This July, I traveled to Bristol, RI with my crew Madi Anderson. The first day we got there it was raining and humid. We got settled into our dorm rooms at Roger Williams University. The first day of the Ida Lewis event was sunny and hot. Madi Anderson, my crew for the event, and I got checked in and then we went to find our charter boat. There were some minor rigging changes with our charter boat. Madi and I eventually figured it out and got straight to rigging. Later that morning, it was time for us to meet our coaches and the other competitors. All of the ILCA and 29er coaches introduced themselves, and they were all super welcoming which was wonderful because this was my first Ida Lewis event so I was quite nervous. In the afternoon, we launched our boats and got ready to sail out in the bay. The sailing conditions were perfect for us. It was really puffy around 7 to 13 knots of wind. In Rhode Island the current is very strong which is kind of a change from the west coast so we had that factor in play in our racing. The first 3 days of Ida Lewis were a clinic. On the 1st day we did speed testing and boat handling drills. As we got closer to the last day of the clinic we focused more on racing and starting to help us feel as ready and prepared for the next 2 days of great racing ahead.
Madi and I also had a fantastic time off the water as well. We got to meet other all girl 29er teams who were all so nice. When the first day of racing arrived, Madi and I were both confident in each other and our skills that we had practised and learned. The wind was pretty light in the early afternoon averaging about 5-6 knots with about 3 knots of current so we didn’t have quite enough wind to get racing so we were postponed for almost 2 hours. The race committee waited for the nice southerly to fill in around 2 pm and we went back out to get 2 decent races in. The competition was all so close together which made racing even more fun. On the second day of racing, which was also the last day of Ida Lewis, we had better wind and got racing earlier in the day. Madi and I sailed 4 super fun and long races that day. The current was slack ebbing for the first half of the day and then the current started to rip out ???. The wind was also starting to pick up which allowed us to be able to start planing with the spin up and Madi out on trap which made the downwind legs a lot faster and fun. Madi and I gave it our all throughout the entire regatta. We learned a ton about teamwork as well as boat handling and racing skills, and we both had so much fun at Ida Lewis. Madi and I finished up in 3rd overall which wasn’t too bad for our first big regatta together. We are both so grateful for this opportunity to race and represent SDYC. Thank you for all of our support from San Diego Yacht Club Competition Fund and HPYS. Another big thank you to JJ Fetter and Jon Rogers for all that they have done for me and HPYS!