The Gorge Practice Weekend

WOW the gorge was a blast!  I couldn't believe the wind.  It was 20-30 mph each day!!!  I was there Saturday and Sunday to practice for the WIND clinic with other SYC race team members.  The location is absolutely beautiful and as long as you don't wake up to the sound of the trains you will have tons of fun camping there (like I did)!  Anyways, I flipped a lot and sailed some of my radial but mostly in my 4.7 rig.  Two 29er jib halyards, and my coach's 505 mast broke.  In the end it was a super fun weekend!!!  I can't wait to go back there.  Did I mention the amount of bruises I have from the laser...

Vancouver Lake - Lido 14

Two weekends ago I went to Vancouver Lake, WA for the Vancouver lake Regatta with my dad.  There were 16 Lido 14s and they were split into an A and B fleet.  It was a really fun weekend with 4 total races.  I wish we could have gotten a few more races in because 5 were needed for a throw out.  If there was a throw out we would have gotten 3rd based on our scores, but without it we ended up getting 4th place.  I felt we sailed very well, receiving two 2nds one 3rd and one 12th (our bad race :( ).  Anyways it was a really great venue and we had some great racing.

NOOD

The NOOD regatta was fun.  There was no wind the first day, but it was sunny and warm.  We waited from 8:30-4:00 for wind, but it never came up.  The second day was more light wind, but we ended up getting 3 races off.  It was very tricky.  I sailed my full rig, but my light weight didn't really help because most of the time I was in 0 knots of wind.  In the end, it was a decent regatta which would have been much better with a little more wind.

Opening Day

Hey everyone,

I haven't posted anything in a while so I thought I would give you an update along with telling you about opening day!  We have practiced a lot in the last month, but haven't been to that many regattas.  Anyways, recently I went to opening day with my dad.  It was a blast; we met tons of people who live on Lake Sammamish and could be interested in joining the Lake Sammamish Yacht Club!  The parade was amazing and we ended up having some sunshine in the middle of the day (even though it was rainy a lot of the time).  The ceremonies were fantastic as well, and I loved the decorated boats.  Maybe next year we can have a LSYC junior boat in the parade!!!  This weekend is the Nood Regatta and I will give you another update after that.

~Sarah Mackey

Open Regatta - Central Kitsap

On Saturday I raced Vanguard 15s in the Open Regatta in Silverdale, WA.  Along with my teammates John, Helena, Andrew, and Adam we won 2nd place in this High School regatta.  It was a beautiful day with no wind when we arrived, and then a great amount of wind when we were about to start the races.  Although it was shifty and light at times, we stayed in good spirits, especially since it was sunny in seattle!  I crewed for John in the A fleet and we took a 3rd and a 1st.  I also crewed for Andrew in the B fleet for one race and skippered with him as my crew in another.  I crewed for Helena in one race as well.  Although I love to skipper I learned a lot by crewing for various team mates of mine.  It was definitely a blast, thanks to everyone who helped put it on!  Here are some pictures of our racing:

Open Regatta - Sail Sand Point

This High School regatta was very interesting. Yesterday, March 14th we sailed CFJs at SSP. It was pretty windy and very cold. In the first race I went out with Maddie, a teammate of mine and our shroud snapped right as the starting whistle was blown. We pulled our rig all the way down and the crashboat towed us in. Then two other teamates of mine went out for 3 races. When they came back in, I went out with Colin. It was his first regatta. We started the race and were doing ok, we sailed to the windward mark and rounded no problem. Then, at the gybe mark, we were close to 3 other boats. When we all gybed, there was a huge gust which blew us all over. After that we went in because I didn't want Colin to be too cold or to have a really bad experience in his first regatta. I decided no to go back out after that. Something went wrong everytime I went out, but in the end I had a pretty good time.

High School Kick-Off Regatta

Wow.  Today was fun.  I raced in the first HS regatta of the season and my team got 3rd out of 17 teams!!!  We had every weather and wind condition you could think of well racing 420's at Seattle Yacht Club.  There was snow, hail, rain, and sun!  Luckily I wore my HH drysuit.  Also, everything from no-wind to large gusts and white caps.  I sailed with 2 different crews, dani and kate.  They were amazing.  Some of our roll-tacks were perfect!  I got a 5th, 8th (we were fouled 5 times), 6th, and 3rd in the B fleet and a 5th and 2nd in the A fleet.  Not to mention, 2 people from my HS came to see if they wanted to join and they are going to!  YAY!  Another person my join as well which would be fantastic because we would have a full team.  It was a lot of fun and I can't wait for the regatta next weekend at Sail Sand Point!