470 sailors. A big thank you to our coach Yevgeniy Burmatnov for taking everyone on and making the most of our time out on the water. It’s not easy towing 30 minutes each way out and back from the ocean each day, much less corralling everyone together in the big waves! Thank you!

The biggest highlight of this camp was getting to hear presentations from some of our idols in the sport. A big one for me personally was getting to hear from Robert Scheidt, someone I’ve looked up to my entire sailing career, talk about his experience across 5 different Olympic campaigns. There is so much that goes into running a successful and sustainable Olympic campaign, and Robert’s presentations this week were really insightful to bettering our team’s process and approach to campaigning. We also got to hear from several other legends like Bruno Prada, Augie Diaz, and our own US Sailing Team executive director, Paul Cayard, to name a few.

Overall it was great to be able to put some productive hours in this month on domestic waters. We are continuing to make progress on our goals while helping support the domestic 470 fleet and grow the class. It’s such a good feeling to help out new younger teams, as it wasn't long ago we were in their shoes. It feels full circle.

In the new year we plan to continue training in Miami. We have the US Open series coming up, two separate events -- one in Miami, and one in Clearwater. These two events will act as a qualifying series for the upcoming Olympic Test event (Marseille in July) and the combined Worlds (The Hague in August) and mark the beginning of the US Olympic Trials. These events are both avenues for us to potentially qualify ourselves and the country to the Paris 2024 Olympics!

Upcoming events:

• Jan 13 - 15 - Miami US Open Series, Miami, FL

• Feb 2 - 5 - Clearwater US Open Series, Clearwater, FL

We have a big year ahead of us. 2023 is the year to see our hard work come to fruition and make our dreams come true. Looking back on 2022 we are really proud of all the progress we have made as a team. We are logged significant hours on the water this year around the world, representing the United States in competition in Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, and Israel. We could not do this alone, and we are eternally grateful to all of those who help us on this journey.

A lot of thank you's are due, and to start it off we would like to thank the Windmark Sailing Foundation for their generosity and continued support of our team. There are a lot of costs that come with sailing at an Olympic level, and without Windmark's support we would not be able to put in as many hours on the water as we do. Thank you! We'd also like to thank the US Sailing Team and their network of coaches and support staff that keep us race ready. Finally a thank you to our friends, family, and fans who keep up with us on our journey! The kind messages of support make all the difference.

If you'd like to make a contribution to our campaign this holiday season, click here! We are currently fundraising to help cover costs for our winter expenses. We love training in Florida, but unfortunately Miami training comes with the heavy cost of Miami housing! Any and all donations are very much appreciated!

We wish you a happy holidays, and hope to see you soon on the water in the New Year!

Photos: Allison Chenard & the US Sailing Team

Time to Digest - End of Season Review

What a year! While it is not the end of 2022 yet, the end of the Worlds marks the end of a very busy sailing season and lots of travel. We kicked off this year with events in Palma and Hyeres -- making tons of progress in the really competitive mixed 470 fleet. After a lot of lessons learnt, we were fortunate enough to train in the future Olympic waters in Marseille in May where we continued to make progress on our racing abilities -- finishing off 3rd in the final coaches regatta!

We returned home to train in Oyster Bay for the summer, where we were joined by new up and coming 470 teams. Really exciting to make progress on growing the fleet on our home waters. Next it was off to the Hague in the Netherlands (next year's combined Worlds venue) where we were tossed around by massive currents! We had a tough event but were not too concerned with results as we were mostly aiming to gather information about the venue in prep for next year's worlds.

Next up were the Europeans in Cesme, Turkey! We had some major delays with our container arrival which kept us from training as much as we would have liked before the event. Luckily the container arrived in time for racing, and we managed to pull off some of our best racing results to date finishing 13th overall, just a few points shy of cracking the top 10.

With this top finish in Turkey, we set our expectations even higher when it came to the upcoming World Championship in Sdot Yam, Israel. Container arrived on time and we had plenty of sailing time to prep before the Worlds began. The first two days of the event brought some crazy winds with a moving low pressure system, and we were unable to figure things out. Looking back I think we overcomplicated things, struggling to make sense of the wind shifts, often left with our heads spinning after completing the races. We had some really poor finishes in the first two days of the qualifying series and did not qualify for gold fleet, we were crushed. We knew we had what it took to be racing in gold fleet, but we did not perform to our abilities. The rest of the regatta was spent trying to simplify things as much as possible while racing in silver fleet, and we were able to make progress in the challenging wind conditions and have some good battles. We came back to finish 35th overall at the Worlds. Not the finish we wanted, but a lot of great lessons learned. We are proud of the progress we've been making, despite the results not showing it too well during this event.

Now we return home to the states where we're able to sit back and digest everything we've learned, reassess, and make a plan to come back even better this spring. Up next for us is a US Sailing Team camp in December where we will hopefully be joined by other US 470s! Excited to get back to work and keep hammering!

A huge thank you to the Windmark Sailing Foundation for all of the support this year and for allowing us to chase our dreams! It takes a village, and without the unwavering support of Windmark, we would not be where we are today. Thank you! A massive thanks to our super coach, Yevgeniy Burmatnov, for guiding us in this journey and teaching us the value of hard work and persistence.

Finally we would like to thank all of our family, friends, and fans who contribute to our campaign. We cannot do this alone. Currently we are fundraising to help contribute to our upcoming domestic winter schedule, which include the US Olympic Trials starting in Miami in January of 2023. If you would like to make a donation, please head to our donation page on our team website.

See you on the water.

Upcoming events:

- US Miami Open Series -- January 2023

- US Clearwater Open Series -- February 2023

- Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma -- April 3-8, 2023