Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories
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Marbella Marlo at the 2020 C420 Midwinters
This Valentine’s Day weekend, I crewed for Morgan Pinckney at the 2020 c420 Midwinters in Jensen Beach, Florida. It was our first large scale c420 event together, and we are both proud to represent Newport Harbor Yacht Club with our second-place finish out of 81 boats. After flying in on the Thursday before the event, Morgan and I spent our Valentine’s Day rigging and preparing for the 3-day regatta. Unlike most of the other competitors, Morgan and I had little time sailing together, and because we didn’t have a coach for the weekend, we spent our prep day being as thorough as possible in setting up the boat and learning each others’ habits. The first two days of the regatta were relatively breezy, but nothing Morgan or I weren’t used to. We were able to capitalize on the other boats’ mistakes and have consistent results in the top ten. The last day, we were postponed for a couple of hours until the breeze filled in from the same direction as the days before. Because Morgan and I had sailed a relatively consistent regatta up until that point, we were sitting in eighth place, behind the teams that threw out deep scores and kept the races with lower numbers. However, the last day, with breeze that replicated Newport’s conditions (light, flat water, and shifty), Morgan and I performed well beyond the teams in front of us who only specialized in heavy breeze. We finished 2nd and 1st in the last two races, moving us up six places in the results and ultimately putting us on the podium. I would like to express my gratitude in particular to Mrs. Pinckney for helping Morgan and I navigate ourselves in a regatta without a coach or team, and to the Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation for their help in make attending this event possible. Thank you!
2020 C420 Midwinters
Marbella Marlo | Morgan Pinckney