My First U20 Regatta Experience by Ben Henning

Here I was, at my first U20 regatta, the U20 East Coast Championships, I was determined to do well, but as it turned out, we did pretty poor.  We had the worst of luck and having a crewmember that was sailing for the first time on a U20 didn’t help.  On the first race, we raised the chute too early, and it back-winded. We ended up catching the mark.  Then, on the second race, we were doing really well being in second place and then doing an extra leg therefore getting a DFL.  We ended up placing 9th out of 10 overall. 

  Despite our poor performance, I had a lot of fun, and I’ll tell you I learned a lot more there than I would have at school.  The other sailors were very kind, and I got along with them well.  Before we left for North Carolina, I was anxious for the upcoming regatta and hoping that it would be as fun as I thought it would be.  After the regatta, I was reluctant to go back and leave my newfound friends. 

Ben at age 13