Since August, the Sailing Team has been gearing up and making their mark in the midst of stiff competition up and down the California Coastline.
Tucker Atterbury, Jake Bartlein, Savanna Brown, and Cassidy Shevitz have been practicing with the Santa Barbara Youth Foundation all year long.
California is one of the most competitive states for sailors. With so many teams with high levels of talent most sailors have to work actively all season just to keep their heads above the water.
The team geared up and dove head first into every competition available to them. Attending numerous regattas, giving up most of their weekends all year, in order to rack up as many points as possible throughout the season.
“Overall our team worked really hard, but I feel like we could have done a lot better in the competitions. We seemed to lose focus,” said Savanna Brown.
Despite being such a small team, they were able to gain entry into the Pacific Coast Championships (PCC), a competition held for the best 20 teams on the California Coast. The team placed 17th.
In April, Savanna and Tucker participated and competed in the California Internation
al Sailing Association’s Advanced Racing Clinic at the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club in Long Beach.
In order to participate in the event, all entrants must fill out an extensive application including all personal qualifications as well as a detailed record of all results from previous regattas. Only the participants with the most impressive applications are accepted into the clinic.
The CISA clinic is extremely beneficial to a young sailor’s career. It pushes the young athletes to go up against stiff competition and to take part in rigorous workouts designed to get them into physical fitness on the water.
For four days Savanna and Tucker followed a rigorous training schedule with intense workouts and challenging sailing competitions.
The season has just drawn to an end and the sailors have had time to reflect. Next year, Savanna says the team needs to have higher standards and focus on working as a team.
