Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories
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Samantha Hemans at the 2021 Open Orange Bowl Regatta
I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to travel back East to Florida to sail in the 2021 Open Orange Bowl Regatta at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club in Coconut Grove, Miami. This was a very good experience for me to get more racing under my belt. This was my 7th regatta skippering, so I knew I still had lots to learn.
We arrived a day before the regatta, on Christmas, and I trained with Michael Fineman the next day. I was very lucky that we were able to have some practice together because we rarely sail together at home. I was also very fortunate to have Steve Keen and Bunny Warren coaching me throughout the regatta and the practice day.
We were doing practice starts and practice races, and also straight line boat speed to help train. We couldn't practice for too long because there was about 3-4 knots of wind.
On the first day of the regatta, it was really light. It was about the same amount of wind we practiced in so we had some time in it. We only got 1 race off, and that happened to be my worst race. At the start of the race, Michael and I were doing well in 8th, but once we got to the top reach mark everything went downhill. I stupidly put the board up too much and we slid downwind which was really unfortunate because the reach was really tight. We were rolled by about 15 boats, and once we got to the downwind leg, Michael and I felt dead in the water. We had no speed and we felt really frustrated. We were both thankful there was only one race that day.
The second day wasn't any better wind-wise. We were postponed again and only got three races off. Those races were challenging because of the lack of wind, but Michael and I finally found a good groove in our boat handling. Sadly though, we were black flagged during the second race.
The third day was just as light. We were sent out when the coaches thought we should have been postponed. We got off 4 races that day in those very hard conditions.
The last day was very tiring. We didn't get any races off because of the lack of wind, but the race committee still sent us out. We sat in the hot sun for about an hour and a half when our coaches finally told us to hop on a tow and we towed in. After about 20 minutes, they called for us to go back out because they said "4 knots." Michael and I were on the tow with Bunny which was very fortunate because we were the last ones to leave to go out to the race course. This was good because the second we got out there, the race committee told us to go in because there was no more sailing that day.
Thank you so much for the opportunity that you gave me to sail in Florida. Although we finish mid fleet, we gained some very important points towards our goal of sailing at the i420 Worlds in Hungary 2022. I'm very excited to be going back again to sail North Americans in a few weeks.