Singlehanded High School Nationals
Author- Taylor Escola
Three weeks later I headed to Norfolk Virginia for the High School Singlehanded Cressy
Nationals, which was hosted at the Old Dominion University. There are 6 districts in the United
States for Highschool sailing and each district takes the top 2 sailors in their fleet to a National
Championship. The night I got home from the qualifier I started researching the wind and venue
for Old Dominion. All the items I read and people I spoke with said similar things…” it’s either
nuking or a drifter.
This regatta consisted of top Male ILCA 6, Female ILCA 6 and Open ILCA 7 from around the
US. The practice day was met with 20 knots of wind and only a handful of sailors went out to
practice. My friends from Corona Del Mar and San Diego decided to practice for 30 minutes to
tune the boat and make sure nothing was going to break before racing.
Saturday morning the first start was at 10:15am and the wind was unstable and light. After
every 2 races the sailors were able to go talk to their coaches, the coaches were staged in
shallow water on a dock so when the sailors would go to their coaches we had to hop in the
water and walk our boats up to the dock, my mom was my coach this weekend, kind of fun
watching her wade out in the water. After getting off a few races for the day, we ended with an
on-the-water postponement until racing was called for the day.
Sunday was the last day and was met with better wind, which was around 10 knots and lots of
wind shifts, making decisions and timing incredibly important. There were shifts favoring the
right side of the course, but the left had more breeze so you either had to hope the right would
fill in or hope the left would get some shifts. At the end of the regatta, I placed 7th in the Nation.
Last year, my friend Tate Christopher from Mater Dei qualified as Sophomore & Junior, each
year finishing mid fleet, he qualified his senior year and won 1st overall. This year he is sailing
for the College National Championship representing Tulane. Also, sailor Mikey Sentovich from
Corona Del Mar qualified last year as a Junior and finished mid fleet, this year he won the
National Championship as a Senior. I’m holding out hope for next year, my final year!