Winter Wrap Up

As I sit here on the plane heading back to Boston I have some time to reflect on the sailing I have done over this winter break. After the conclusion of the fall academic semester I packed my bags, picked up my trailer, and began the long drive down to Florida. On the trailer sat both the F18 and Nacra dealer Todd Riccardi’s Carbon 20 FCS, the 20 foot foiling catamaran on which I have the majority of my foiling experience. I arrived on Christmas Eve and during the afternoon of Christmas day headed down to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron to rig up the Nacra 20. I couldn’t wait to get out on this boat as every day on the foils is as exhilarating as last, if not more.

After a week of demo rides and practicing in all conditions, mixing distance and short course racing as well as straight line speed runs, it was time to pack up again and head down to Miami for the first M32 Winter Series event. I raced with team Escape Velocity on which my BU sailing coach is a member. Several days of boat prep and practice led up to the event and we were feeling quite happy with how we were doing in racing, but unfortunately disaster struck near the finish of the second race. A large front had pressed into the area earlier than expected and brought with it a very strong 20+ knot breeze. As we made our final approach to the mark before the last reaching leg a huge gust came down and both our and another team's masts broke. This brought an early end to our weekend, but allowed me to reassemble the Nacra 20 at Miami Yacht Club and head home early. Time on the water practicing is always beneficial and the days leading up to the regatta as well as the racing taught me more about how the M32 sails and how tactics change in this type of fleet.

Photos taken by M32 North America

I spent my last week in Florida coaching a young sailor from my former club, Sarasota Youth Sailing. He is new to the Sarasota multihull program and I took him under my wing for the week, coaching him in the F16. We ended the week by racing in a local multihull regatta, the 1st Annual Bluster on the Bay, and after 3 days of racing he had improved tremendously. It is great seeing how my Alma mater sailing program is continuing to thrive and how the younger generation of multihull sailors loves going fast as much as I do.

Now that I am returning to school my focus will shift back to my studies as I am taking my first classes in the Aerospace concentration. Balancing schoolwork will be tough, but I’m always up for the challenge.

I have made a few updates to my social media.

New YouTube account

Updated campaign documents

My biggest focus in sailing right now is raising funds for a MK2 Nacra 17. I intend to sell the Viper F16 and possibly the C2 F18 in order to afford this, but would also like to raise funds through sponsorships and donations.

Sponsorship Proposal

2017 Budget

Resume

Stay tuned for more!

Fully Foiling Fall

After competing in the Hinman and a week of pre-season training with the BU sailing team in Newport the school semester began. Back to 8am classes, practice on the Charles, and late nights in the gym and hitting the books, all things that are necessary and that I enjoy. Our first college regatta came earlier than years past landing on the first official weekend of the season and we were off traveling.


Early in the college sailing season I chose to take a break from the slower boats raced regularly on the weekend in order to travel to San Francisco There, I raced with team 13Fifty on the M32 for the Rolex Big Boat Series. We used this event to practice our large catamaran skills in preparation for our Red Bull Youth America's Cup evaluation. SF delivered powerful conditions like we expected, but we knew how to handle them and were confident in our abilities. The format for this event was different than I was used to. There were one or two races in the mixed catamaran fleet a day, which were longer and spanned the entire bay, taking over an hour to complete. Sailing in a mixed fleet was both positive and negative. It was positive in the sense that we started on the same line as another M32, an Extreme 40, and a MOD 70 trimaran, but negative in that we had to wait a long time for the slower catamarans to finish before we could start our next race. The event was moving along smoothly until the start of the second race when conditions really began to build up. Unfortunately our mast came down shortly after the starting gun went off and put an early end to our regatta. The same mast failure occurred with the other M32 later on in the same race, causing many sailors to leave the boat park less that satisfied.

On a more positive note, the remainder of the college sailing season went very well. I ended the season placing 4th in A-division at the Fall New England Championship and our women's team placed a solid 5th place in their Atlantic Coast Championship. At the beginning of this semester I was worried about how we would perform as we lost a large and talented senior class. However, we rose up to the challenge and I am very proud of our team's success. College sailing is a team effort and it takes hard work from every sailor to push each other in practice and bring out great results in regattas.

Following the conclusion of the college sailing for the semester I shifted my focus to the Red Bull Youth America's Cup. I am working with team 13Fifty in this campaign and our next step towards making this happen was to have our skills evaluated while sailing a GC32. We traveled to the base of Groupama Team France in Brest, France where we met with Hans-Peter Steinacher, one of the founders of the RBYAC. My teammates and I have written many articles on our experience during each day and I will list these at the end of this post. Mine is also linked here. As a whole this was an amazing experience both on and off the water and opened so many doors into new future sailing opportunities. We even got to practice next to the Groupama AC45 turbo!

We were also able to see some spectacular sights while in France including Mont St-Michel, Arc de Triomphe, and the Eiffel Tower. We spent a little over 12 hours in Paris enjoying delicious pastries and chocolates before heading home.

The amount of sailing I have done since summer surpasses all other semesters of school so far, and along with this comes many lessons learned. I missed a substantial amount of class for sailing opportunities and as a result, I have learned how to balance traveling with academics. I have also begun taking more specialized engineering classes and I applied their concepts while sailing the GC32 and learning to efficiently foil. Now that I can combine my studies and passion I look forward to attending each class more and more. I am entering this winter and spring ready to embrace new challenges with academics, college sailing, the RBYAC, and anything else I choose to take on.

My new Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/raviparent/

Links to all articles from trip to France

Below is my full recap of our trip to Best:

Team 13FIFTY’s trip to Brest, France was undeniably a great success and unique experience. We had an amazing time seeing the beautiful country of France as well as getting some solid training in the GC32. With two practice days in varying conditions we were well prepared before our evaluation in this larger foiling cat. Our first day of practice brought a nice light wind to start in the boat which made learning to foil easier, but the conditions quickly built. Our second practice day was much windier than the first and we began to push our limits harder, working towards foiling jibes and mark roundings. Unfortunately the wind was too strong on our third day and we had to take an unplanned rest which gave us some time to explore the town and coastline of Brest. Despite the cold weather we really enjoyed learning about the history of this town as well as embracing the French culture through dining at a local seafood restaurant.

During our evaluation we had excellent conditions with stronger wind the first day and lighter wind the second. By the very last day of sailing our whole team could agree that we had learned a substantial amount about how to sail a foiling catamaran at pace and how to execute crew-work most efficiently and effectively. Before this trip we had all foiled in smaller boats such as the Nacra 20 FCS, Flying Phantom, Moth, Waszp, and kitefoil, but only had experience sailing as a team on the M32. What made this experience exceptionally unique was that while we were ripping downwind at 30+ knots flying 10 feet above the water or hauling back upwind so we could sail back downwind again we would look along the rail and see all our good friends and teammates working hard and enjoying the ride each with a smile on our faces.

This trip to Brest meant a lot for our team. It served as our first training event in a large foiling catamaran and as our evaluation for a spot at the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. However, this trip also means a lot to each and every one of us individually. For me this trip reminds me of how far I have come in the sport of sailing and how much more is ahead of me. I have personal aspirations to become an Olympic and professional level sailor and this trip serves as one of the first stepping stones for me to enter in to this world.

If you came to me this time last year and asked what I thought I would be doing a year later I would not have said traveling to Europe with some of the country’s best young sailors to train on one of coolest foiling cats. My development with this team really means a lot to me. At the beginning of last summer I did not have much planned outside some F18 racing and foiling catamaran training. Little did I know that this would develop into me joining a Youth America’s Cup campaign. When I first met the team I realized I knew some of the members through college and other youth sailing events, but had not been as close with them as they already were with each other. Now after several M32 events, our entire Midwest tour, more training in Newport, and this most recent trip to France I can say I fit in very well with this talented group of sailors both on and off the water.

One of my favorite parts about this team is how well we work together. We don’t have overinflated egos, we treat each other with respect, and we make decisions that are best for the success of the team. We understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses and use this to plan our roles on the boat and on shore. This breeds efficiency with our time, getting the most out of every training experience we have, and putting forth our best results.

My story with 13FIFTY should serve as inspiration to others looking to pursue a similar path in this sport. I did not expect myself to come this far so quickly, but after countless hours of hard work and the great fortune of working with such an organized team I can see myself reaching many of my sailing goals in the near future. Team 13FIFTY is looking forward to hearing of the evaluation decision in mid-December and charging forward into the New Year with new training plans and goals set.

-Ravi Parent, Standing By Boston University

Mont St-Michel

Arc de Triomphe

Paris at night

Summer Sixteen

Summer of 2016 is coming down to its final weeks and it has been a blast so far. It began with post season practice with my college sailing team. We spent the two weeks leading up to the ICSA National Championship practicing out on Boston Harbor with the Tufts team. After we brought the boats back onto the river we made one final trip down to Roger Williams University for a joint practice with several other schools.

Mark rounding at ICSA Nationals.

The BUDS had an early flight out to California and we arrived just in time to watch the last day of racing for the ICSA Women's National Championship, where our teammates came through with an excellent finish placing 12th in A-Division, 1st in B-Division, and 3rd overall. Using the experience gained from the women's event, we spent a couple days practicing out of Long Beach Yacht Club. During our rest days leading up to the event we took advantage of the nice weather and went out to Venice beach.

Nationals was definitely one of the most difficult regattas I have ever sailed in. The morning of each day of racing brought a light southerly wind that soon died and filled into the steady westerly San Diego is known for. These reliable sailing conditions and tough competition brought top level racing to the semifinals and final championship. I raced in the A-Division and at the end of the semifinals the BUDS finished 11th in A, 6th in B, and 8th overall. By the end of the finals we finished strong especially in the B-Division and placed 15th in A, 4th in B, and 8th overall. Several of our teammates received All-American awards later in the summer, which show they exemplify the true spirit of collegiate competition as well as high performance on the water.

After racing finished in California I returned to my home in Florida for a week before driving back to Boston with the F18 in tow. Once back up North I began practicing in the carbon Nacra 20 FCS, M32 (Marstrom 32), and F18. I have since joined 13Fifty Racing in their campaign for the American spot at the 2017 Red Bull Youth America's Cup. In order to prepare ourselves for this competition we have practiced in the FCS in order to get used to foiling and high speeds in a catamaran. The FCS is a 20 foot, all carbon catamaran with curved J-shaped main foils and long T-shaped rudders that lift the boat completely out of the water while sailing, greatly reducing friction between the boat and the water and raising the top speed the boat can achieve. It is not uncommon to average 25kts while sailing downwind with the spinnaker hoisted and exceeding 30kts on a run with just the main and jib. I have become quite comfortable sailing this boat on the foils and will use this experience to help my teammates progress.

The M32 has provided an excellent training platform for teams preparing for the Youth America's Cup. These boats are 32 feet long, approximately 18 feet wide, close to 1000lbs, fully carbon fiber, and are sailed with only a mainsail, furling gennaker, and 4-5 crew. They are also the same boats currently used on the World Match Racing Tour. We have used the M32 to work out team dynamics, try out new sailors, build endurance and strength outside the gym, and learn new tactics. The courses we sail during M32 regattas are nearly the same as those used in the America's Cup, allowing us to learn how to handle these unique tactical situations in a big fleet of catamarans. Reaching starts, upwind gates, and a revised set of sailing rules have made the racing all the more intense and fast paced.

The Young Guns

My first event on the M32 was the New York Yacht Club Race Week, where I put together a team of crew members who I have raced with or against in different boats throughout my career. After 3 long days of practice before the event and 4 days of the regatta we finished in 2nd overall, which was an outstanding finish for our young team and me as the skipper. Race Week was an amazing experience that would not have been possible without the help of 13Fifty Racing and M32 North America.

Next began a tour of the midwest and the first stop was Harbor Springs, Michigan where I intended to race on Escape Velocity, a privately owned M32 on which my BU coach sails. Unfortunately, during the practice day before the event I sprained my ankle and was not able to walk well for several days. This took me out of the racing, but even with only 4 crew members the Escape Velocity team sailed very well through the event. I spent that week on various support and mark boats, taking notes on both EV's and 13Fifty's performance. Since I couldn't sail I made the most of my time off the boat by learning from observing racing as well as sharing notes with my teammates to help them improve.

Following the Harbor Springs regatta I made a quick trip back to Boston in order to catch up with missed summer class work before heading to Wayzata, Minneapolis. At this venue I worked as part of 13Fifty Racing with the World Match Racing Tour to host a match racing expedition event on Lake Minnetonka. We assembled two M32s, attended several sponsor-hosted events, interviewed with local and regional news programs, took VIPs out for rides, spoke with junior sailors at the youth sailing center, and put on a show for the locals with eight match races. The goal of the event was to help set up a tour stop in Wayzata, beginning with a qualifying event, to bring more high performance racing to Lake Minnetonka, and to show younger sailors one pathway into professional sailing. The event was a huge success and I really enjoyed the time we spent there. The hospitality and support from the locals, sailors or non-mariners, made the event as fun as it was and I am looking for the next opportunity to return to the lake soon.

After missing nearly half of my classes this summer term I have to spend a week here in Boston to get caught up. Fortunately, I have kept up with the work and will finish strongly. Next weekend I will be competing in the US Team Racing Championship for the Hinman Trophy with a group of Tufts sailors. This will be a very challenging event and will help prepare me for team racing in the Spring college sailing season. The following week the BUDS will be reuniting in Newport for preseason practice where we will focus on getting more open water experience in 420s. At the end of that week I will resume my college academic and sailing schedule, but will continue working with 13Fifty Racing in our challenge for the Red Bull Youth America's Cup.

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.

Finishing Up Freshman Year

These past few months have been jammed full with classes, sailing, and college life. Now that summer has come I have much more free time to continue working on this website. The spring semester began after I returned to Boston from winter break. When I landed I was greeted by fresh layers of snow covering the ground and a frozen Charles River. Little did I now that my first winter in Boston would set records in snowfall and missed class days due to hazardous weather. We had a total of 5 snow days and even though they were a nice break from classes and a totally novel experience for me, I still missed being out on the river! The Boston University Dinghy Sailors (BUDS), myself included, made a few trips South to venues such as the College of Charleston and Jacksonville University for intersectional regattas. We spent our spring break training in Miami and returned to the city with some color in our skin, drawing envy from our northern friends.

We finally broke off the ice and headed out on the river in late March and as the weather warmed up we quickly returned to our regular practice schedule. The spring sailing season was shorter than the fall, but not any less packed with action and excitement. In addition to regular fleet racing style regattas I competed in some team racing events and even one sport boat promo on a J-70. Sailing on this boat and in the different style of racing provided a nice break from the typical college racing format and helped me work on skills that could be used across sailing disciplines.

Light wind practice on the river.

J-70 regatta at Coast Guard Acad.

Shoveling snow off our boat!

The BUDS ended the season at the New England Championship, our conference championship where teams qualified to compete at the National Championship. I had the opportunity to sail in 4 races in the B division and learned a lot during my short time on the water. I experienced what competing with our district's best sailors was like and could clearly see what elements of my own sailing needed the greatest attention. At the end of the regatta we missed qualifying by 3 points, but despite this loss I feel as though we grew stronger as a team. My biggest takeaway from this event was the importance of a team mindset, something I was not accustomed to when I first joined the BUDS. With all the lessons and morals learned this semester we will come back as a much stronger team next season and are ready to race our competition!

Academics have been going well so far. I was named to the Dean's List in the College of Engineering for both semesters and am taking more classes during the summer. The engineering curriculum is exhausting and I am enjoying the challenge. The courses will get progressively more difficult, but I will continue to work hard and am excited to learn much more about the mechanical world around us.

This summer in addition to taking classes at BU I will be racing in the northeast F18 circuit. So far I have sailed in the Madison Regatta and the Wickford Regatta, placing first in both with my regular F18 crew Sam Armington and we are making plans to sail together in the Hyannis Regatta later this summer. The summer weather in New England is perfect for sailing and we want to get as much time on the water up here as we can!

Racing at College of Charleston.

Volvo Ocean Race in Newport, RI.

Nacra F20 Carbon FCS sailing in Miami on Spring Break.

Post season practice with Tufts.

Warm Winter Break

I spent this winter break in the beautiful sunshine state of Florida with my family. This was a much needed break from school and the colder weather and as my break was twice as long as the average school's I had plenty of time to catch up on sleep and sailing. This free time was spent preparing for the Tradewinds Regatta which I sailed at the end of break. Held annually in the Florida Keys, this venue is notable for its beautiful water, sandy beaches, and excellent wind. After sailing Saturday and Sunday in the F18 Sam and I packed up the boat and drove back home as I had to return to school on Monday. We took first at this event which shows how all our hard work and training is continuing to pay off. Now I am back at school and beginning my second semester classes. The workload is quickly growing, but I enjoy this challenge and am looking forward to the Spring sailing season.

2014 ISAF Youth Worlds

This past week I took advantage of a special opportunity to travel abroad. I went to Tavira, Portugal in order to represent the US Sailing Team at the 2014 ISAF Youth World Championship. This is the same regatta that I attended as a US representative last year and this year's edition of the regatta surpassed last year's with even more learning, intense competition, and fun both on and off the water. This trip was the first time I traveled internationally without my family and I learned how to navigate through foreign and domestic customs as well as experienced a diverse culture where the primary language was not English, but Portuguese. After spending 7 days in a row on the water, however, I am happy to have returned home safely and to share my experiences from this event.


As soon as the US Youth Worlds Team arrived in Tavira, we set up our daily itinerary and stuck to it in order to develop a routine for the week. We woke up at 8am every day, left for the regatta venue by 10:30, and spent the remainder of the day preparing our equipment, practicing, and actually racing until we returned back to the host hotel late in the evening. Some days wore on longer than others; during one day of racing we left the boat park at 9pm! And that was before the windsurfing fleet had returned to shore. Despite losing a few hours of precious sleep time as well as competing all day in the sun, the US Team remained strong and consistent throughout the event. When it came time for the closing ceremony two boats from the US Team, the mixed skiff (Quinn Wilson and Riley Gibbs) and the women's singlehanded dinghy (Haddon Hughes), received silver medals. Nico Schultz and I just barely missed earning the bronze medal in our mixed multihull fleet and ended up in fourth place by the end of the regatta.

A flag from each competing nation.

One of the best aspects of the ISAF Youth Worlds experience is having the opportunity to meet new people. The coaches this year, Kevin Hall and Mike Kalin, and the team leader, Leandro Spina, provided us with the tools and guidance required for our success. Without their help it would have been difficult for our team to manage the distractions and remain unified and competitive throughout the week. While we were off the water we had the opportunity to talk with other sailors and make new international friends. These will be the same sailors from my generation that I will be sailing with and against for my entire life.

The ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship is a unique opportunity where education, friendship, competition, and athletic excellence can be found. At the end of the regatta it is not only your finish position but also the lessons learned, connections made, and ideas shared that create a memorable experience. I would highly recommend setting this regatta as a goal for any youth sailors who are still eligible to attend because what is learned through this opportunity is of priceless value.

2014 F16 World Championship

I just recently arrived back home after spending the past week traveling to and sailing in Newport, RI. This week was full of many adventures, experiences, and memories, all of which taught me valuable life lessons. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to Newport and racing in the F16 Worlds; however, after spending a week away from home living with several other sailors and approximately 50 hours towing a trailer I am glad to finally be home and back on my regular training schedule.

The whole trip started on Thursday June 19th when we began the drive. All of Thursday afternoon and Friday was spent in the car taking turns behind the wheel. We didn't hit bad traffic until we reached New York City, where we decided to take a short break from driving to get a nice dinner in order to avoid rush hour traffic while crossing the Hudson River. We arrived at the regatta venue, Sail Newport, on Saturday morning and after rigging the boats, greeting fellow competitors and friends, and moving into our home for the week we were able to get acclimated to the change in scenery and explore Newport. I had already sailed in Newport once before, but since this was several years earlier at an Opti regatta it was still a new experience.

Sunday and Monday were both spent practicing out on the Narragansett Bay where the race course would be placed. This time was quite beneficial to my teammate Sam and I as we had implemented several new systems and upgrades to the boat prior to coming to Newport. This included carbon rod rigging in place of the standard stainless steel wire that holds the mast upright. These carbon rods are much stiffer, lighter, and thinner than the wire, increasing the sensitivity of the boat and platform as well as decreasing the overall weight and windage of the boat. With this new rigging came new boat settings and we used our precious practice time before racing to figure out our optimal mast rake and rig tension settings in all wind conditions.

Racing began Tueday morning and we were fortunate enough to have a consistent breeze of 10-15 knots with occasional sustained gusts in the upper teens. Unfortunately, we had a mechanical issue during the first race of the regatta when our spinnaker halyard cleat pulled out of the mast. Sam and I quickly sailed to our coach Jim Zellmer and repaired the rivets on the water. After missing the first two races of the regatta in our preferred sailing conditions our spirits were beginning to break; however, we knew that this was going to be a long regatta with 15 races on the schedule and we approached the following races with a fresh mind. In order to make up for this loss we worked very hard to win the next two, keeping us in a good position to place well by the end of the week.

Day 2 of racing had similar conditions and wind direction as day 1, but with less velocity and more dispersed wind lines. We were able to maintain our hot streak through the first race of day 2 by placing first and we kept consistent scores for the remainder of the day, all in the top 5. Day 3 brought light wind from a new direction with a forecast of rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon. After a survey by sailors and conversation with the race committee, which was a new way of making decisions at this world championship, racing was postponed on shore until late in the afternoon and then finally canceled for the day. Even though we did not have the opportunity to sail and stay on schedule with races, we were able to see more of the city of Newport. The Etchell World Championship was held during this same week out of the famous New York Yacht Club and it was very interesting to see the list of competitors for this event as it included several former world champions and professional sailors.

Racing resumed the following day and in order to make up for our lost time the race committee ran 5 more races for a grand total of 13. We started out the day strong with several top finishes, but during the third race we had a problem with our spinnaker retrieval line wrapping on the forestay, putting us just two points out of fist place by the end of the regatta. Sam and I finished as the 1st youth, 1st American and 2nd overall team and even though we were slightly disappointed with our performance this is still quite the achievement for us.

Sarasota Youth Sailing was strongly represented at this regatta. Another youth team consisting of a brother and sister, Nico and Sophia Schultz, also came to the event and placed very well despite fighting through some tough situations that were similar to those Sam and I faced. They also missed two races on day 1 of the regatta, but they quickly recovered from this and ended the regatta on a great note by winning the final race.  They placed 7th overall which was still a strong finish in this World Championship. Sarasota Youth Sailing has come a long way with it's youth multihull team and it is great to see how we are benefiting from this program and getting good results at top regattas.

Now came the time to leave Newport and drive back home. The trip back to Florida was quite uneventful and now that I am back home I have some time to reflect and learn from last week's experiences. I learned that it is absolutely essential to be prepared for any boat issue that could arise on the water and that boat prep work is key prior to a big event. I also learned that even though I may face several obstacles and setbacks, it is important to keep the bigger picture in mind and to continue progressing forwards. I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel with my friends and sailing partners and the memories I have created will remain with me for the rest of my life. I must thank my family, coaches, friends, and teammates for their continued support as without their help I would not have been able to make last week a success.

The remainder of my summer will be quite busy leading up to the beginning of my school year in September. Mid July I will be traveling to Portugal with Nico Schultz and competing in the ISAF Youth World Championship. This is the same regatta that I sailed in last year with Sam as a member of the US Sailing Youth Worlds Team. After I return back to the states I will be sailing an F18 in the Hyannis Regatta off the coast of Massachusetts late in July. Near the end of August I am planning on sailing the Nacra 17 National Championship at Oakcliff Sailing in New York. I am not pursuing an Olympic campaign for the 2016 games as my primary focus is my education at Boston University, but, as it is important to stay competitive and learn as much as possible, I am attending as many regattas as I can fit in my schedule. Continue to check this blog in the weeks to come because I will be posting updates about my travel and sailing experiences!

Summer Shenanigans

High school has finally ended! I have graduated from Southeast High School and am patiently waiting for early July to find out if I received my International Baccalaureate diploma. Now that I am officially on summer break I have had a considerably larger amount of free time which has been spent planning my academic courses for next year at Boston University as well as preparing for the F16 World Championship which will be taking place next week in Newport, RI.


Last week I had the opportunity to attend my Boston University freshmen orientation session. After being forced to spend an additional night in Charlotte, NC due to a cancelled fight and finally arriving in Boston a day later than I had planned, I managed to arrive at my orientation activities on time. My three days were spent getting familiar with the city and transportation systems around the school, understanding the course curriculum, registering for class times, and finally meeting other freshmen students. When I departed from Boston on Friday I left having developed a strong passion and excitement for the school as well as several new friendships that will make my college experience quite memorable.

In preparation for the F16 Worlds I have been fine tuning and upgrading my boat with several smaller tweaks and adjustments. These upgrades include a skipper trapeze system that is run through the hull rather than across the deck, carbon rod rigging rather than the traditional stainless steel wire, and other smaller additions spread around the platform. These changes to the standard boat design were implemented to reduce weight, minimize the possibility of binding and catching while sailing, and increase the performance capabilities of the boat. As the departure date for Newport quickly approaches, I will be loading up the trailer and will begin driving with another Sarasota team comprised of two siblings, Sophia and Nico Schultz. We're all very excited to put our skills to the test against some of the top F16 teams at the Worlds!

Always Sailing Fast at Sailfest

With diverse wind conditions, warm water, and sunny weather, the Sarasota Sailfest is always a great regatta that provides racing opportunities in several classes ranging from the Optimist Dinghy to the newly adopted multihull class. This year's event was as successful as it has been in the past and we were able to get 6 races completed over the course of two days. We were postponed on shore Saturday until noon when the classic Sarasota sea-breeze began to build. This was to my advantage as my crew, Sam Armington, had to take a school exam in the morning and luckily we did not miss any races. Saturday's wind conditions were light and variable, shifting direction drastically several times during racing. We pushed to get four races off and ended up sailing late into the day, coming to shore at about 5:30 pm. On Sunday the breeze filled in much earlier and with substantially more velocity. There was a decent amount of carnage on the multihull course during both of Sunday's races, but thankfully there were no major injuries or damage to equipment. After two long days of racing in both light and heavy wind conditions with varying sea states, Sam and I were able to win all six races of the regatta and capture first place.


The Sarasota Sailfest has always been a major event on my calendar and I love to support my home club and sailing program by participating as a competitor or helping out with running the event. This year 100 Optis, 50 Lasers and 420s, and 9 multihulls attended and I hope this regatta continues to grow.

A link to the full regatta site and results can be found here.