Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Dylan Sih at the 2023 CJ Buckley Regatta

Results

Thank you for your generous help in supporting my racing at the 2023 CJ Buckley in Warwick, RI. Team racing has always been my favorite kind of sailing and it was great to be back at this amazing event! Although our team had never actually team raced together before, we put in a ton of work during the practice days leading up to the event, and after two days and over 250 races, we ended up placing 4th out of 28 teams.

At the end of the first day of racing, we were sitting outside the final four, but still in touch with the top teams. So, after talking things through and sorting out our mistakes from day one, we  were feeling ready heading into the second day of racing. Racing resumed in swiss league format for the first few hours of the day, and in that time frame, we were able to bring up our record to tie with three other teams for fourth. Luckily, after a thorough discussion by RC, we ended up winning the tie break, placing us in the final four where we would race in the semis, then finals.

After two solid races, we lost in the semis against the number one seeded team, and moved on to the petite finals for a best of three. Although we lost the first race, we were able to reset well as a team and come back to win the next one, pushing it to a final  race three for winner takes all. We started off strong and held control almost the entirety of the race, but unfortunately due to some miscommunications, ended up losing the race on the final upwind beat.

Albeit a slightly disappointing end, it was still an amazing experience to race with so many good sailors, and work with such high level coaches and umpires. A huge thank you to all of the volunteers who made this event possible and of course, Mr. and Mrs. Buckley for continuing to allow us to remember CJ at this incredible event.