The 2019 Orange Bowl Regatta hosted by Coral Reef Yacht Club was a great event and a fun learning experience. I competed in this event with my crew and fellow SDYC junior sailor, Sara Parker. We flew out to this event on Christmas day connecting through Dallas on our way to Miami, Florida. We got to the event and met up with our coach and worked on our charter boat and got to sorting out our settings. We headed out to practice and were greeted by 12-15 Kts of breeze. This was my first time sailing on Biscayne Bay and it is very different to sailing in Southern California, it is a very open venue with Key Biscayne on the top edge of the course and is windier than here. We sailed in a typical easterly breeze the whole event.
The first day of the Regatta started with light to medium breeze and picked up throughout the day. This was our first time sailing in significant chop so we were a little slow. The next day provided bigger chop and heavy breeze. We rounded a few marks in the top ten, we were fast on the upwinds but lost it all on the reaches. We did some swimming but were able to stay in the fight. We were seeded into silver and won a race the third day. We started the second day off with a second and a third. We finished the regatta off with a win by a large margin in the last race, by the end of the regatta we were fast and sailing smart. We learned a ton at this event and would like to thank the SDYC Competition fund for their support in our sailing.