On the first weekend of the New Year, January 2-3rd, the Triton sailors competed in the Rose Bowl Regatta in Long Beach, CA. The wind was pretty light on Saturday, causing racing to start later in the day after the wind had gotten a little stronger. The college fleets combined raced only 7 races on Saturday. On Sunday, the wind really picked up compared to the day before, and we were able to get through 9 races total. We placed 21st overall out of 29 boats.

This was my first regatta sailing with my partner Casey, who is a freshman on the team. We took turns skippering the boat, since we both had a lot to learn about ocean sailing. I started out skippering on Saturday in the light wind, and Casey skippered on Sunday in the heavier wind. Even though we didn’t place well, we both learned a ton from each other and the fleet, since we could both give each other advice about how to move around the boat and sharing our racing techniques with each other. We worked mainly on getting good starts to the races and roll tacking – both absolutely essential to being a great racer. Overall, this regatta was the perfect transition between winter break and the start of winter quarter, and a great end to our fall racing season!