Thank you for your support allowing me the opportunity to travel East to Florida to compete in the 2021 I420 Midwinter Championship at the US Sailing Center, Miami, Florida. This was such a great event for me. Though my results for this event are below my previous regatta results, this event provided me with an opportunity to work on my tactics, my skippering, and my overall technique. I feel so much stronger now as my results improved as the regatta continued.
I flew out Thursday night to meet my dad in Florida late Thursday. My new crew Elizabeth came up from Jensen Beach Florida Friday afternoon. After I finished my school work in the hotel room on Friday, we tried to get out to practice, but the wind died. We went through the boat, set sails ashore, and double checked all of our settings. The boat was cleaned and we put it away for the evening, focusing on getting to bed early for the first day of racing.
The Sailing Center was busy with all the i420’s and 29er sailors and boats, and it was great to see a bunch of our friends from both classes getting ready for the day.
The first day of racing found us in very warm conditions, with building breeze as the day progressed. The wind did not shift too much during the day, but you needed to be on the correct side of the course to perform well. The left and the right paid on different races, and catching those shifts were difficult for me. As the regatta continued, I started to focus more on our boat position, what was happening up the course, and we steadily saw ourselves rounding the first weather mark in the top 10. However, because my crew and I are new together, we generally lost a few boats on the reaches and 2 nd upwind legs.
The second day, my crew and I had more confidence. Knowing that we could handle the stronger pressure together made sailing a lot easier. By the third day, we got tactically stronger, and our boat handling a lot better. As a team, we thought we did well together even though we could have done better results wise. I was very happy to do this regatta, and it gave me great exposure to consistent wind where I could rely on my tactics and strategy. Thank you again for your support.