This Thanksgiving break I traveled to New Orleans for the 2021 Allstate Sugarbowl Optimist Midwinter Championship. I landed in New Orleans on a warm day to a very flat landscape and the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. However, we would be racing on in front of Southern Yacht Club, which is on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain. When I arrived, the breeze was mild at about 7 knots and the water was brown. There was a long causeway (Bridge), about 25 miles in length that I could see to the west. As the sun was setting and I looked at the waves reflecting off the neighboring break wall, I became excited for upcoming days of Opti sailing.
My first practice day was on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I got my charter Opti and gear and everything looked great. I had to bring my own sail. This was my first time sailing on a lake and my first time meeting the Lauderdale race team, who I would be working with for the week. There was a southeast wind of 10-13 knots with large chop. I had a fun time meeting competitors and learning new tactics.
On the second day of practice (Thanksgiving), the conditions continued to be warm weather with light winds out of the southeast. LYC had 18 sailors at the regatta, including me, and we were broken into 3 teams, each with our own coach. It was great to get Coach Mauricio’s perspective on boat handling and racing. We came in early as we had to go through measurements. My team and I got our sails, boat, spars, and blades ready. I had to deflate the airbags, take out the mainsheet, bailers, towline, and water from the boat. The way they checked the gear was they measured the spars and blades, checked the distance between the sail numbers, and weighed the boat. Everything passed and I was ready for racing the next day.
On the first day of racing the temperature had dropped about 20 degrees and the wind picked up about 20 knots. Thankfully, there was a Cafe Du Monde food truck that gave out warm beignets and hot coffee. Before I went out on the water I bought a skiff suit, as the air temperature, and the water temperature was in the low 50’s, with the wind being 13-18 knots. All 180 boats were separated into two flights, green and yellow. I was in the green flight. The course was upwind-reach to the right-gate-upwind finish. The first race was pin favored but not favored enough to port tack the fleet, so I got hung up at the pin side of the line. The right gate was favored all day. My Scores were 48,18,32 and 37.
On the second day of racing, it was lighter than before at about 2-7 knots, but the same temperature. The right gate was still favored all day for the 3 races. There was large chop which was very annoying to get through. But then on the last race the wind suddenly died to 2 knots. The RC wanted to do one more race, so they let the race go on, but there was still that large chop that made racing difficult. My scores were 21,63 and 37.
The scores from the previous days helped me get into the Gold Fleet for the third day. It was a little warmer, about 57 degrees, but the water was still cold. As soon all the boats got onto the racecourse the wind died into 1 knot. But they wanted to do one last race, so the RC started the sequence, and the race started light and ended light. Lots of boats including me could not finish within the time limit, so I got a DNF. They postponed, then abandoned all races for the day. I ended the regatta in 68th/90 in gold and 68th/180 overall
Overall, the Midwinters Opti Regatta was a very fun regatta with lots of learning moments and first-time experiences. I could definitely work on some things, but I think I did well for my first big and out-of-state regatta. Thank you to the SDYC Comp Fund for supporting me on this regatta.