I had the amazing opportunity to compete in Chicago Yacht Club’s Grand Slam Grade 2 International Match Race with my team (Cricket Racing) composed of Porter Killian on Main, and Tyler Wolk on bow. This regatta was a huge learning experience for me and my team, and we left Chicago with some great lessons that we look to call upon in our next regatta. This race was sailed in the Sonar with 13 teams in total, some from the U.S and some from Australia and New Zealand. All of the skippers in this event were ranked very high and had lots of racing under their belts. I was the youngest skipper in the event, with the least number of match races, but still had a higher ranking than a few of the teams. The racing was fantastic, with each one coming down to, in most cases less than a foot at the finish. My team and I finished in 12th out of 13 teams with 3 wins and 9 losses, and of course we were not pleased with this results, but we were pleased with how we sailed against this level of competition. We also feel that even though the results may not show it, we sailed very well. Every race was close at the finish, we were never completely out of a race. We had our best races against some of the Gov Cup veterans like Clare Costanzo, Will Boulden, and Harry Price (who was not skippering).
Overall it was a great regatta, with many lessons learned. I would like to thank The Maritime Sciences and Seamanship Foundation for their support, and the Chicago Yacht Club for giving me the chance to compete in this event.