Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories
To submit a Grant Request, please LOGIN or CREATE AN ACCOUNT.
Morgan Pinckney at 2020 Orange Bowl Regatta
Hindsight tells us that 2020 was a weird year. Especially an odd year to run a sailing event. However Coral Reef Yacht Club went ahead and ran the annual Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta. The decision for me to travel was not made lightly. We took so many precautions to stay safe from the pandemic. Face shields, masks, distancing, testing, sanitizing - all part of our routine. Once we arrived, we lived exactly as we do here these days - staying in our apartment and only going out to a socially distanced boat yard. The Orange Bowl limited the numbers of competitors, and no one was allowed to socialize.
Given all the on-shore abnormalities, the sailing was almost normal. The only difference was that there were only fifty C420s, which is half of what a normal Orange Bowl fleet is. We arrived at the venue a few days early to train. The training was especially important because I was sailing with a last-minute, new crew. We had only sailed together a couple of times before, so we were a little rusty. But after a few days of sailing with the Coral Reef team, we were feeling a lot better. We were not one hundred percent, but it was time to race. T
The forecast for the first day of the event was seeming rather dismal. It looked to be about six knots and choppy. Unfortunately, the forecast was right. The conditions for sailing were very poor. However my crew Teddy and I were able to survive the day. Luckily for us there were plenty of shifts and changes in the wind, which is something I like. Although we weigh 300 pounds combined, which is very heavy for a C420 team, we were able to make it through the day with a 4,2,12, 11. This placed us in 5th. However the points were really tight and it was a long event.
Going into the second day we wanted to just have another consistent day and not do anything special. There was more wind - about ten knots. We had some tough starts, however we were able to finish the day with a 6,6,18 (our throwout). In that last race of the day we were deep, but on the last downwind we caught up to a pack of 15 boats and had room on them. When we went to gybe, the spinnaker halyard wrapped around the pole and we had to douse, so we lost about 10 boats. The last race was unfortunate, but it was still an alright day.
The next day was a big day. We needed to do well, so we could be in a spot to win the event going into the last day. It was about 10 knots again and we had decent boat speed. We had a good day and finished with a 6,2,6. This put us into the position we needed to be in. We were 15 points out of first and the people winning were a light team and it was supposed to nuke the last day.
The last day we woke up to some strong winds. We were vry excited because that was what we wanted. We had a sketchy start in the first race but we were able to finish 5th. The last race was a big one. The Callahan brothers were close to us and we were close to Cordelia Burn, the leader. We had a killer start, however the course got shortened and we did not realize that (rookie communication mistake), so we ended up over-standing the first mark by a mile and rounding in the thirties. We were able to grind and finish with an 11.