Talk about tough. The 470 team of Jen Morgan and Erin Maxwell are making a big name for themselves: both are four-time college All Americans, are the 2002 470 US National Champions and top American women in 2002 470 Worlds. Jen and Erin won the 2002 470 National Champions held in August. The pair dominated the combined Men's and Women's fleets to take the trophy!

They were second at Pre-Olympic trials and they emerged at the top of the American teams at Hyères Olympic Week in France. As a result of this event, the pair moves up 13 positions in the ISAF World 470 standings and are ranked third in the overall point standings among US Women's 470 teams.

The final rankings for 2003 were released by ISAF December 4, 2003 and there was very little change in the top of the rankings going into the all-important Olympic Year in 2004. With the end of the year coming close, the grade 1 event season are coming to an end.

In our last report from the team, they were in third place in the 470 class at the US Olympic trials this autumn. Here are some of their comments as they went through the competition:

*** Day Four - Today was much better!! There were 3 races today. We got a 1,2,3. The conditions were small chop on the water and about 8-12 knots of breeze.

The first race might have been one of the best spectator races I have ever sailed. We rounded the first mark in third and all the competition was close. Positions changed throughout the race. On the final downwind lap before the tight reach to the finish we were able to just get overlap on the leader at the mark while preventing McDowell and Kinsoolving from getting overlap but just feet. We went on to have a great jibe up to a tight reach and won the race. Second was Clark/Mergenthaler and third was McDowell/Kinsolving. The second race we were 4th at the winward mark, close to the leaders. We passed McDowell /Kinsolving and Jolly/ Reischmann by the bottom mark and moved into second. We closed in on the leaders, Clark/Mergenthaler throughout the rest of the race and came within inches of rolling over them on the final reach to the finish. We were still happy with a solid second place finish.

In the third race we took an early lead out to the favored left hand side of the course after winning the pin end of the starting line. We tacked to cross the fleet and had a bad tack and then some other fumbling. to make a long story short, we didn't cross Courtney Becker Dey and her crew Linda Wennerstrom by about 6 inches. We had to spin penalty turns. Spinning a 720 in a 470 in 12 knots of breeze when everyone else is going fast upwind is not fast we discovered. We ended up rounding the first mark in 6th, ironically in front of just one boat, Courtenay, who we had fouled. We worked hard and were fourth by the lewward mark. We then picked up another boat on the next beat and moved up into third. Had the race been longer we might have passed more boats, but still finished a solid third after a rocky start.

We were the fastest boat today downwind and a clearly had wheels upwind as well today. We showed we are the team to beat in these conditions. Tomorrow we have a lay day. Then we will have 4 more days of racing, and 8 more races to go. Currently Clark/Merganrthaler and McDowell/Kinsoloving are tied for first. We are third, only 5 points behind them. We have a larger throwout then them that we will get after 12 races, so it is close!! A cold front is coming tomorrow and should bring winds on Thursday. This should be an adantage for us that we are looking forward to.

We'll keep you updated. We are off to celebrate Lobke's birthday (our training partner). Tomorrow on the lay day we are going to the master's tennis championship here in Houston. We look forward to giving more good news! - Erin and Jen

*** Day Two - Well, today was not quite as good as we had hoped. It was the same wind direction as yesterday but a bit lighter. The day started with about 8 knots but quickly died to about 6 knots by the first race. We missed the first shift in the first race and were quickly far behind. The race was a bit of a drag race past the first beat and it was hard to make gains. The wind continued to die through out the race and we finished in fifth. In the second race we started in even less breeze. We were set up for a little more velocity so our speed was a little off the pace. O

nce again we found ourselves trailing and trying to catch up. This time we were able to pick off a few boats and finish 4th, but still a very disappointing finish. By the end of the second race the breeze had completely died. Our coach gave us a fast tow in and we made our repairs for the day. Our jib sheets were replaced because they were fraying. And the tape holding our gaskets on was coming off (another slow factor in our day), but they are ready to go for tomorrow.

We are psyched for tomorrow. We know we have used up all our bad luck and are ready to make our move. We will keep you posted with good news tomorrow! Thanks to all of you for the ongoing support. - Erin and Jen

*** Day One - This is the regatta we've been waiting for. Erin and I left the dock at 11:30 this morning to meet up with Marcelien and Lobke who were already on the water making sure they were going fast and ready to tune us up. The first race began just after 1pm in a dying NE breeze. As the wind died it became increasingly shifty. The men's fleet went off first, the women's fleet followed, and the Lasers were the third start of the day. With only 7 women's boats on the line finding clear air was not very difficult. But predicting which way the next 30 degree shift would go was another thing!

Amanda Clark/Sarah Mergenthaler and Katie McDowell/Isabelle Kinsolving jumped into an early lead with a shift right after the start. Erin and I did our best to sail our own race and find our own shifts and puffs up the first leg. We rounded the first mark in third and spent the next two legs moving up to first place. The lead shifted between us, Amanda/Sarah and Katie/Isabelle. At the beginning of the last upwind leg Katie/Isabelle gained on a shift on the right to take the lead from us. The two of us began to separate from Amanda/Sarah. Erin and I got close but couldn't quite put ourselves back into the lead to finish the race in second.

The race committee attempted to start one more race but the wind would not cooperate. They sent us in for the day and have moved tomorrow's start time up one hour to noon.

The racing has just begun. We have 15 more races scheduled over the next 7 days of racing. The team who continues to post good finishes and doesn't make any major mistakes will win. We've started on a great foot and just need to keep it up. - Stay tuned, Jen Morgan and Erin Maxwell

Other competition results this year:

TRAVEMUENDE WEEK Travemuende, Germany: The European Championship in the A-class catamarans is underway with nearly 80 starters. US Americans Erin Maxwell/Jen Morgen placed first in the 470 division for both men and women. In addition, they received the perpetual trophy as the top female competitors!

Results of the 114th Travemuende Week from Tuesday, July 22:

Final results:

Olympic 470er class (6 races) 1. Maxwell/Morgan (USA) 6 points; 2. Nixdorf/Blumenkamp (Krefeld) 9; 3. Kirchner/Niemann (Kiel) 12; 4. Pot/van der Stok (Netherlands) 20; 5. Monteny/Monteny (Belgium) 25; 6. Van den Hout-Nolte/Nolte (Delligsen) 29.

To follow this team's path to Olympic Gold and show your support - click here.