Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta
Lessons leearned the 4th time around

Another unfortunate thing is that Florida is a long way away from Minnesota, so it took a three-day road trip just to get there. Amazingly, this year we made it all the way to Fort Lauderdale without having to drive through any snowstorms. We left on December 17th, and arrived in Fort Lauderdale on the 19th. Before the regatta we had an awesome 5-day clinic at the Lauderdale Yacht Club (LYC) run by Gordy, with Peter Commette and my Dad helping both on and off the water. There were 8 kids participating in the clinic. They were Chris Loew-Blosser and myself from MYC, Andrew Fox, Zack Kelchner, Sarah Lihan, and Morgan and Sheehan Commette from LYC, and David Hernandez from Coconut Grove Yacht Club. As an aside, both Andrew and Zack came up to MYC last summer to train with us at the LMSS, and participate in local regattas. Each morning started out the same way with everybody arriving at LYC at about 8:30am, rigging their boats and going up to the second level of the LYC sailing center to have a meeting with Gordy to find out what we would be doing that day. LYC is on the Inter Coastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, so each morning we had to tow out about a mile or two under the 17th Street bridge through the harbor, and then finally out the channel onto the Atlantic Ocean where we spent the entire day training.

It was very good for Chris and me, being lake sailors, to get some practice out on the open ocean where I had only sailed once before (High School National Championship in Hawaii), and Chris had never sailed before. There was good breeze every day (10-20mph), so we got lots of good practice in that lumpy, open condition. Gordy planned some very good drills for us to do. We did short races with everybody, upwind and downwind, speed testing in 2 groups of 4 boats per group. My group was David, Sarah, Andrew, and myself. The other group was Zack, Morgan, Sheehan and Chris. Upwind tested our steering and sail trim skills as well as our overall fitness and conditioning. Downwind tested our timing and smoothness with sail trim and steering to get on waves, and also our ability to find the right vang tension. The right vang tension is crucial to getting on waves and surfing. We also did some upwind and downwind slalom drills with crab traps, and some team racing one day just to shake things up a little. At the end of each day we did a long upwind to the mouth of the harbor, and then were towed back to the LYC where we unrigged. After unrigging, we had a debrief meeting at the sailing center with some video footage of that day's practice. I can say that the clinic definitely helped my performance at the regatta. Sailing was not the only thing going on though. Two of the nights after practice there were parties at both the Commette and Fox homes with movies, dinner, and socializing. Both were a lot of fun for kids and adults alike.

When Christmas day rolled around, I had a lot planned. First, Chris and I went to church with the Kelchners, and then Zack took us skim boarding at the beach. Afterwards, it was back to LYC to pack up the Lasers and the coach boat, and get everything ready to be taken down to the regatta site the following morning in Miami at the Coral Reef Yacht Club/US Sailing Center. After packing up the boats, Chris and I went to a Christmas party at Jay Ecklund's house where we had dinner and got a tour of his 108 foot motor yacht, named STARLIGHT.

The next morning, we got up early and drove down to the US Sailing Center in Miami where the regatta was to be sailed out of. This year it wasn't too hectic getting in there because they had moved all 100 of the 420s to the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, just on the other side of Coral Reef Yacht Club. Chris and I also had to get some new equipment for our boats. Chris needed a new centerboard and outhaul rope, and I needed a new main traveler rope, traveler block, and auto bailer. We got these things from the Tackleshack trailer at the sailing center, which sells boat parts and other accessories to the competitors. We got our boats prepped and ready to race the next day.

The first day of the regatta we sat around on the water all day until about 3:30pm when a weak sea breeze came in. Both Radial starts got off, but the races were abandoned due to the fading breeze. The next day looked a whole lot like the first day with no wind until about 3:00pm. We finished one race in very light air. I had a good start about a third of the way down the line and was in the top group for awhile, but I got too far to the right on the first upwind leg and rounded 17th and stayed there for the rest of the race. The forecast for the next day looked good so we launched at 8:30am the following morning. The first race had breeze in the 10-13mph range. I had a good start and good speed, but was too far up from the favored leeward pin end, and rounded in the mid teens where I stayed for a 16th place finish. I was kind of mad after the first two races because I knew I was better than that. Before the next race the wind increased to 15-22mph and shifted right some just before the start. After a general recall, the race committee put up the black flag and got off a start. I had a poor start in the second row but had good speed and sail settings and sailed smart upwind to round 2nd behind Sarah Lihan by about 50 yards. I sailed a good reach and run to round the leeward mark second by about 40 yards. Sarah tacked as I rounded the mark and went out on a long starboard. I went a little farther right and tacked onto starboard up off her hip and really got into the upwind groove. After a while, she tacked back onto port and I crossed her by about 5 boat lengths and tacked to cover. I held my lead around the 2nd windward mark and down the run and the reach to take the win. The next two races I had poor starts again but good upwind speed. I was not able to win again because my mainsheet got tangled once and my boat got a little too much water in it upwind. After the third day I had finishes of 17, 16, 1, 4, 4, and looked to move up nicely with a race drop after 6 completed races. However, the last day was too light again and we didn't get any more racing in. I ended up finishing 7th at the 2005 Orange Bowl, and achieved my goal of being top 15. I hope this result will help me get into the 2006 US Youth Sailing Championships in Detroit this coming summer.

I would like to thank my Dad for taking me to the event and my Mom for supporting me in my sailing. I also would like to thank Gordy for coaching me and running an awesome clinic, Peter Commette for his help putting on the clinic, LYC for hosting the clinic, the Kelchners for letting me stay with them, the Ecklunds for helping us as well as giving us a hard time whenever we're in Florida, and everybody else who I forgot to thank. I hope to have more Florida kids come to Minnesota this summer as part of the 2006 LYC/MYC/LMSS Exchange Program. I plan to come back to this incredible regatta again next year.