UC Irvine Club Sailing Team

This weekend, your lovely lady anteaters headed up to Santa Barbara to compete in PCCs to qualify for semis, to go to women’s nationals. Although there was only a six boat fleet, we knew the competition would be tough, and only the top three boats would move on to sail in Oregon in May. Checking weather reports all week leading up to the regatta, we saw everything from 15-42 knots predicted in Santa Barbara, with up to seven foot swells, making us question our loyalty to only practicing in calm Newport Bay. Ashley Hobson (skipper) and Martha Davis (crew) were to take on A fleet, while Kate Andersen (skipper) and Blair Johnston (crew) would sail B fleet. Saturday started much calmer than expected, coming in light from a southeasterly direction, shifting and building from the south-west, reaching 22 knots by the afternoon with huge swells, making it seem much windier. It was clear Stanford and Hawaii would take the 1, 2 for the weekend, and it would be us vs. UCSB fighting for the 3, 4, and we weren’t going to give in easily. Both our A and B put on a strong fight all day, averaging with almost all 3s and 4s in each race, putting us in 4th at the end of Saturday with 12 points to make up if we wanted to go to Oregon. We headed home, got some rest, and showed up ready for a fight Sunday morning. Again, it slowly built to a solid 16-20 knots with big rolling swells, perfect for surfing downwind. We were more prepared for the conditions on Sunday after testing the waters on Saturday after not having much practice at all in conditions anywhere near these going into the weekend. Although we didn’t end up catching UCSB Sunday, we continued having solid scores, and all felt proud of our races, and for making it through such tough conditions without any boys on board! Congrats to Stanford for the win and to moving on to nationals, and good luck to Hawaii and UCSB in qualifiers, represent the west coast!! Thanks to the Johnston and Bell’s for housing! Now, time for some team race practice to get ready for Nationals!!! ZOT ZOT ZOT.