Summer of School and Sailing

I finally returned home to Florida last week to take a much needed break from the rush of classes and sailing. I had just completed my final regatta for the summer and finished my third summer class, freeing my schedule up significantly. It was nice to come home and see visiting relatives as well as my immediate family all at once. After spending a week at home I traveled back up North and am currently in Oyster Bay, NY training on foiling carbon Nacra 20 FCS, loving the entire experience.

BU campus during summer.

Earlier this summer I began taking a few classes at BU, staying after my spring semester had ended. After studying during the day I often sailed out of MIT or BU's boat houses in order to keep fresh and get out on the Charles River. On the weekends I competed in many regattas, borrowing boats from friends and traveling around to some of New England's many sailing venues. One weekend a few of my college sailing teammates and I drove down to Annapolis for a team racing event, which provided a nice opportunity to work on skills we learned during the year and see friends from other schools. This summer brought many new sailing experiences, including my first distance race in a catamaran. The Statue Race, held on the 4th of July, began at Sandy Hook, NJ and led us around the Statue of Liberty and back to the finish line, a total of 19 miles. With wind conditions ranging from zero to 15 knots and sunshine to pouring rain, this shorter distance race was full of challenges and I will definitely be sailing in it again. None of this would have been possible without the help of many friends in sailing: a huge thank you to Ryan Epprecht and his family as well as Mike Easton and Tripp Burd for lending their boats for many of this summer's events and to Jim Zellmer, Brendon Scanlon, Brian Firth, and other sailing friends for helping with other event details.

Now at the end of the summer I am focusing on training in the foiling catamarans before I head back to school to resume college sailing and classes. These boats are extremely fun and are among the fastest sailboats on the water, flying above it most of the time. The learning curve has been quite steep and initially there was a bit of a fear hurdle to overcome, but after a few more days on the boat and some building confidence it has become easier to push the boat harder and reach higher speeds. Crew work on this catamaran is different than others I have sailed in the past with tacking boards, constantly adjusting foil rake, and the rapid speed changes, but these challenges have elicited harder work and a much more rewarding sailing experience. Foiling is the future of high performance sailing and I am happy to be involved, I will be posting a video of sailing the foiling catamaran later this week.

I will be returning back to Boston soon and moving into my new housing accommodations. Classes this year will be more difficult, but I am ready to learn even more both in the classroom and on the water.

View from the Statue Race.

Ronstan Rocket at Newport Regatta.

Weight training in Oyster Bay.

Foiling catamaran training.

Winter Break

Over this past winter break I had the opportunity to enjoy myself both on and off the water. While I was in town I spent more time sailing in the Falcon F18 and Viper F16, training different skills in each boat. A few days after Christmas my family and I traveled to the heart of our country, Washington D.C. While there we visited the US Capitol, Library of Congress, Ford's Theatre, and several museums that hold artifacts from American history. It was quite the humbling experience walking among the buildings where our country's officials, representatives, and leaders work on a daily basis. Aside from seeing the national landmarks, I was able to spend some quality time with my family and on New Year's Eve we all gathered for a large family dinner. During this trip I also saw A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens acted on stage in Ford's Theatre and after reading the play in one of my high school English classes I was fascinated by how closely the actors stayed to the original script. This trip unfortunately came to an end and after walking around the town one final time in the snow that had fallen overnight my family and I returned back to our warm home.

Supreme Court of the United States

Since my arrival back home I have been devoting my time to preparing for the second ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifier which will be held next weekend, January 18-20, in Miami, FL. I would like to thank the McDonalds and Falcon Marine for allowing Sam and I to test out their new Falcon F18. This boat is definitely a fast and versatile design that performs in all conditions. During the upcoming week I will continue to update this blog with results and media from this event as well as some of my plans for the future.

Library of Congress

Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was assasinated

Falcon F18

These past few weeks have been quite busy with both academics and sailing. I have managed to complete my remaining college applications, begin looking for scholarships, and finish my last few school assignments before the break. I have also recently competed in the Junior Olympic Sailing Festival in Jensen Beach, FL in the Club 420 class. This was my first Club 420 regatta and with only a few days of training prior to the event my teammate and I placed 5th overall after two days of racing in light winds and shifty conditions.

In addition to competing in this regatta I have had the opportunity to sail the Falcon F18, a newly designed boat that is built on the East coast of Florida. This boat has more volume in the hulls than many other F18 designs as well as a well cut sail plan made by Glaser Sails in California. Sam and I will be able to sail the Falcon a few more times in the upcoming week and I will be uploading more photographs of our sailing action.

Spring Break!

Ahhh, a much-needed change from the tedious routine of school has finally arrived. And what better way to spend it than sailing in one of the country's best venues? It's over a week into March and while the northern states are enduring snow and cold weather us Floridians are still able to spend time at the beach and walk around in shorts and flip flops. While the tourists who plague our streets are heading to the beaches and shops, I am driving down to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron to continue practicing and enjoying time out on the water. This time off from school allows me to catch up on some maintenance work and implement new setups on the boat that I wouldn't have the time to try out during the regular school schedule. This week is going to be very productive! I also got the chance to visit my teammate Sam at his father's shop where he is finishing up his new A-Class catamaran build. He and another teammate both built their own boats and regularly update their blog with news of their endeavors. The beauty of multihull sailing in Sarasota is that we are able to compete with a wide variety of different designs in many different classes. We have Falcon F16s and F18s, APHC boats, a Hobie Wildcat, Nacra F18s, and now A-Class catamarans all in the same venue on a daily basis! Come out and join us when you can!

Nacra Infusion MK2

Falcon F18

AHPC Viper

Falcon F16

            

Falcon F18

Over the past week I was presented with the opportunity to sail the new Falcon F18 by Matt McDonald, which was a different experience from the other F18 designs out there. It was an interesting and severe change from sailing Vipers and Nacras on a daily basis as the setup and design was different from what I was used to. It still made for a fun and exciting ride! This upcoming week I'm heading down to Miami to train in F16s and N17s with some of the potential future Olympic candidates. This weekend should be exciting and productive!

Goals

I am a competitive youth sailor who races in multiple fleets including Lasers and 420s. Additionally, I have substantial experience as helm and crew in other classes including V15s, F16s, F18s, Nacra 20s, and J24s. I train daily in the gym and on the water in these boats, and attend frequent local, district, national, and international events throughout the year.I have previously competed internationally in the Optimist class attending both the IODA South American Championship in Salinas, Ecuador, and the British National Championship in Larges, Scotland. My future goals include advancing my racing and tactical knowledge through training and competing in both monohulls and multihulls.

• Increase the amount of time I spend sailing multihulls.
• Train as hard off the water as I do on on the water in order to maintain physique and stamina.
• Compete and place well in upcoming District, National, and International events.