ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Lara Dallman-Weiss '11 hasn't taken the typical approach to life after college.
Sailing competitively for the last seven years, she now hopes to qualify for and compete in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Dallman-Weiss joins only a handful of Triton alum to continue competing in their respective sports following graduation and is the only known former Triton to train for the Olympics in any sport.
Originally a runner, Dallman-Weiss was recruited and received a scholarship for track at another institution, but made a late change and decide to attend Eckerd instead. Her decision proved to be of sound mind. Once at EC, her love for sailing blossomed as she competed for the Tritons for four years and was part of three ICSA National Championship appearances.
In 2009, 2010, and 2011 she sailed in the Sperry Women's Nationals and advanced to the Championship fleet in 2011. In 2009 and 2011, she also sailed in the Gill Coed Nationals.
After graduation, Dallman-Weiss immediately started campaigning for the Olympics making the transition from FJ's to 470's, a bigger boat that sails much faster. She recently had thoughts of slowing down her sailing career and finally making the transition into a full-time career in media last spring - that is, until she met Nikki Barnes.
In April, a mutual friend of the two introduced the pair. Dallman-Weiss and Barnes met for coffee to see if they would make a good combination. The tandem hit it off right away and decided to take a trial sail together.
They even hired an Olympic coach to judge the pair's fit together. Dallman-Weiss and Barnes realized they both had the same vision for sailing and would make a good skipper and crew together. Thus, the Team Perfect Vision Sailing was formed.
Since April, the duo has ramped up their training. In fact, the Coast Guard has provided their full support for the team by instilling a Support Allowance to Barnes, a 2017 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy. The allowance permits the pair to train full time while Barnes remains on active duty.
The team's training includes different geographical locations and competing with the best sailors in the world. The pair wants their training conditions to be as close to the conditions will be in Enoshima, Japan, where they aim to compete in 2020. Generally, conditions at Enoshima are either a light breeze or big swells of wind.
Perfect Vision Sailing has trained in three main locations in the States: Miami, Rhode Island, and San Francisco, their current location, in order to match Enoshima conditions.
They try to train alongside tougher competition as well. The team recently hosted the German National Team in San Francisco, and also makes regular trips to Europe. They also bought their own boat, which stays permanently in Europe for their overseas training and competition.
The tandem most recently competed in Denmark in early August but have a few key races coming up in the Triple Crown, a series of three highly-competitive regattas. Dallman-Weiss and Barnes have already competed in the first leg with the second and third legs next weekend in Oyster Bay, New York, at Oakcliff Sailing with the top five teams winning rare prize money.
Team Perfect Vision also sails at an international regatta this January in Miami. Their opportunity to qualify the United States for the Olympics and qualify themselves to represent the USA comes next August in Tokyo.
To keep up with Dallman-Weiss and Barnes quest for the Olympics follow Team Perfect Vision Sailing on
Facebook and
Instagram along with their official website at
PerfectVisionSailing.com.
