Laser Midwinters West

Last weekend I went down to Richmond Yacht Club to sail on the San Francisco bay in the Laser Midwinters west. It was a tough regatta for me because it was really windy, the sailors were amazing, and I capsized every day. By the end of the 3 day regatta I was so sore. Every day we had a postponement waiting for the wind, but when the wind came, it was super strong. The swells were huge because the bay is so shallow. The first day I battled the up-winds and needed a looser rig going downwind. My starts were also not very good. In the second race, I capsized downwind and my centerboard had problems staying in so that I could swim around and right the boat. I eventually righted the boat and finished the race, but got passed by all the other boats after my capsize. The second day, I finished in 44th in the first race by hiking hard and having good reaches, but not a very good start. I finished 47th in the second race of the second day. In the 3rd race I was doing pretty well until i flipped downwind and ended up in 43rd. The last day we waited for wind and it came in really strong in the middle of the 1st race that day. I was doing well probably in the 30's when the wind stormed in and when I hit the downwind leg my sheet slipped out of my hand. I capsized after hitting a 4-5 ft. swell. Ben (my coach) came over to see if I wanted help, but I wanted to keep racing so I grabbed my rudder which fell out because of a broken pintle. I also shoved my centerboard into the trunk and did everything I could so that it would stay out even a little bit to pull it out and right it since the centerboard kept falling out. I finally righted the boat and realized the rudder was not in right so i had almost fixed it when I flipped again. At that point, I had no energy left and realized i wouldn't be able to finish the race within the time limit. Therefore, my coach assisted me in getting my boat back upright and we took the rig down. Then I couldn't sail the last race either. Overall, I was proud of my sailing and knew that I tried my absolute hardest.