by Will La Dow
Thank you for assisting my crew Nikki Obel and I, to be able to compete in the 2012 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta. It was a great experience, and I look forward to attending this following year. Without the aid of the Competition Fund, my trip would not have been possible, and I would have missed out on an amazing event.
In the days leading up to the regatta I was unsure of what the outcome would be, and was not sure I was wholeheartedly into the big trip across the country, particularly on Christmas Day! As I finally got onto the plane, I realized how lucky I was to be given this opportunity, and that it was my duty to put all of my efforts into it; to just go for it. From that moment on in the trip my whole mindset transferred and I was ready to give my all to this huge event.
The first day of racing was extremely light, and warm. We were so excited for racing, but the wind never filled in enough to sail us. We ended up towing back to the dock and calling it a day.
The second day was a little warmer, and there was a little bit more wind to offer. We decided to be conservative, and started towards the middle of the line, and not push the line too hard all day. This payed off, and we finished the day scoring a 6,6,2,3,1. We got ashore to find that we were in 1st place!
On the third day the pressure was on. We were in first place in a huge regatta, and did not want to mess up. Sadly we had a tough time adjusting to big wind shifts that day and ended up scoring a 14, 4, 6, 21, 24. This put us in second place, and we were very upset! We were, however, still within striking distance, and knew that all we needed was a good next day.
The final day of racing was an interesting one. All of the forecasts had called for 18-25 knots of breeze, and very cold weather. We sailed out, and found moderate temperatures and a 15 knot breeze. It was go time. We needed to beat our friend Patrick Floyd from Annapolis in order to seize the title, and kept our eyes on that. We knew that in any regatta, if you need to take a risk, the best time to do it is on the last day. The pin end of the starting line was massively favored, and the left side of the course was as well. The sequence began. We won the pin! We stayed on starboard for about 30 seconds, then tacked onto port and were in first on top of the fleet! We finished the race in first, and Patrick finished in second. Now the pressure was on him!
In the prestart of the last race, he began to match race us, and ended up giving us both horrible starts! Luckily we had a general recall; another chance to start. The next start we decided to start a little bit farther up from the pin end, in order to minimize risk. We got off the line with a great lane and rounded the weather mark in second! We could not find Patrick and assumed he was deep. We sailed hard and passed the first place boat! We were winning the last race for the last two legs of the race, then got passed 100 yards from the finish. We finished the race in second, beat Patrick, and became the 2012 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta Champions!
Without the aid of the San Diego Yacht Club Competition fund, we would not have been able to win this prestigious event. I have grown up at the best yacht club in the world and am honored to be able to represent you all at the Orange Bowl, and at regattas in the future. Thank you for all your support.
by Scott Sinks
On Christmas Day, my crew Greer Wattson and I traveled to Miami Florida to race in the Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta, the biggest youth regatta in the U.S. Thanks to the help from the SDYC Competition Fund Committee, I was able to make this trip possible.
The first day of the four-day regatta unfortunately saw no wind, and therefore no races were completed. The second day we saw similar conditions to the first, starting the day off in postponement. However the race committee was eager to get races off because of no racing the previous day. As a result, we were forced to sail in light air. The race committee was able to get off 5 races, giving us a long and tiring day on the water. The third day we saw slightly more wind than the first, the velocity was increasing throughout the day, peaking at around 13 knots. This day proved to be a better day for us, but with a slight setback from a black flag we were still not quite in the position we had hoped to be in. However, strong winds were forecasted for the next day, we knew we could improve our position.
Although strong winds were forecasted on the fourth day, they did not prevail. The day started off at a solid 15 knots, but rapidly tapered off to around 5 knots after just 2 races. 12 races in total were completed at the Orange Bowl in the C420 fleet. My crew Greer Wattson (NHYC) and I finished in 10th overall. We had hoped to do better, but having learned so much from this experience it has made the trip worthwhile.
Thank you so much SDYC for making this trip possible!