Dear MSSF,

The U.S. Junior Women’s Double Handed Championship is a remarkable regatta that brings together sailing girls from across the nation. With the help of the BYC Maritime Sciences & Seamanship Foundation, I was able to fly to South Carolina where I competed in this three-day regatta with two days of practice leading up to it.

In this national regatta, I was given the opportunity to crew for Grace Yakutis who sails out of Coronado. We had a blast throughout the regatta and learned a lot about lake sailing. In all our years of sailing, we had never sailed on a lake and so we used this regatta as a huge learning experience. Furthermore, during this regatta I also met some great coaches and created some lasting bonds with them, which I look forward to strengthening in future regattas.

During the actual racing, Grace and I did our best to predict the many wind shifts and tried to stay positive when things didn’t go our way. One of our goals during Ida Lewis was to get top 10. Unfortunately, not everything can go as planned, and Grace and I got 15th, however instead of getting frustrated, we simply took a step back and decided that we could use our weak-points from the regatta as learning experiences that we can now grow from.

Although we did not reach our goal, this won’t stop my from trying again next year because I believe that hard work will eventually pay off and give us the results that we want to see.

Thank you so much for sponsoring me because without you, I would never have had the opportunity to test my skills as a crew and meet all these amazing young women.

Sincerely,

Madeline Bubb