Orange Bowl

Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta in Florida

While a couple of teams arrived early on Dec.19, including BCYC's lone I-420 team, Chase Decker/Tyler Wood, most (our seven Club 420 division teams) arrived Dec. 23, ready for the first day of practice the following day for the Orange Bowl Regatta. Winds were relatively light and our teams sailed well against the boats that eventually placed first, second and third at the regatta – winning two of the practice races. The team was pumped after day one, and everybody was thrilled to be sailing in the warm waters of Biscayne Bay.

Christmas Day proved to be windy, more like the typical conditions of this regatta, and a few of our boats decided to practice. However, they struggled in the big breeze, as we don't typically experience those conditions in Southern California, a foreshadowing for the following days.

December 26 was another good day for our group, in light to medium winds, and we sailed some practice races with the Coral Reef Yacht Club team, again putting up a strong showing – winning both races (Reade Decker/Kennedy Leehealey).

The first day of the regatta was Dec. 27 and the conditions set up perfectly for us – light to medium wind – and after four races NB4T's Peter Busch/Cam Spriggs were in first place and Reade Decker/Kennedy Leehealey (BCYC) were in third place out of 48 boats from around the country. In addition, the five other boats in our group were sailing very well. Out of the first two races in lighter breeze, our boats actually went 2,1,1,2. It was impressive and encouraging. All of our boats were sailing in the top 25 of the 48 boats at the event.