Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Kennedy Leehealey at the 2021 C420 Midwinter Championship

Results

I would like to thank the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation for financially supporting my recent trip to Jensen Beach, Fl to compete in the 2021 c420 Midwinter Championship. It was an amazing experience, and I had so much fun. I was able to sail in remarkably different conditions from those of light, shifty Newport. In addition, thanks to my skipper, I got to meet some of the top sailors of the fleet, which was very exciting.

This was my second time attending this regatta. This time around, I crewed for Morgan Pinckney. We only had the chance to sail in the 420 together for a few weeks before the event. Luckily, we sail in high school together, so we at least had that experience under our belts. We sailed with the Peninsula Youth Sailing Foundation (PYSF) team. I had the rare opportunity to learn from and be coached by Udi Gal, a former Olympic 470 crew.

Morgan and I first arrived on Wednesday, three days before the regatta. We spent the first day rigging up our Zim charter boat and shaking off our jet lag, only briefly getting out on the water to practice by ourselves. The next day, we were joined by the rest of the PYSF team for a day of training in breeze. We continued to get used to sailing together in the 420, and our coaches helped tweak my technique for the breeze and chop. The last day before the regatta, we participated in a scrimmage of sorts with several of the other teams and a lot of the top boats to imitate the setting of an actual regatta, which was very useful. After coming back in, we finished our last minute boat preparations and had an early night.

This was a three day event, with the goal of 12 races total. Sadly, due to complications with lightning storms we were only able to get in eight races with one drop. Conditions started out much lighter in the morning but grew to the high teens by the end of each day, allowing us to sail in a variety of different wind strengths. Because the odd direction from the land, shifts were wild and oscillating. This was definitely a challenge, and it forced us to keep our heads out of the boat. It was a game of racing to pressure. We learned a lot about risk management and when to leverage vs. when to tack right away and take the gain. Though this was a tricky regatta for us, we were able to stay consistent for the most part in our scores, even if we couldn’t place as well as we had hoped to. Our consistency landed us in 11th out of the 96 boats competing. 

Overall, this was a wonderful learning experience that I am incredibly grateful for, and it would not have been possible if it weren’t for all the support from NHSF!

2021 C420 Midwinters
Kennedy Leehealey | Morgan Pinckney

2021 C420 Midwinters
Kennedy Leehealey | Morgan Pinckney