Ian and I got the chance to travel to Miami for the 29er Midwinters East Regatta. This year, the regatta was the first part of the two-part Youth World Championship qualifier. The regatta was
held out of Miami Yacht Club and was raced in the ocean just south of Miami Beach. It is a place where we have raced several times before and were comfortable with our experience sailing at that venue. But one thing we have learned about Miami, like everywhere, is that anything could happen.
We arrived Thursday morning after taking the red eye Wednesday night. Most of the day on Thursday consisted of going over our charter boat and changing lines and systems to the way
that we liked them; followed by a short sail to make sure everything worked. Friday was our practice day. After a late launch, the SDYC teams headed out to the ocean. Out in the ocean, we did a lot of speed testing to get used to sailing in the large chop common in the ocean. We also did a lot of accelerations, which in years past, we have found to be the hardest part of the racing there.
The first day of racing started with a long postponement due to extremely light and unstable wind. After a lot of waiting, we got our first race at around three. The first race, with a solid start at the pin and a left shift, saw us take and hold the lead for that race. For the second and final race of the first day, a mediocre start and being on the wrong side of a shift saw us further back
than we wanted. With some smart decision downwind, we were able to claw our way back up to finish 4th in that race.
The second day started with wind in the morning. With a forecast of solid wind of 15 to 17 knots, the day promised to be much more fun and interesting than the first day. The first race, we had a decent start and were third rounding the top mark. Sadly, a quick decision to try and roll the second place boat ended with us swamping the bow in the backside of a wave, losing a few
boats in the process. After that, we were able to crawl our way back into second but didn't have enough race left to catch first. The remaining three races followed roughly the same pattern. Start, then drag race to the left side of the course where there was more pressure and shift, and then tack near laylines and repeat. This put us rounding either first at the top mark or close
enough in second to have the lead by the time we rounded the leeward gates.
The third and final day of sailing was extremely similar to the second day, just slightly lighter. The same pattern happened for the first three races. Sadly, a bad lane off the start saw us
pushed back in the fleet and a really close finish where we fell off a wave before a few other boats put us just outside of the top five. Two clear starts after that saw us take first in the next
two races with which we had put ourselves in a spot where we had won the regatta with a race to spare.
Even knowing that, we went into that last race with the goal of winning, but that was when things went a little crazy. To add some context to what happened, in Miami you have to deal with the clouds. Clouds either push or pull the wind into or out of underneath them. Now, we don't really have this on the west coast, so we didn't really realize how big of an effect a large cloud moving down the right side of the course would have. We started and had a great start, we were punched in front of the fleet, and having started near the boat, we were in a very controlling position with our main competitors going left below us. So, we were content to keep sailing to the left pressure and shift that had been working every other race. Everything was all good until we all started to tack out of the left. That was when Ian and I looked at each other and said, "oh no!". That big cloud that I had mentioned earlier had made the right side of the course super favored. By the time we rounded the mark, we and all the other top teams were deep. We were able to boat speed our way back up to a single-digit finish range by the second top mark. After a smart call of holding left downwind and coming in hot to the finish, we made up for the loss we had on the first race of the day and passed 4 boats coming into the finish.
All in all, it was a great regatta. It was a lot of fun and the racing was extremely good. We are now pushing to get ready for the second part of the qualifier in Long Beach in late March. Thank
you for the continued support in representing SDYC.