Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Julia Getter at the 2025 C420 Midwinter Championship

Results

Thank you to the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation for helping support my sailing at the 2025 C420 Midwinter Championship. This year, the regatta was on February 15-17 in Jensen Beach, Florida. It was hosted at the US Sailing Center in Martin County. My skipper, Carly Kieding, and I flew in on February 12 for two days of practice before the regatta. The weather and water were both a warm change compared to the rain that Southern California had been experiencing. On the first practice day, we started with two practice races and ended with speed testing. The wind built as the day progressed, and by the end, it was around 16 knots. In the windier conditions, our boom vang was not able to be trimmed in enough, so we made sure to fix that for the following days. On the second practice day, we did more practice starts and races. We focused on being accurately on the line with speed at go. The wind was more moderate that day, peaking at around 14 knots. The first two days of the regatta were flight selection, and the race committee split everybody up into three fleets: purple, yellow, and blue. Despite the wind being incredibly shifty and puffy, we sailed consistently well, averaging a little under a third in every race. This put us in first going into the last day by only a couple of points. The last day was the championship day where everybody was split into gold, silver, and bronze. We struggled with the more challenging start line and shifty breeze, scoring a first, tenth, and eleventh in the first three races. Going into the last race, we were behind first by one point but far enough ahead of third that we were guaranteed at least second place overall. Unfortunately, we sailed our worst race of the regatta then, placing twenty-first and using our throwout. Our mainsheet bridle also snapped on the second upwind, further hindering our performance. Overall, we finished second out of 141 boats. Although we were disappointed to lose first by one point, we were incredibly happy with this result and proud of our performance. I learned so much from this amazing experience, which the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation made possible. Thank you so much for your support!