In February I competed in the 2023 ILCA Midwinters East, in Clearwater, FL. I woke up before the sun even came up and left to the airport. I Had a flight first to Dallas, TX, then a connecting flight to Tampa Bay, FL. Then I lastly took a 40-minute uber to my hotel in Clearwater. I arrived late at night, so I went to sleep right when I got there. The next morning, I woke up to the bright sun bleeding through the blinds and when I walked outside onto the balcony, I saw the bright blue water. To get used to the time being 3 hours ahead, my mom and I took an uber to the beach and walked to a lunch spot in the area. We ate lunch but then I remembered that there was a mini golf place on the way back, so we played mini golf and walked back to the hotel across a big bridge. While I was walking across the bridge I saw multiple lasers, IQ foils and a Nacra 15.
The next day was my first and only day of training. I walked down to the launch beach with my blade case, picked up my boat from the US One Design people Chris and Trisha. Then I installed my hiking strap system, traveler, blocks, bungees and more. After I did all that, I walked back to my hotel, ate lunch then walked back to the launch beach. But while I was attaching my mast together the top and bottom section would not fit. So, I had to soak it in water for a while then snug it on. I finished rigging then launched on the beach. It was chilly water, but the air temperature was pretty warm. It was very windy even before I went out, 17-24 knots in the bay. So, my coach decided to not send us out to the ocean but just inside the bay. It was very flat water with very shifty winds. For practice we did lots of practice races with Canadians.
I woke up bright and early for the first day of the regatta and walked down to the beach to start rigging. After I finished rigging, I changed and walked to the skippers meeting. After the skippers meeting, I launched and then sailed out 1 mile offshore to the course. The conditions were very light and choppy. The first race I had a bad start so I had to bail to the right where I was playing the shifts very well and was very fast, so I ended with a 9th. The next race I also had a bad start, but everyone went left, but I noticed the wind was usually oscillating left so I went left and played the leftys up the course where I ended up in 3rd for that race. For the last race of the day, I was going to try staying in control of the fleet, and I had a good start but I did not have good down wind speed because I had seaweed on my center board, so I ended in 13th.
Day 2 of racing I woke up to go straight to the beach to rig, change and then meet. Directly after the meeting I launched and sailed out. Again, it was very light with large chop, but today had lots and lots of seaweed. I was very fast off of the line so I kept my lane for a while where I tacked out to lead the fleet, but on the downwinds I was going too far out so I was slowly bleeding out and losing boats. I got 10th place in the end. The next race was very similar with myself going too far out on the down winds. The very last race of the day the breeze picked up significantly. From 7 knots to 16 knots. I did not do very well because I had a bad start and was not ready, so I was very overpowered, So that race was my drop, a 28th.
I was very proud of my first and second days, but I was in the home stretch because the third and fourth days were supposed to be very light. Like every other day I rigged and had a meeting then launched and sailed out to the venue. It was - little bit windier because the night before there was a mini storm. So that meant there were very big waves with a dying breeze shifting right. On the first race I had an amazing start and port tacked the fleet. But I tacked too much, so I lost some boats. But at the end of the first beat, I got a big righty that put me into 2nd. On the reach I was much faster than the boat ahead, so I caught up to him. On the downwind I passed the boat in first but went to the wrong gate mark and ended in 4th. For the next race I was kind of disappointed because I had a very good start but I could not get into the groove of the shifts and lifts. We were supposed to have one more race but we had so many general recalls and the wind lightened up a lot so it was called off and everyone headed in.
On the last day of the 2023 Laser Midwinters East, it was supposed to be very light with 1-3 knots puffs. We were the first to tow out, beating the race committee. We were immediately put into postponement. After an hour or so they decided to move the course closer to the land. The breeze filled in to 5-6 knots. After they set the course, me and my friend did a split tack to find the favored end and I tested the line. The radial gold fleet started then it was us. On the first start we had a general recall with a black flag, that meant if you were over, you would be dsq. 10-16 boats were dsq on the first start, then on the second start there were 7-8 boats over. But lastly in the third start we got an all clear. I was in 6th around the first mark, I did that by having a looser out haul and some leeward heel to stay fast. Then on the last upwind I caught one more boat to put me 5th in that race and 4th out of 45 boats overall.
To sum it up, I am very proud of how I did this regatta. I was 28th at Orange Bowl and then I was 4th at this next regatta two months later. Lastly, I would like to say thank you to the San Diego Yacht Club Competition Fund for their support.
