Last weekend, I had the pleasure of representing Team SDYC at the final 2019 US Match Racing Champs qualifier, hosted by LBYC on their fleet of wet, wicked, and wild Catalina 37s. For me, the event was full of firsts: my first time match racing, first time on a Catalina 37, and first West Coast travel regatta since my aerospace engineering career brought me to sunny San Diego. Unfortunately, the only first we didn’t get was in the regatta!
Leading up to the event, Chris had cautioned me against the heft and ruggedness of these old-school heavyweights. Built to last through even the most aggressive racing, their simplicity and large displacement enables highly technical and competitive racing with just a small team. That said, my team members Chris Nesbitt, Kara Voss, Mike Popp, Mike Nicoletti, David Oborn, Parker Mitchell, and I came equipped; Truly composite in nature, our squad was one of the lightest and most diverse, combining sailors of vastly different experiences and opposite genders into one robust unit (an engineer, helicopter pilot, and PhD candidate to name a few!). Winning all but one match in the first-round robin, the team had become comfortable working together in the light air. However, the Saturday afternoon breeze filled in nicely, allowing us to complete most of the second-round robin on the first day, itself. Some close quarter maneuvers through the elements led to incidental contact and damage on another boat’s transom. This resulted in a two-point penalty, making it mathematically impossible for us to win the event. Nevertheless, maintaining our sportsmanship, we approached the remaining two races on Sunday with our original competitive spirit, excited to have had the opportunity to sail together in the varying conditions. Thrilled to have participated in my first regatta of this kind, I look forward to taking my boat handling and communication skills to the next level and representing SDYC with fervor in future match racing events of this caliber.
Our team would like to thank the Comp Fund and SDYC for their support of our match racing endeavors in 2019 and looks forward to giving our all in the final two events of this season.