Dear SMBSF,
Thank you so much for funding my crew Annika Garrett and me to go to the Neill Clinic in Chicago. Headed by the Stanford coach John Vandemoer (the Yale, Georgetown, University of Rhode Island, Northwestern, and Cornell coaches were also there) and attended by top C420 teams from around the country, this clinic was an incredibly valuable experience: not only did we learn from both coaches and other sailors, but we met so many new people and made so many new friends that we will know throughout the rest of our sailing careers. Although the lack of wind and other weather obstacles like fog did not cooperate with the coaches’ original plans, we still utilized our time wisely and created it into a very worthwhile experience.
At the beginning of the clinic, the coaches separated the twenty-four boats into three groups based on resumé; we worked with these groups but rotated coaches for the first three days of the regatta. Lake Michigan’s flukey conditions surprised us SoCal sailors: the wind would pick up and then completely shut off within a matter of minutes. The boat traffic on the first day of the clinic, a Sunday, created chop that challenged everyone even more when the wind shut off. Our morale in the boat remained high when a coach commented when we were speed testing that these conditions must be similar to what we often see at home because we were so fast!
Each night the clinic organizers planned interesting sailing-related activities for us. That evening, professionals from the Chicago Match Racing center took us out that on the center’s boats to match race, and we then had dinner at the center.
The following day, a heavy fog that settled over the lake did not allow us to sail that morning (our coaches didn’t want anyone to get lost!), but we sailed the whole afternoon. We had dinner and a question panel with the coaches that night. My favorite nighttime activity though was the presentation by Ken Reed, a two-time Volvo Ocean Race sailor who captivated and inspired all of us with his fascinating talk about his 135 day regatta.
For the fourth day of the clinic, the regatta, we separated into random groups — Zach Leonard, the coach from Yale, coached ours. We sailed well in the light wind, but we were still at our light wind setting when the wind picked up suddenly, so we had some trouble during the one heavy wind race. After four races, we ended up 8th out of 24 overall, but we definitely learned the most from the heavy wind race that we didn’t do well!
Then, when we were supposed to fly home that night, a lightning storm hit Chicago and our flight was cancelled; this was my first time ever seeing an actual lightning bolt! Being able to go to such an amazing city (with crazy weather patterns!) to sail with and be coached by top sailors in the country was an incredible opportunity, and we would not have been able to do this without your help.
Also, the clinic prepared us well for Newport Beach’s light and choppy conditions at the Ida Lewis Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship. After three days of racing, we were happy to end up second out of thirty-nine boats! Thank you so much for your support for our junior sailing.
Sincerely, Cassie Obel
Second at Ida Lewis!