Thank you for your support which helped me to attend the 2019 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta held at Coral Reef Yacht Club in Miami, Florida. There were almost 700 sailors across Optis, Lasers and C420s. I participated with my skipper Gigi Ivancich in the C420s fleet. The regatta was a four day event. The first two days of racing were the qualifying series then the last two days were medal series.
On our first day in Florida, we spent the morning rigging our boat then when out with a few other teams to check our boat out and speed test. Everything seemed fine with our boat and we felt fast going into the first day of racing. On the first day of racing, we were lucky to have 18 to 20 knots all day, very different from Newport. The day began well but unfortunately, since we were really light, we had trouble on the reach legs and the downwinds. After racing, our coach Beka Schiff helped us, and talked us through what to do to help us in those situations. Our goal for the event was to have fun, and learn a lot since we just started sailing together.
The conditions of the medal series were similar, but a little lighter than the qualifying series. The breeze was between 12 to 15 knots on both days. These conditions were a little windier than what we were practicing in Long Beach. We only practiced for about a month before the regatta, so I would say that we did fine for it. The last day of the regatta was our best day overall. We got an 11th, 25th, and a 9th in the silver fleet. Overall we scored 54th out of 77 teams.
I gained so much experience from this regatta, and this has helped me become a better sailor. Thank you for the grant that allowed me to sail in Florida, and I hope I can go next year.