Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories
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Maddie Bashaw at the Women’s Match Race Championship Qualifier
As my college sailing career takes off into its last season of eligibility, I have found a new passion that may allow me to sail past my college days. During the beginning of my winter break, I was invited by Marley Mais to sail in the Women’s Match Racing Championship Qualifier! I was joined by Gwenie Dunvely, and Alli Gutenkust.
As the trip neared, we were checking the forecast in St. Petersburg, Florida, mentally preparing for whatever wind is shown. Much to my surprise, the forecast showed a small cyclone-like pattern on the radar scheduled to hit Florida the weekend of the regatta. Oh Great! However, the weather was not something that we were going to let scare us away.
The day after I finished finals, I jumped on a plane down to St. Petersburg, to meet my team for a practice day on Friday. This can be characterized as one of the longest days of my life. After waking up at 3 am to get to the airport, we landed in Florida at 9 am. We visited our host family’s host to drop our bags and went straight to the sailing center for our practice. We were matching racing in the J70's, a boat I have only sailed once in Annapolis, Maryland, against 4 other teams that all had women drivers. After a long day of practice on friday, we (mainly me) figured out how to sail the boat and work together most effectively in the big breeze and waves. On the boat, I was in charge of trimming the jib upwind, and calling puffs, shifts, and tactics downwind as well as helping set and douse. That night, we all collapsed into bed early, too tired to talk.
Saturday morning came too early, but we were all eager to do some racing. Based on our frequent weather checks, the race committee was unsure if there would be racing on Saturday, but luckily the bulk of the storm was supposed to hit on Sunday. With that in mind, we got out on the water as quickly and possible. After many races of cold blustery wind and rain, we noticed an increase in wind velocity, and I started to get nervous. After a couple of incidents in this new breeze, the race committee decided to not allow spinnakers for the safety of the boats and sailors. Luckily we only kept racing for an hour or two more completing two round robins. That night, we fell into our beds tired and proud of our wins, while learning from our losses.
To make matters worse for this trip, when we woke up on Sunday, the rain from the previous day and night had created major coastal flooding. We were not able to get to the sailing center, let alone out of the neighborhood. To our luck, the storm started blowing 20 to 25 knots consistently, not allowing us to sail on Sunday. Eventually, the water went down and we got to the airport ready to go home!
To say that this regatta was hectic would be an understatement. However crazy it was, I am so happy that I had the opportunity to sail and if I could, I would do it all over again.