Thank you so much for all your help and support of my summer trip out east! I just finished my second C420 Regatta of the summer with my brother, the C420 North American Championships, where we were able to place 10th out of 91 boats.
Upon finishing the C420 New Englands in Stonington Connecticut, Dylan and I prepared ourselves for the long drive out to Rochester, New York for the next regatta – C420 North Americans. However, before leaving, we spend a day in New Haven to visit Yale University where I will be attending in the fall.
After making the seven hour drive (big thank you to our mom 🙂 ), we finally arrived in Rochester. The next day, we met with our coaches for the event – Udi Gal, Lior Lavie, and Alec Anderson. Since we had arrived the day prior and set up our boat, we were one of the few boats ready to go sailing that day, and were able to log an almost private session with Lior. At the end of that day we also made the drive over to see Niagara falls, taking a ride on the “Maid of the Mist” ferry. Finally, there was one last practice day with the whole group where we were able to get some big fleet starting practice before racing the next day.
The regatta started off with medium to light conditions, and we were able to get four races off the first day, one of which we were able to win – the first bullet Dylan has gotten at a major C420 event! Day two was pretty similar to day one in all aspects except for the wind direction, almost 180 degrees different. However we were still able to get four more races off, and complete the qualification series to move into gold and silver flights. Day three was moving day – the first day of gold fleet. Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative this day and we went into postponement to begin the day, resulting in only three races sailed. However, in keeping consistent finishes, by the end of day three, Dylan found ourselves solidly in the top 10 and looking to hunt down the leaders on the last day. On the last day, the race committee set out to run as many races as possible to make up for the missing race the day before, and going into the fourth and final race of the regatta, Dylan and I found ourselves tied or just one or two points out of third place along with a bunch of other boats. Unfortunately, the last race did not go our way, and we finished the regatta in 10th place.
As a whole, this regatta was an amazing experience for Dylan and I, and we are super appreciative of all your help and support to make these events possible for us. We learned a ton from all our great coaches at this event and can’t wait to put all our new knowledge and experience to use at the next upcoming regattas! Thank you again for all your support!