The UCSD Sailing Team hosted its annual Jeff Simon Memorial Regatta at Mission Bay Yacht Club. This regatta consisted of two divisions: an Open (Coed) division, with about 35 boats, and a Women’s division (that sailed only Saturday), with 7 boats. The first regatta day started with a frisky southerly wind blowing over Mission Bay with 15-18 kts, and racing kicked off around 11:30 am. The winds continued to build for 2 hours, resulting in excitingly windy conditions. It’s hard to estimate exactly how many capsizes occurred, but it was likely around a fourth or fifth of the fleet that capsized every race. One boat even got stuck upside-down, as its mast had gotten buried in the mud of the shallow ocean floor (all sailors were okay, and the boat was recovered with the help of some scuba gear in the evening). Despite the tough conditions, our sailors kept smiles on their faces and thanked themselves for remembering to wear wetsuits. After running a few races in the A rotation of Open and the Women’s division, the race committee decided to call an onshore postponement until the conditions died down a bit. After about an hour, the wind steadied out to about 8-10 kts of wind, allowing for racing to commence. All in all, it was a great first day of racing.

The second day was exciting in a different way. The wind was a lot calmer, and racing started later in the day since the wind wasn’t strong enough in the morning. The Women’s fleet boats joined with the Open division since the Women’s regatta had concluded on Saturday. Racing started around 11:20 am, and we quickly saw some impressive talent from some of our boats. Brendan and Stella got two bullets (finishing the race in first), and Allie and Audra got a bullet as well. These were quite impressive accomplishments, especially considering there were 42 boats in the fleet! All of our sailors had a great time during both days, through rough seas and calm conditions, so the weekend was a great success!