Dear MSSF,
Over the past seven days, my crew Catherine Reynolds and I competed in the C420 North
Americans, the last major C420 regatta of the summer. This race consisted of 34 boats from all over
the United States. Catherine and I also participated in a three-day clinic held by our coach Stewart
Draheim from BYC. Where we were able to become once again accustomed to hurricane gulches
intense wind. After the third day of training Catherine and I headed home in anticipation for the
following four days.
The first day of racing was just as difficult as we thought it would be. With a very short
starting line and light wind gusting to about 8 knots Catherine and I knew that we would have to
fight very hard to put up some low numbers. Throughout the day the wind increased to a final
speed of about 16 knots. After three races we went in after a long day knowing that we still had
three days to move up in the standings.
The second day Catherine and I got to the event early to ensure that our tuning was perfect,
and everything on the boat was in excellent condition. We went over to the notice board and
looked at the results of the unfortunate site of 24 out of 40. Although we were disappointed, we
knew that we still had three whole days of racing to improve our scores drastically. As we sailed out
to the racecourse, we realized that the wind was much stronger today, and we knew that it would
continue to build throughout the day. All four races we did the second day were not good. We had
trouble getting off the starting line and ended the day right where we began, 24.
The third and fourth days were very similar in the sense of wind. There was 13 knots and still
tough days. We continued to struggle on the starting line and had to fight to catch up upwind. This
was very disappointing to Catherine and me since we knew that we had put in hundreds of hours of
hard on the water training in C420s.
Although we had a lot of trouble on the starting line, we learned so much from this amazing
experience and were able to identify our weakness. After the regatta, we had a long talk with our
coach, Stewart and we realized that the only way to improve our starting was to continue to attend
these large regattas.
Once again, we are so thankful that we were able to have this amazing experience and race
against some of the best sailors in the United States. Without the funding from MSSF Catherine and
I would not have been able to sail in the incredible regatta. Thank you again for your support!
Sincerely,
David Wood
