Colin Averill, Conner Bathen and I had a great time at the POW Qualifier in San Diego over the Opening Day weekend! I got rid of the nervous bug from driving in a match racing event for the first time, that’s for sure. We felt that we finished where we belonged having it been our first time sailing together and my first time driving. We lost a few races due to boat handling issues and a couple brain farts, but hey, we had to start somewhere!
The top three finishers have had quite a bit of match racing experience from other high caliber events such as Butler and Ficker Cup, definitely more than we’ve had as a team, but that didn’t stop us. I think we surprised a few people with our starts when we had them scrambling to figure out their options to get off the line. We even had good old Chris Nesbitt having some fun with us during pre-start.
We won the Ship-Shape Award for having the cleanest boat at the end of each day and got ourselves a nice trophy! (not a bad way to end a regatta). With more practice, we should be pulling off some fun moves that we’ve seen in the past from more experienced drivers. The conditions were all over the board. Super shifty and we had pretty solid breeze for the duration of the regatta. As the regatta went on we got more aggressive on the line and boat handling got exceptionally better. It was definitely a learning experience for all of us and well worth the trip down.
Connor is off to start practicing for Governor’s cup with NHYC and Walker Banks will be back in Southern California to practice with Colin and I in June. We all can’t wait to get started practicing for our upcoming events in Sheboygan, WI, and hopefully the 3rd POW Qualifier up in San Francisco, then last but not least, the Governor’s Cup.
Match Racing has become an important part of my sailing experience and has given us the drive to grow stronger as team. We are determined to have a great showing at some of our upcoming events. Again Colin, Connor and I want to thank Balboa Yacht Club and the Balboa Maritime Sciences & Seamanship Foundation for all their funding and support!