This past weekend the UCSD sailing team competed at the Mustang Open hosted by Cal Poly SLO, a regatta so memorable that I will never forget it. Saturday started out like almost any other. We began with moderate wind, and not too strong a current given high tide was around 11 am. My skipper and I were ready to race but we ended up encountering many false starts due to lots of boats being over the starting line. However, these false starts did allow us to redeem a particularly bad start on one of the races, which was convenient for us! The rest of the races passed rather smoothly until right before the very last race of the day. The wind had picked up considerably, with waves white-capping and the current of the bay absolutely ripping. My skipper and I went for a jibe in order to turn back below the start line…and she ended up taking an accidental swim. I managed to climb over the edge and stand atop the centerboard, however it quickly became clear to me once there that there was no way I would ever get the boat back over by myself. With the combined efforts of both of us however, we righted our boat eventually. Even though it was certainly inconvenient, the capsize added a certain amount of memorability to the day. After our fateful race we all brought the boats back to Morro Bay Yacht Club and everyone enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner hosted by Cal Poly. After such a cold end to my day, the warm food and socializing with everyone was quite welcome and brought a very nice end to a great first day of racing.
The next morning, we began our day with one of the best ways to start the day: pancakes! Just like the dinner the previous evening, it was a wonderful way to get the day started. Having meals together with all the schools is a great way to all interact with one another in a less stressful way than yelling at each other on the water during races. On Sunday I sailed with a different skipper whose crew was feeling ill, and since we were the A rotation we sailed only one rotation due to starting on B that day. Although Sunday was originally predicted to have lighter winds than Saturday, that turned out to not be the case. By the time I was out sailing, the winds were quite heavy, the current was extremely strong, and capsizes began to become a common occurrence. However, despite all this, and our awful start in our second race, my skipper and I did rather as well as we had hoped to. Given that we hardly ever sail together, and I myself am still a new sailor, I was very pleased with how we did. Even better, we never capsized! Overall, this weekend was very memorable, and I had a great time sailing with my teammates and everyone else present—and I gained a new appreciation for the invention of waterproof fabrics!
Results: UC San Diego placed 15, 25, 31, and 33 out of 37 boats. We would also like to give a big thanks to Cal Poly for hosting a wonderful regatta! http://scores.collegesailing.org/s18/mustang-open/
-Shea Goodner (’21)