Charlotte Harbor — Project/Job Blog

The skills involved in making tactical decisions, creating long distance strategies, and managing a large fleet cannot be fully developed anywhere other than out on the actual race course. I make it a priority to spend as much time possible competing in regattas, no matter how big or small the event, in order to gain experience in these situations. This past weekend was spent racing in the annual Charlotte Harbor Regatta and even though the F18 fleet only had nine boats on the starting line this regatta still provided exposure to long course racing and difficult tactical situations. The wind from Friday through Sunday remained consistently light. Every morning a thick fog covered the mainland and even the entire racecourse Saturday morning. As the day began heating up the wind would die off and change direction to the North. These unstable atmospheric conditions provided shifty breeze that would at times appear unpredictable, but this made for several lead changes and kept the racing exciting. After three long days of sailing and a total of 9 races Sam and I came out on top as the first F18 overall, winning seven of our ten races.

Our sail number for this regatta was NED.

The link to the regatta site and results can be found here.

This upcoming weekend I will be sailing in the Club 420 Midwinter Championship in Jensen Beach, FL. This regatta already has close to a hundred doublehanded dinghies registered with sailors coming from all parts of the country. I will be missing a day of school for this event and am looking forward to using the skills I have begun to perfect during practices in this regatta. Continue to check this site for more updates!

This Thanksgiving Break I stayed home to work on a school project while my parents and younger sister sailed on our family's 46 foot Outbound sailboat down to the Useppa/Cabbage Key area. While I was home I spent the time getting ahead in my schoolwork and practicing every other day on the water, in both lasers and multihulls. On Thursday I drove down to Punta Gorda in order to meet my family for a Thanksgiving brunch. I must have gained a few pounds after that meal! Saturday and Sunday were spent sailing in the Thanksgiving Regatta at Davis Island in an F18. Now it's time to get back down to business; I'm sailing at the Laser District 13 Championship back up at Davis Island next weekend and after that my next big regatta is the ISAF Youth World Qualifiers in Clearwater where I will be competing in a F16. A lot is coming up on my schedule!