We are so grateful for your grant which helped us compete in the US Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship (Ida Lewis Trophy) in Mentor, Ohio this summer. We arrived early on registration day with lots of time to explore the surrounding area, get our charter boat and begin to meet our fellow competitors. On days one and two we participated in the clinic and were coached by the team of incredible sailors that US Sailing brought together for the event.
The first day was fairly light and choppy, testing our patience and requiring us to keep our settings and bodyweight perfect to keep speed. The second day was much windier at about 12-15 kts and gave us some much-needed practice in breeze and huge, “square” waves. Later that night, a thunderstorm with 50-60 mph winds rolled in, knocking boats over and into each other. Luckily, no one was injured and not many boats were seriously damaged. The next morning, we all arrived early to check on our boats and then the racing began. Conditions were fairly light, which was frustrating at times and lead to much of the fleet getting TLEs on two races. The next day, the breeze was slightly better. This lead to some nerve-racking tight reaches with Gretchen flat out on the trap even though the main was luffing. On the last day, the race committee ran fewer races so that we could be in soon enough to load trailers and get to the airport. Altogether, we had a great time meeting other female sailors from around the country, and we feel that we learned a lot from this experience. Thank you so much for your support.