Dear BYC MSSF,
This year I attended the CISA Clinic as a crew in the C420 fleet. Previous to now I had only skippered in 420s but wanted to try crewing because I was the right size for it. The three practice days leading up to the regatta were pretty light not getting over 10 knots. It was great practice for light air with a lot of chop. It was a good experience to see the crew’s point of view on things and I have a better idea on what is to be expected of them. I learned a lot about fine tuning in light air with weight and sail trim. The best part about being a heavy crew is when the wind picks up like it did on the race day. We saw 20 to 25 with gusts up to 31 for the racing so it became a survival of the fittest and heaviest. The first race wasn’t all that windy and we ended up mid fleet but then the breeze came on and no one could compete with our speed and we were getting all top threes. We were the most consistent of the group and with no throw outs this was important. We ended up winning the regatta by 3 points out of 5 races. This Clinic/Regatta was a great experience and would not have been possible without the funding from The MSSF. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Christophe Killian