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Women’s North American Championship
It was my first year doing this regatta and I was super excited because I was sailing with one of my best friends. The experience as a whole was very fun despite both of us being mainly crews and not having much experience sailing together. We were coached with only one other team of girls that we got to know really well throughout the practice days and the regatta. We were doing pretty well, but because we were a light and inexperienced pair we had some trouble once the breeze started to hit. The regatta felt pretty different with only girls there and I honestly enjoyed my time there more than any other regatta because I was always with friends on and off the water. It was a memorable regatta and I’m so glad I decided to do it this year.
Open North American Championship
Since I had done the Women’s regatta previously, I had some practice in the venue going into this regatta but the conditions had gotten a lot more challenging. The conditions were some of if not the craziest I had ever experienced because of the combination of wind, swell and current going through the bay constantly. My partner had no prior training sailing in that kind of wind and chop before. Our boat had a lot of breakdowns and mishaps and it was a struggle with our light team combination, but it was a battle of endurance and it was quite an exciting learning experience.
420 National Championship
This regatta was my first time sailing in New Jersey and it also gave me the chance to visit a lot of colleges in the area. This regatta was more for the experience because I was sailing with a skipper who was just starting to learn 420s. I learned a lot from different coaches and was able to meet a lot of people mainly from the east coast. Our boat had a lot of breakdowns but it taught me a lot about how much maintenance and setup matters. We had to deal with a lot of difficult situations because our boat was old and I learned how to make last minute fixes and how to be patient under pressure. We did our best with what we had and I’m really happy about our performance regardless of the scores.
CFJ National Championship
This was my second year participating in this regatta and it was just as exciting of a regatta. It was in Mission Bay, one of my favorite venues, and me and my partner were hungry and determined to do really well. Although we have sailed at that venue before, we were sailing in a different part of the bay this time and they were not the typical conditions. We didn’t start off great but we soon got the hang of things. The races went pretty roughly for us as we hadn’t practiced for a while, but we came out pretty good overall, though not as we had hoped. Still, the regatta was enjoyable and we got to help and teach some newer sailors on our team and got to know them.
A big thanks to the Sailing Foundation for the grants covering the expenses that come with going to these regattas and funding these valuable experiences!