Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Dylan Sih at the 2022 Orange Bowl

Results

Thank you so much for your generosity and continued support of my sailing campaigns. This past week I competed at the 2022 Orange Bowl in Miami, FL, and after 4 days of racing, placed 10th out of 78 boats in the C420 fleet. I had a blast racing and gained tons of experience, so I really appreciate your support which allows me to travel and compete at events like these.

We arrived in Miami a few days before the regatta started, and were able to get three solid practice days in to warm up and make sure everything on the boat was working. We even went out on Christmas day, and it was so cold I thought it would snow: low 40’s all day with 15/20 knots! Nonetheless, we toughed it out, and with those few extra days of practice, went into the regatta feeling ready and prepared.

The first day gave nice wind from the north, and we were able to get three qualifying races off pretty quickly. However, conditions were still tricky, with big shifts and oscillations as the breeze came over the city front. We struggled a little bit initially, but as the day went on we started to figure it out, finishing with an 11, 8, 6 for the day. The second day was also qualifying, with wind from the same direction although a little bit higher in velocity. We picked up where we left off and started strong, with a 6, 2 in the first two races of the day. Things continued to look good, as we finished 4th on the third race of the day. However, we soon found out that we’d been U Flagged and disqualified from the race, which was very bad news as we would only get one drop the entire regatta. After being over early, I was a little spooked going into the last race of the day and didn’t get a great start. We were still able to grind back to the top pack, but faced technical issues with the kite on the last reach and ended up finishing 14th

On the third day, we moved on to the championship round, and being in gold fleet, I knew I’d have to stay consistent as the fleet would be much tougher. Conditions were super fun and perfect for racing again, with enough wind to rip around the course, and we finished Day 3 with an 11, 4, 9. Mother Nature proved less cooperative on the last day of the regatta, but we only had two races left and just managed to get them off in the super light breeze. Things didn’t get off to a good start, as in the first race of the day, we committed to the right side of the course only for it to fully cave in, landing us in the bottom five at the top mark! Nonetheless, my crew and I kept pushing forwards, and ended up catching back almost two thirds of the fleet to finish 16th. After learning from our mistakes, we were able to execute a clean last race of the regatta, placing 5th in the race and finishing 10th overall.

Thank you so much again for all of your support! I really enjoy being able to travel all around the country to race against high level competitors and gain exposure to amazing coaches, and wouldn’t be able to do it without your generous help! I’m looking forward to continuing racing, and I’m super excited for what this new year has to bring!