The 2012 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta was hosted by Coral Reef Yacht Club and sailed in the warm beautiful waters of Biscayne Bay. This year the full rig fleet, although small, it was very competitive with the many ISAF youth world championship representatives from various North American countries. They were all moving up from the radial fleet for their final junior regatta. Looking at the registration list the day before, I made my goal for this regatta to make it into the top ten, knowing this fleet was far more competitive than last year.
The first day of the event started with somewhat of an anomaly for south Florida, cold weather! Even though it was only around 50 degrees I had only packed shorts, t-shirts, and a thin jacket to wear. Later around 9:30am, it started to warm up but the breeze also started to die down. By the time we got out to our race area for the first start, it had completely shut off and we were postponed on the water for several hours before the breeze picked up just enough to get 2 races in. I scored an 11th and a 12th, not my best races but in a competitive fleet they were keepers.
The second day was much warmer but with only slightly more breeze. The race committee was able to start us only slightly after the 10:00AM start time, finishing 4 races in between 4-7 knots of breeze. I continued to sail consistently to finish with a 9, 8, 12, and 9. With fairly stable conditions no major gains or losses were made after the first leg except for the 3' race when the radial and full rig fleets overlapped on the final downwind leg and I was passed by 4 boats that opted to sail extra distance in order to avoid the radial fleets, bad air coming into the leeward mark.
The third day forecasted for more wind than the previous two but never ended up filling in until after the last race of the day. Before this happened, however, the breeze started shifting radically and was much less stable than in the previous days. The first race after sailing a very fast first upwind leg and rounding in 3rd, I was caught on the outside of a persistent shift and finished the race in 10th. The second race, I had a great start but was again caught on the wrong side of a massive shift and after rounding the windward mark in the bottom 25, was only able to catch up 20th. The final 2 races of the day I was finally able to get locked into the breeze and finished the day on a high note with a 5th place and a 1st, moving me into 10th place in the standings with a comfortable gap between me and the 11th place boat.
The final day of the regatta was the first day with any substantial breeze to hike in and I was looking forward to getting to finally "stretch my legs" as some laser sailors call it. Starting out with a fresh 20 knots but dying to about 12-15 for the majority of the racing, I competed with great upwind boat speed but below average downwind speed (something that I am planning to work on by my next regatta). After scoring two 13th place finishes, I was able to keep my 10th place but failed to move up into the cluster of boats just ahead of me points wise.
Finishing the regatta in 10th was a great accomplishment for me and I am very happy to have met my goal despite not being able to pass anyone in the last day, in what I thought were my favored conditions. I can't thank the SDYC junior program and the SDYC competitor's fund enough for helping me compete in this regatta and I can't wait to come back next year.
Sincerely,
Richard Didham
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To my great enjoyment, I was able to travel to one of the greatest venues in the world. To compete in the 2012 Orange Bowl, the largest youth regatta in the country. It was a great experience and for me a way to see how I stack against the nation. Also, it's a great way of seeing what's it like to sail outside of California.
Unfortunately, I became sick after the first day, but I did not give up. Sailing with a fever is not the easiest thing to do. Still during the second day I was able to score a 51, 64, 44. As the regatta wore on, my stamina started to fall. I was unable to participate during the last day of the regatta because of my illness. Ending up with a five letter score did hurt my overall standings, I finished 98th out of a 121 boat fleet.
Although I wasn't able to sail all the days of the regatta, I did try. I learned a lot about sailing in large fleets. For me even though I had a fever it was one of the most exciting and fun events I have competed in up to this date. I can only thank the Competition Fund for this excellent experience that I had. Being able to travel and compete for San Diego Yacht Club was an honor.
Sincerely,
Paul Didham