I have been sailing in the Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami, Florida since I was 9 years old. It was a little depressing to think that I was not going to be competing as there are no multihulls at this regatta. You see, Orange Bowl is awesome international competition but it is also THE place to be for any youth sailor at the end of the year. I get to see friends from around the world and catch up on what has been going on in their sailing and their lives and there is plenty of time to enjoy Coco Walk and the beach while parents are doing their thing at Jaguar in the Grove.
So I was excited when Samantha Moran from Cleveland, Ohio asked me to crew for her. She came down a week early and we spent nearly every day on the water while she worked the cobwebs out of her sailing muscles and I tried my best to learn a C420 as quickly as I could.
After a few days of practice we took a break to enjoy the Christmas Holiday and was treated to a great day with many friends from Ohio that came down for the regatta and my host family from Helsinki, Finland that decided to fly across the Atlantic to sail with us in Miami! It was a great relaxing day and reminded just how blessed I am to have so many friends from around the world that share the same interests and dreams of becoming the best we can on the water.
The regatta started on the 27th of December…Sam and I had some moments of brilliance…and
many “learning moments” while we raced against almost 80 boats on Biscane Bay. We were awesome at our starts, but had problems with boatspeed up wind and so we lost our lead in nearly every race. By the time we were at the top mark we were in mid-fleet and pretty much stayed there throughout the regatta.
All in all I can say that I accomplished exactly what I set out to do, which was to have fun on the water with Friends from Ohio and beyond. Sure it would have been great to have some better numbers on the board, but it is Orange Bowl after all and what is sailing if you are not having a ball on the water?
I have to tell you that we chartered a boat from Dinghy Locker. Their service and attention to detail is awesome and they continually work to provide the best quality boats at all major regattas in the USA. If you need anything for dinghy sailing, Dinghy Locker has it for you.