The first event of the season is in the books! After a lot of cold practice weekends in New York this winter, Leopold to get a few warm days of sailing in St. Petersburg, FL done this month. He spent the first two days practicing in the mornings with the USF (University of South Florida) team and in the afternoons with his training partner (and 2012 London Olympian) Rob Crane. The training days were followed by four days of racing in a strong international fleet at the Midwinters East Championship, hosted by St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

The event included 203 international competitors from the United States, Canada, Jamaica, France, New Zealand, the Bahamas, and Germany, with 39 boats in the Olympic ILCA 7 division.  On the first day, only one race was sailed due to very light and dying winds. After a 25^th place on day one, Leopold made some ground the proceeding days finishing 1^st and 8^th in the next two races. Following a collision at the start of the 4^th and final race, he recovered finishing 21^st in that race and 9^th in the event – a solid start into the season. Full results can be found here.

Leopold is now on his way to Greece where he will participate in the ILCA 7 European Championships from February 16^th to February 23^rd. Stay tuned for the next updates!

Leopold Brandl – Downwind Practice Long Island

Excellent conditions over the last weeks allowed for some very productive practice on the coast of Long Island. The focus lies on maneuvers and downwind speed. Next up is Larchmont Raceweek this weekend.

Some amazing weeks of practice in all kinds of conditions have come to an end. The conditions were diverse and allowed for practice in all areas of boat handling. Next up are some team practices and practice regattas to work on tactics and strategy. Big thanks to the CIYC Olympic team for making this possible.

Leopold and his team had a blast racing down Long Island’s coast at the annual distance race this Saturday. After a slow start in light winds, the breeze picked up and allowed for some faster racing in wind speeds of about 10kts and boat speed of 8kts. In the end, the team won by almost an hour over the second-placed boat!

Next up for the team is Wednesday’s Big Tom Race!

Leopold and his crew competed on home waters this weekend and came away with yet another win! It’s great to see the crew’s hard work pay off and grow as a team!

Another victory for Leopold and his crew at the Washington day race!!!

A challenging race in very light winds with lots of drifting around, but it was definitely worth waiting for the wind and finishing the day with up to 18kts.

Last weekend, Leopold and his crew Ali represented Columbia University Sailing in the A Division of the America Trophy at the Merchant Marine Academy.