Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Alex Stauffer at the 2018 C420 National Championships

Thank you for your financial support in helping me to attend the 2018 Club 420 National Championship held at Brant Beach Yacht Club, Brant Beach New Jersey. I attend along with my skipper Sophia Devling.

 We arrived in Brant Beach early on Monday morning. We quickly started getting our charter boat ready to sail. We then went out sailing with the Chicago Yacht Club team and their coach, Matt Peter, who were being coached by for the regatta. Tuesday was the first day of racing. The day started breezy and built up to 20 plus knots. We started the first race and were doing well on the first upwind beat, but when we started on the downwind, we capsized after gybing.  Due to how shallow the water was, our boom got stuck in the mud and our spinnaker filled with water making it extremely difficult to right the boat. After help from a safety boat and Mr. Devling kindly jumping in the water, we were able to the boat get up but were not able to finish the race. We went into the second race with renewed enthusiasm and finished! In the last race of the day, we bow plowed so much that our boat filled with water that we were not able to continue sailing. Even though we were not able to finish all the race we gained a lot of experience racing in wind that we are never able to experience in Newport.

 On the second day, the wind was much closer to what we're used to in Newport. The We raced 4 four races. On the last day, the fleets were split into gold and silver fleets. Due to the conditions on the first day, we were not able to have a chance of being in gold. The last day of racing was the closest to  Newport conditions, between 7-10 knots. We finished the last few races of the regatta strong with a 6th place in the second race of the day.

 Overall, We finished the regatta in 107th place. Though it is not the place we thought we might finish in, we had a great learning experience. There more boats on the line than either of us have ever experienced (75 boats in each start). The breeze also presented new challenges for us to conquer. Everything we learned will now definitely play a big roll in our practice helping us to improve further and be more prepared and better experienced for next year. Thank you again for all of your support!