Team BAADS USA Match Racing

23/10/2018

Walt braved the cold weather back east to sail with some of our blind sailing pals in Boston and they gave him this nice shout out!

12/09/2018

The Blind Match Racing World Championship got some great coverage over in Scotland. Here’s a segment from Scottish TV in which they interview Walt.

“My final film of the world blind match sailing Championship, held in Helensburgh last week. In this short film I talk to some of the participants and officials. https://t.co/6GGZiLHwnR”

09/09/2018

https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/209794/Blind-Match-Racing-Worlds-in-Scotland-overall

The Blind Match Racing Worlds – hosted for the first time in the UK by the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club – was won by Great Britain's Sharon Grennan, a completely blind sailor, and her visually-impaired crew: Liam Cattermole and Lucy Hodges MBE.

07/09/2018

We did it! The guys sailed two textbook matches today to beat Canada and take the bronze medal in the 2018 Blind Match Racing World Championships!

Congratulations to Blind Sailing UK GBR1 on the gold and GBR2 on the silver. It was a great event and everyone sailed hard.

06/09/2018

I snuck a quick video of Walt talking to Princess Anne, not quite sure why she didn’t want to put the blackout goggles on. 🤣🤣🤣

06/09/2018

The guys sailed against Blind Sailing UK Team GBR1 in the semi-finals today in light and shifty conditions. GBR1 was victorious and will move on to the finals, team USA will sail in the petit-finals tomorrow. There was very exciting racing in the first race of the other pair between GBR2 and Canada and Canada had the win after multiple lead changes. We then were whisked in today to meet Princess Anne.

Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club

04/09/2018

A challenging day on the water for the team today. We had a couple hour shore delay this morning before heading out to the course. First match was with Blind Sailing UK GBR 2 which saw the most action of any match, and the guys fought hard but GBR pulled off a well-earned win. Second race against Lost At See Blind Sailing Team AUS left the team with a -1 for a pre-start collision, and then the guys rallied for a win against Canada in their last win of the day.

We then came in to shore for the Blind Sailing International AGM and a fantastic whisky tasting from Loch Lomond at the Royal Northern & Clyde Yacht Club

04/09/2018

While we wait for shore on day 2, a couple photos of the team from Sunday evening’s opening ceremonies.

03/09/2018

On top of the great day on the water, by the time we got to the pub the locals told us Walt had been the star of Scotland TV this evening. I got a couple screen grabs from the replay but we will post the interview when it was up. A film crew was also out today, and he recorded an interview for BBC Radio. Once the links are available online, we will post.

03/09/2018

The guys had a great day today with a 2-1 start. The only loss today was against GBR 1, who sailed quite well and are strong out of the gates with an undefeated day. There was a lot of waiting around for breeze today (we were on the water from 9-6) as it was light and shifty, but the race committee did a fantastic job of being on top of every development and getting off as many races as possible given the conditions. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Blind Match Racing World Championships 2018 – Day One

The Race Committee did extremely well to get seven races away in the light and shifty wind conditions. Principal Race Officer Anne Mallédant (FRA) decided to keep the teams out on the water in the early evening sunshine, taking advantage of the more consistent breeze that had filled in.

The first race of the Championship – between USA and Australia – had to be abandoned, cancelling the good start made by Australia. When Race 1 eventually restarted, Walter T. Raineri’s USA found the gas pedal and got the win. USA made it two out of three with a win over their North American neighbours, David Brown’s Canadian team, but a later defeat to Sharon Grennan’s GBR1 spoiled their perfect day.

GBR1 came into the event with a good training regime under their belt and made it pay, managing the wind shifts very well and gaining a clean sweep.

Undefeated out on the water and beating every team in the first day before N over A was hoisted and the day’s racing concluded. was ended for the day.

But with the first round robin still to complete, today’s conditions and as teams continue to improve there is still all to play for.

GBR1 Skipper Sharon Grennan said: “It’s really exciting to be out on the water after the training clinic last week. The wind dropped off a bit but the race committee did a great job of moving the course around and we were able to recommence racing in the afternoon.

“End of day 1, we are pleased with our wins but we still need to work hard for the rest of the regatta.”

Today’s light wind racing will be good practice for Day 2, with more light winds from the south-west / west forecast, although a depression could bring more unsettled weather later in the week.

Earlier in the day, a reporter and cameraman from STV were hosted on the Commodore’s yacht. STV was out to get shots of the event proper, which was added to pre-recorded footage from Friday and featured on tonight’s STV News at Six.

You can read a short article and view a clip of GBR2’s Laura Cammidge on the STV website -
https://stv.tv/news/west-central/1429803-blind-scots-sailor-set-to-impress-in-world-championships/

02/09/2018

We had an eventful practice day today. Broke the shackle for the main halyard on the way out to the sailing area, had to be towed in to fix it. Skipper and ace climber Walt went to the top of the mast and retrieved it. He wanted to climb the mast out on the water but Liz Baylis and I both overruled him. By the time we got back out, we had one practice start with Team Canada and then the wind promptly died.

01/09/2018

Walt, Stacie, Brian the Canadian, and our token Scotsman Ray (aka Team Peaty and Smooth) won the trivia challenge among all of the teams tonight! Our prize was a 6 pack of Irn-Bru which is like orange cream soda and some chocolate toffee biscuits.