Dear BYC Maritime Sciences and Seamanship Foundation,
Thank you so much for helping fund my trip to the 2017 US Team Racing National Championship in Oyster Bay, NY on October 20-22. My team and I were excited to get back on the water together to sail this event. Our team consisted of six sailors (Tyler Sinks, Michael Menninger, Justin Law, Lucy Wallace, Haley Kirk, and myself) and we previously won the 2015 ISAF Team Race World Championship in Rutland, England.
The regatta was held at Seawanhaka Yacht Club and there was a total of 14 teams. The company, ZIM Sailing, brought a brand-new fleet of Club 420E boats and we were the first people to sail them.
Our team trained well during the Thursday practice and we won all our practice races. The breeze was a consistent 7-10 knots with a fair amount of current. The forecast for the 3-day regatta was looking poor with winds ranging between 1-5 knots, which was almost not sailable due to the heavy amounts of current. On the first day of racing we completed a total of 4 races. The second day consisted of us all sitting on land from 8 am – 4 pm. After the RC canceled the racing for the day, the breeze ended up filling in. The umpires allowed 1 representative per team to vote whether the regatta should be sailed after being cancelled for the day. All teams voted yes, so we ended up racing from 4:30 pm until sundown. On the third and final day of racing we were faced with postponement on land for most of the day. The RC really needed to get a few races in to constitute the minimum to call it a regatta. We ended up sailing for just one hour due to the 2:30 pm cut off time.
Overall, it was a very fun event and I am excited to share my knowledge with the BYC junior sailors. Thank you again for all the support!