The first day of racing was very windy, not to mention freezing, averaging at about 22 knots, and to make it more challenging, jet lag was getting the best of us. Nevertheless, we gritted our teeth and kept going, posting a 10, 19, 3 for the day. The first two races were very disappointing, but all in all it was not a bad way to start the regatta, and we sat in 15th place.
The second day was a little warmer, and the wind was more steady, averaging at about 12 knots. This was exactly what we had been hoping for! Now all we had to do was do our part, and take advantage of the excellent conditions. That’s exactly what we did! That day we received a 3, 2, 1, and winning the day! That was a great thing for our confidence, and with this we jumped up to 2nd place! Now the pressure was on, and we had to bring our A game tomorrow.
The third day was going to be great! We were completely ready and when the time came to begin the first race, our jitters mellowed out, leaving us primed. We began the race, and hit a couple correct shifts, positioning us in first place! Then as we began to extend and flood with excitement, the race committee raised the abandonment flag. We were livid! Then to add to all of the frustration, the race committee had used a black flag at the start, meaning that if you were over the line after one minute in the start sequence, it would result in an automatic disqualification. We sailed behind the boat end of the starting line to check if we were black flagged, sure enough, and to our dismay we were, thus disqualified from the next race. For the rest of the day, they only got one race off, meaning that our score for the day was a black flag, 53 points. Although a very large set back, we were still ready for the day to come, and even though we were in 8th place, the points were very close.
The last day of the event was very light and incredibly fluky. We only got one race off and received a 12, we were not happy, but we at least got a respectable score. When we got in we looked at the results and we got 4th place overall! We were incredibly happy and shocked at the same time. Apparently, the people that were ahead of us in the event, had worse scores, so we in fact moved up places! We were ecstatic! So happy to have made the long trip cross country to receive such a respectable result.
This regatta has taught me so much about racing in big events. The necessary mindset, and way to approach the races. All in all the Orange Bowl was a fantastic event, and I was so lucky that this trip was made possible with the help of the SDYC Competition Fund. Thank you for making my sailing possible.