This year for Nationals I competed in all three of their events Team Nationals, Girls Nationals and Fleet Nationals, which took place In Sandusky, OH on Lake Erie. Just to preface, we were told we were not allowed to go into the water by choice, no jumping in too cool off or swimming for fun; as the water was not safe as far as bacteria levels were concerned and we could get sick. So that didn’t make sailing there very inviting.
For Team Nationals I wasn’t expecting to do that well as my team haven’t practiced much together and we didn’t have much experience. Still, I wanted to do well and a lot of stress and screaming came from this three day event. There wasn’t a lot to note, except I lost my voice after the first day, we made gold fleet on the second day and then ended second to last in gold fleet on the third.
Next was girls nationals, a one day event that I absolutely hate. It’s great to promote girl sailors and all of that, but it’s a one day event squished in between team racing and fleet that just makes everything a lot more stressful. To add on to that, one day regattas provide ok results from me because I usually move up the leaderboard over a few days, and in one day regattas there’s none of that. The first few races looked promising, a third and a fifth but after that it all crumbled beneath me. Not to mention we were sailing on a lake, which just came with a bunch of unlucky shifts in the wind and you could be winning the race one minute, and be in last the next. I ended the event in twelfth, which wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t horrible either.
Next was Nationals, which I had higher hopes for, but also didn’t go the way I intended it to. One positive from the event was that I did move up the leaderboard every day, which is always a goal for me. I ended in the thirties, and fourth girl overall. Although my results weren’t the best, I’m glad I was able to gain experience in lake sailing and have a lot of fun during the event with my friends.