I would like to thank you all for supporting my trip to Rochester, New York to compete in the 2021 c420 North American Championship Regatta. This was truly a great learning opportunity for my skipper, Morgan, and I. We got to experience lake sailing and the variety of unique conditions that go along with it.
The Sunday before the regatta, Morgan and I drove up all the way to Rochester, which was a little brutal, if I am being completely honest. We had just spent a week team racing with our training group in Newport, RI, so it took us a little over 6 hours to get from there to Rochester. Luckily, we had two days of training to stretch our legs and get ready for the event, which started that Wednesday. The first day, we got a bit of breeze, enough to set a course and race against some of the other teams that arrived early. However, the same cannot be said for the second training day. It was hot, humid, and absolute glass out on the water. It was so dead that our coach ended up calling off practice and giving us the rest of the day off to do some last minute boatwork and polishing.
The event itself took place from the 14th to the 17th, which is a bit longer than the regattas we are used to sailing. The aim was to get off 16 races total with only one drop, meaning consistency was going to be key. The first two days were the qualifying rounds. We had decent breeze, enough to make the goal of 4 races a day. Morgan and I had a bit of trouble at first with figuring out the venue, but as soon as we had that sorted, we were able to pull off some nice races. Our main focus was to keep ourselves in it by staying conservative and only making high percentage moves.
The third day, we had our perfect conditions: light and shifty (aka exactly what we are used to sailing in back at home). We were able to pass a lot of boats, as well as put a lot of points on those that were still beating us. Going into the last day, we were looking great. We were in 3rd place, only 14 points out of first, with a decent drop score instead of the black flag that many boats had been carrying since the first day. Upon arrival at Rochester Yacht Club on the final morning, we were greeted by stormy skies, freezing temperatures, and overall grim weather – perfect foreshadowing for what was to come for us. It rained all day. I was frozen to the bone and shivering so hard that I could barely speak. Still, we soldiered on and kept racing the best we could. The first two races that day were a little challenging for us, but they were even more challenging for those two boats in front of us, meaning we were closing the gap quickly. Going into the third and second-to-last race of the day, we had passed one boat and were only 5 points out of first. The event was seemingly ours. Then, after the third start, the unthinkable happened: our bridle snapped. All of the sudden, we lost the ability to trim the mainsail, and as much as we tried, we could not go upwind. Unfortunately, we had to retire from that race in order to go off and splice a new bridle before the last start of the day. Though it was a little sad to retire from the race, it was definitely the smart move, considering we barely made it back to the starting line with our makeshift bridle all rigged up in time. We arrived at a minute to go, much too late to be setting yourself up for a successful start. Because of the unfortunate circumstances, we had a very deep weather mark rounding, and we had to claw our way back up to the top 10.
After our unlucky last day, we ended up dropping 6 places down and ended in 8th out of the 91 boats total. Though it stung a bit to be that close to victory and be taken down by a faulty piece of line, we were still thankful to have ended in the top 10. Overall, this was a rollercoaster of an experience, and I am very grateful to the BYC MSSF for making it possible for me!!