Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation: Sailor Stories

Siena Nichols at the 2023 ILCA Midwinters East

Results

Thank you, Newport Harbor Sailing Foundation, for the support to the ILCA Midwinters East. This trip for me to Clearwater, FL, was one of the best that I have been able to experience so far. 

The sailing venue was great with a beach launch and had conditions ranging from no wind at all with races being postponed to some races having a good solid offshore breeze. It was a great place to race in a big ILCA 4 fleet with about 45 other boats, and I am very happy to have experienced it. 

There were four days of racing at this regatta, and the first day started with a breeze and slowly clocked around and settled into more of an offshore breeze by the end of the day. This day was a good day to get to experience the wind shifts and their offshore breeze. On the second day, it was slightly windier and an offshore breeze again that slowly built up all day. I did my best sailing this day as I was trying to take advantage of the steadily building breeze and get around the course. On the third day, the wind was extremely shifty, and had also shifted 180 degrees making it a completely different racecourse. This day was most challenging and long for me as the wind was extremely inconsistent and they had many postponements and abandonments. The last and final day of racing was extremely light, and we were postponed for 3 hours floating around offshore until the wind filled in just enough with to get in one race.  Overall, the conditions were so different every day at this regatta, but that was a great learning experience for me, and I am very thankful that I was able experience that diversity. I ended up placing second overall girl in the fleet, securing my spot to ILCA 4 Youth Worlds 2024.

Again, thank you so much for your support. I hope that I will continue to be able to have such great opportunities like this in the future.

2023 ILCA Midwinters East
Siena Nichols