Thank you so much for your consideration and support, which allowed me to travel to Jensen Beach, Florida to compete in my first C420 Midwinter Championship. After one practice day and three race days, my crew Richard Jr. and I ended up finishing 11th out of 118 boats. Although we had hoped for a higher finish, I still gained tons of experience and am looking forward to lots of training and our next race.
We flew into the venue with only one day to spare before the event started, so on our practice day, we quickly rigged up, and went out on the water to tune with the rest of our team. The practice day had light westerly winds, which wasn’t like how the rest of the regatta was forecasted to be, but it was still good to get back on the water and warm up before the real racing began.
On the first day of racing, we started off strong, having a decent start and playing the shifts well. On the final downwind we were in 2nd right behind the leader, but due to a course mix up, ended up finishing 6th. After that, the wind went hard right and began blowing from the north with puffs well over 20 knots. On the second race of the day, we had a rough start, but were able to get in a groove, sail fast, and grind back up to finish 7th. Unfortunately, due to poor weather, the race committee had to call it a day after only two races since we couldn’t even see the windward marks through the rain.
The second day of the regatta was still qualifying, after a quick morning briefing with our coaches, we headed out to the race course. We had a nice easterly breeze, although it was extremely puffy, making it difficult to keep the boat stable on the upwinds. Throughout the whole day we started very well, although our upwind boat speed made it hard to break through the top 3. Nonetheless, we still finished consistently with a 4, 8, 7, 5, which easily put us in the gold division. However, now that the last day was in gold fleet, it made small mistakes cost a lot more, and despite having excellent starts, we struggled with first beats and had a mediocre first 3 races of the day. We still powered through, keeping our spirits up, and were able to finish off the regatta strong with a 6.
All in all, my first Midwinter Championship was a huge experience, and although we had hoped to do better, we still gained lots of experience and exposure to a new venue with new coaches and sailors. We also now know what we need to work on, and with lots of focused practice and training, I know we can get back up there. Thank you so much again for your continued support of my sailing campaigns – I wouldn’t be able to travel to these events without your help!