ILS Sailor senior Antonio Miranda traveled to Santa Barbara, CA, this weekend to compete at the 2019 Cressy High School Singlehanded National Championship where he finished 14th in the country in the Laser Full Rig.

The first day of sailing saw only a southwesterly breeze filling at about 4-7 knots with a calm sea state, but the current was ripping causing a lot of unusual starts at the beginning of the day. Competitors were given varying conditions as the breeze increased to 10-12 knots, shifting to the west and letting them stretch their legs a bit.

The day settled in and the Race Committee rattled off races while the umpires kept the competitors in check, calling Rule 42 penalties (improper body kinetics and propulsion). At about 1pm, the breeze began to lighten to about six knots but held from the west until a cloud brought a mind bending 30-degree shift to the left and puffs of about 15 knots.

The shift caused a course reset delay which ultimately found the wind settling back in at around 230 degrees (right where it was before the shift), but the new pressure stayed seeing 10-14 knots for most of the rest of the day. Fourteen total races were completed in each division over the two day regatta.

“My performance at the regatta was not the as good as I would have liked it be, for many reasons,” said Miranda on Tuesday.

“First, the wind conditions weren’t in my favor. I do much better in heavy air and this was a light wind venue. Second, the fleet was small only 18 boats, and they were all very skilled sailors so your have to be trying your hardest the whole time.

“There was no room for error especially cause it was a short course, if you would make a unforced error it can cause you the race, and take you out of the lead in a second. This was probably one of the most difficult and Challenging regatta I have done,” Miranda explained.

This event was sponsored by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club, UCSB Sailing Team, and Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation as well as the title sponsor, LaserPerformance who provided the 40 boats.

“I had an extremely great experience,” Miranda said of the national championships. “I have sailed and competed in many places around the world, but the view of the mountains and city of Santa Barbara was jaw dropping. I was also great full to see and compete against my friends I’ve made along the years in the sailing regattas.”

Miranda qualified to represent ILS Sailing at the prestigious national championship at the after finishing third overall at the SAISA Singlehanded District Championships in September.

Miranda is looking forward to the remainder of the sailing season with his team.

“There is a lot more to come in the season we barley have started. Right now we are training so we can qualify and hopefully win 420 fleet racing Nationals, and team racing nationals. Last year, we couldn’t qualify for team racing nationals but now with new freshman Danny Riano who will be skippering the third boat we will be there this year. We are very happy to be making history for Immaculata-La Salle.”

The team will next travel to the College of Charleston’s Invitational Regatta this weekend (November 8-10) in Charleston, South Carolina, where it will compete against 18 other sailing teams from all around the country and the Caribbean. Schools were chosen by application based on current and past ranking within their districts.