2019’s Christmas Orange Bowl Youth Regatta, at the Coral Reef Yacht Club in Florida, was a 3-and-a-half-day event. We both competed in Blue Fleet, after two days of practicing with the local clinic. It was a different experience than what we are generally used to in sailing sabots, yet the water was certainly much warmer! One day at the clinic, under the guise of our wonderful instructor Spencer was a sight to see. A flash flood had hit, and the entire Yacht Club was flooded in a foot of water--up to the bottom of the car doors, but in typical Florida fashion the CRYC had dried everything out by the afternoon. During the regatta, we had a very rough time due to the larger waves and stronger wind you don’t usually encounter as much in sabots in California. The wind would also shift regularly on the course - adding to our troubles. The course was a mile or more offshore, which we were not expecting. Overall, however, we both progressed as time moved on. We were a bit disappointed that we missed a couple of races - we were challenged by different racing conditions - but we did not let that ruin our regatta. It was both of our first times racing optimists - while we didn’t perform to our expectations in the event, we feel it was an incredible experience that completely transformed our view on sailing as a sport and also on competitive racing.
The CRYC members and others at the venue were all kind and helpful. They tried to accommodate us in every way possible and prepared us for the regatta like one of their own. It was so nice to be able to meet people from across the world - we met kids from Argentina, to Lebanon, to Germany, to Bermuda. We interacted and sailed against the best sailors from around the globe.
On the second day of the event, we joined SDYC’s sister club racing team, Key Biscayne Yacht Club. They towed us out and back, and gave us helpful local advice. Our coaches were Pablo and Juan Carlos, and they were both so amiable and generous towards us. We can’t imagine what our experience at this event would have been like without their support, and we give great thanks to them and to the Key Biscayne Yacht Club for having done so much for the both of us.
Finally, we want to applaud the San Diego Yacht Club’s competition fund for enabling us to learn so much about sailing in such a short time - we hope to do this event again and improve via what we’ve learned this year.