Dear BYC MSSF,

Thank you for continuing to support our match racing. It is always an honor to represent Balboa Yacht Club due to its legacy in the development of youth match racing. This Rose Cup was especially important for us because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we had the skill, perseverance, and character to win. We quite honestly said that exactly before the regatta. “We want to win because we know we can.”

So coming into the first day, Jack arrived at the regatta at 6:30 in the morning (he had just graduated from NHHS and took the red eye to arrive at the regatta just in time for the first race) and we began what was to be an uphill climb.

The first day indeed was rough. We struggled with boat speed and didn’t always make the best tactical calls, yet at the end of the day we ended with more wins than losses.

The second day, we started to figure out the boat handling better; our tacks, gybes, sets, and dowses were a little better, and we ended the round robin in 5th . At this point, we became a little worried. All right, more than a little. The wind shut off after the first race of the quarterfinals, which we lost to Jack Thompson. This jeopardized our ability to move on to the Semi finals, yet we didn’t let that get to us. Instead, during the on the water postponement, we had fun goofing around with the other competitors.

For the third and last day, the race committee started racing an hour earlier, which allowed us to race Thompson in 5-6 knots. It was a close race but we beat him in the end.  Moving on to the finals, a round robin between the top four teams was run. By this time in the regatta, I believe we were ready to start the regatta; we finally had the boat handling and speed down pat, and even better, were being patient with our tactical calls allowing us to make good decisions. With that momentum, in an outstanding comeback, we went on to beat Charlie Lalumiere and then Sean Segerblom to win the 2014 Rose Cup regatta!

Once again, thank you for providing the support to send us to this fantastic regatta. We had a phenomenal experience, and were ecstatic to bring home the Rose Cup to BYC.

Sincerely,

Harrison Vandervort