Delaware Spring Open

This past weekend, Jack Swickart, Josh Ensley, Tyler Altenhofen and I headed down to the University of Delaware to compete in the Delaware Spring Open. It was my very first regatta and I was beyond excited for my first racing experience. All in all, it was a very successful regatta. We finished the two days of racing taking third place behind Ocean City College and Syracuse. The weather on Saturday was great for our first day on the water. It was bright and sunny, with temperatures reaching around 60 degrees. We began sailing early in the morning around 9:30 AM and continued until about 3 PM. The course was set up in a linear fashion rounding the windward and leeward marks twice. In the morning, there was a strong, steady wind that came out of the west at about 10-15 knots, but towards the end of the day it got much windier, up to 20 knots, with even stronger gusts. Eventually, it got so windy that the race had to be called off; during the 8^th set of races, over half the fleet failed to finish the race due to capsizing. Jack skippered one boat, with me as crew, and Tyler skippered the other boat, with Josh as crew. The first day was very successful, with me and Jack winning every race in division A and Josh and Tyler posting solid 5^th and 6^th place finishes in division B. Going into the second day, the winds had died down significantly and were extremely shifty, which resulted in very challenging conditions for many of the teams. In fact, during one of the races, the wind managed to completely reverse itself resulting in the windward and leeward legs flipping mid-race. Jack and I continued our dominance of division A and finished with first places races in all 10 races over the two days, while Josh and Tyler built on their performances from the first day, including a string of fifth place finishes. The regatta was called off after 20 races due to deteriorating conditions for sailing; the last race actually had to be ended early due to lack of wind. Overall, I believe I speak for all four of us when I say that this regatta was loads of fun. We had a great weekend of sailing and meeting new people. Special thanks go out to the University of Delaware Sailing Team not only for hosting the regatta, but also for opening up their homes for us to stay in. I definitely had a blast at my first regatta, and cannot wait until the next one. Until next time, Steven Ho, W’16