To begin the month of August Jack Plavan and I (Jack Egan), boarded a JetBlue flight out to Boston, where we would then drive from to arrive at New Bedford, on the cape of Massachusetts where the C420 North American Championship would be held in the coming days. We were very excited to experience Buzzards Bay, which is notorious for its great wind. At the venue, we were greeted by an old military fort dating back to the Civil War, and a brand new Zim charter boat. The next four days had a range of conditions, with 20+ knots on the first day and then a little less wind each coming day getting to as low as 6 knots on the last day with a day of no racing in between for rain and wind. It was a new experience for Jack and I to sail in a 180 boat fleet with a middle start boat and to have that windy of conditions but still get 30°+ wind shifts and 10 knot wind differences on the course. By the end of our regatta, we found ourselves in sixth place. There was not much time to rest as we flew out the next morning to Detroit to head to the CHUBB Junior Championship (Bemis).
CHUBB was held at a quiet spot on Lake Erie in La Salle, Michigan at North Cape Yacht Club, who were very hospitable hosts. We knew this would be a new experience sailing on a lake and in fresh water, and that was confirmed when they gave us a presentation about the algae bloom to start the regatta. Luckily, the algae bloom was very minor while we were sailing and we were able to safely have the benefits of freshwater sailing. CHUBB is a regatta in which you have to qualify to sail in, which assures two things, there are only 19 boats you have to beat but also those 19 boats will definitely have some significant sailing experience. Throughout the regatta, we saw everything from thunderstorms, perfect bluebird skies, and a rouge squall which required everyone to quickly tie their boat to the dolly before getting inside. For the sailing, we saw wind from every direction, but unfortunately only got one or two races of the infamous windy and wavy condition you can get at the south end of Erie. Overall the regatta didn’t go as well as Jack and I hoped for after finishing third, but we came away from it with lots of lesson and tips taught by the extremely qualified coaches there, including Olympic medalists and World Champions.
Jack and I would like to give a huge thanks to the SDYC competition fund which made this two week sailing trip possible. All the support we receive from the comp fund truly enables us to grow in our sailing immensely, and we are very grateful for these opportunities and plan to keep taking them!