Over February 16-18, my skipper Jack Egan and I traveled to Jensen Beach Florida to compete in the 2019 C420 Midwinters. Although we had traveled to Florida twice before for Orange Bowl, we had never sailed Midwinters before, and were eager to sail a new event.
We arrived at the venue the day before the regatta started and greeted by the Florida heat at the US Sailing Center Martin County. Unfortunately, we dealt with charter boat hiccups all day, and were only able to get a few tacks and gybes in that evening in the light air. Nonetheless, with a fair amount of national events under our belt, we stayed unfazed and eagerly awaited the start of racing. On the first morning, race committee postponed us on land for an hour with seemingly sailable breeze available, but they were confident it would build. Sure enough, an easterly breeze soon built to the upper teens, and Jack and I were excited to sail in some solid conditions. Although we usually are strong in breeze, we struggled to sail better (or worse) than about tenth in each of the four races that day. The venue proved to be more shifty and inconsistent than we expected, and we could not find any sense of rhythm or speed. While our sailing was definitely below our standards, we were by no means out of the regatta and stayed focused on improving in the coming days. The second day of racing started earlier and brought similar conditions, and while we were able to win a race, we still could not break free from our 10th place finishes. With the last day on the horizon, and sitting well outside the top 10, we were resolved to sail well on the final day against the best sailors with the fleet split top and bottom. Jack and I remained confident, as we had in the past and knew we were still capable of going toe-to-toe with the best in the fleet, even if this regatta had not gone our way thus far. Ultimately, the last day told a similar tale, and we struggled to figure out a winning strategy and finished 15th overall.
Although our finish was well below our goal, we always appreciate the opportunity to test ourselves in a big fleet, and the new challenge of sailing somewhere for the first time. Even though we did not sail our best, we still learned and improved from our experience at this regatta. Jack and I would like to thank the SDYC Competition fund for helping us represent SDYC at national events like the Midwinters, and we are immensely grateful for these sailing experiences.