Dear MSSF,
Thank you so much again for all of your support in my sailing events. The C420 South Shore Championship in Long Island, NY, was my last planned event for the summer, but unfortunately, after a quick trip to the ER and a couple of stitches, I found myself sitting this regatta out. Nonetheless, it was still a good experience, as my brother Nathan was still able to sail, I got to go out on a race committee boat with Rear Commodore Steve to watch, and most importantly of all, I learned to deal with disappointment and frustration.
After finishing CJ Buckley, my mom, Nathan, and I headed back up to New York. Since we didn’t want to risk getting stuck in traffic, we took a ferry across, then headed to Sayville Yacht Club to unload our boat. The next day was a practice day, with a nice breeze, and almost the entire fleet was out practicing. However, as I was climbing into the boat, my finger got cut badly, and I got sent to the emergency room and ended up with two stitches. The doctors’ final verdict was that I couldn’t bend my finger or get it wet, so in other words, I wouldn’t be able to sail. However, Nathan could still sail and we didn’t want to completely waste this event, so Nathan contacted Sophia Pearce, who was touring New York, and she and her mom flew down to race with Nathan.
The first day of the three day regatta had a nice breeze and clear skies, but it was extremely puffy and shifty, with lots of chop due to boat traffic. Since Nathan hadn’t skippered in a few months and they were a new team, the first day was a little bit rough, but it was still good, as they were able to figure everything out and still have two top 10 finishes. The next day had a much more stable sea breeze, and gradually picked up to 16-20 knots. The first race wasn’t as great as planned due to technical issues, but after they sorted that out, Nathan and Sophia killed it with a 1 on the second race, and a 5 on the third race. Race committee was debating whether to push for a fourth race, but they eventually called it a day due to it being too windy. On the last day, I stayed at the hotel to help Mom pack everything up, but according to Nathan, the wind was a little bit lighter and the sea breeze didn’t fill in until later. Nathan and Sophia were now in gold fleet, and started the day off very strong with a 3 and 4 for the first two races. This put them in the top ten and within striking distance of fifth place, but things didn’t work out on the last two races, and they ended up finishing 11th out of 64 boats.
Even though I was extremely disappointed that I wasn’t able to sail the last event of this summer with my brother, I still had fun and was able to learn a lot by watching from a committee boat. It was also a great event for Nathan to practice skippering before heading off to college. Thank you so much again for all of your continued support, and I can’t wait to keep racing!