“We were coming down the downwind finish, and my dad jibed a bit too aggressively, and we capsized, and our tiller and our rudder fell out;one of which floated, thankfully, but the other sank, so we lost the rudder, and we had to sail all the way back with my foot sticking in the water,” junior Kai McGregor said.
McGregor has recently taken up a new sport: competitive sailing. He is a part of the Carolina Sailing Club (CSC) and recently joined the Research Triangle Park High School Sailing Club (RTP High School Sailing).
“I enjoy CSC a lot; they’re a good group, and it’s easy to get into,” McGregor said. “You can show up, and they will provide you with what you need to get started.”
McGregor has won many individual races. There are usually six races total in a regatta. He has not won a whole regatta yet, but hopes to in the future.
“I got pretty close,” McGregor said in regards to his previous regatta. “I won one of the races and got second or third in the other races.”
McGregor is competing against well-experienced adult sailors, including his father.
“They definitely have more experience than me; to really sail competitively you have look at the lake and predict where the winds are going to be coming from and where the gusts will be the strongest,” McGregor said.
Alasdair McGregor, Kai’s father, shared a little about their friendly father-son competition.
“Sometimes he beats me, but not often; it’s more fun when I beat him,” Alasdair said.
Alasdair thinks Kai is a talented sailor and has a natural talent for it.
“He can right that boat many, many times without getting tired and without getting wet,” Alasdair said.
Kai’s interest in sailing began nearly two years ago. His parents strongly urged him to take up the sport, and when he did, they taught him the ropes of sailing. Kai and his father spent a lot of time practicing; they would go out to Jordan Lake and compete in CSC races.
“At first, we were on the same boat, a Laser, and eventually I moved onto my own boat,” Kai said.
At that point, his parents gave him everything he needed to get started.
“I gave Kai my boat and all my gear so that he would have the opportunity to go sail, and I encouraged him to practice and have fun with it,” mother Pam McGregor said.
Kai, a triplet, even received his mom’s old wetsuit.
“He uses my mom’s old wetsuit. They had to repair it first, it had a bunch of holes in it,so they would patch up a hole, send Kai into the water and whenever it leaked, he’d come back, and they would patch up another hole,” sister Darcy McGregor said.
The McGregor family says they enjoy sailing a great deal. The triplets’ parents have a passion for sailing and once sailed through the Greek Isles for two weeks before Kai and his sisters were born.
“You get to see the world from a different angle when you come from the water as opposed to driving someplace; you get a different impression,” Pam said.
Last summer, the McGregors spent a week on a 30-foot sailboat that they chartered called a Catalina and sailed through the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.
“We anchored out in the streams, outlets and inlets, which were really pretty,” Darcy said.
The McGregors spend a significant amount of time sailing on Jordan Lake.
“We go to Jordan Lake a lot just on the weekends, and we’ll sail, or we will take two boats and go to Kerr Lake and camp for the weekend,” sister Elsbeth McGregor said.
Kai will continue sailing throughout the seasons to gain more skills and experience in hopes of winning a regatta, or maybe just beating his dad more often.
– By Tory Scott