Thank you so much for the funding provided to send myself and the three other members of the Checkmate Racing Team to France to race in the 2018 French Match Racing National Championship. The lessons we learned and the friends we made were unlike anywhere else I had travelled in the world. Below is a short debrief on how the event went, please enjoy!
When we first arrived on the grounds of the APCC Yacht Club we were very anxious. We had never attended an event that was as challenging as we knew this one would be. Although, our coach Mike Pinckney found a way to settle us down and help us prepare mentally for the long day ahead. After rigging and having a team meeting we headed out to the course to practice maneuvers and check the wind. After winning our first match against last years champion, we were feeling great about the regatta. Although, in the following 5 races our lack of experience in the boats showed as many of the older more experienced j80 sailors had much better boat speed. We ended the day on a 1-5 record. While we were upset with this performance we knew that we had a lot of races left to improve on and could easily turn our record around. At the start of the second day it was quite windy around 16 knots and large chop. We were very excited for the day of racing ahead and quickly were able to get into a good sailing mode and come out of the day with a 2-2 record. We were very happy with this performance but unfortunately missed the quarter finals by about two wins. After debriefing for the day we headed back to the hotel eager to get back out on the water soon for some more training.
Once again thank you to the foundation for helping fund the Checkmate Racing Team to attend the 2018 French Match Race National Championship. We truly could not have done it without you!