Winters in Florida

Another academic semester has come to a close and now I am back in the sunshine state sailing catamarans on the clear, warm waters of the Sarasota Bay. Spending winter break home in Florida always provides a nice break from the cold and busy city of Boston and allows me to get some color back in my skin before I head back up for the Spring semester near the end of January. This last semester went by quickly, but a lot happened between August and December. Sailing and school kept me quite busy during the week so when the sailing season finally ended I made sure to take more trips into the city and around Boston.

During the sailing season I was able to practice 3 of our 4 scheduled days during the week and sailed a regatta every weekend, taking one Sunday off near the end of the season on a lighter competition weekend. Sailing this much has helped the entire team improve and this can be seen in our season's results. We earned top finishes and wins at many events including the Fall New England Championship at the Schell Trophy. This was a big accomplishment for us as it shows we have great potential for the Spring season and how our team is growing in strength. We may travel South to some regattas in February and March as the Charles River will most likely be frozen over and our next major event on our calendars is the Spring break trip to Miami where we spend a full week practicing on Biscayne Bay. This will be a very productive week for us as it was last year and will help us knock the rust off as we prepare for the next sailing season.

Balancing sailing and classes was tough like usual, but I made it work and ended the semester maintaining high grades. I am close to finishing the general engineering prerequisites and am excited to begin taking more specialized classes. In one of my classes this past semester I finally got into a shop to build parts and use machines, something I always love to do. As the classes get more interesting and specialized they will continue to get harder and creating the proper balance between sailing and school will become even more difficult, but this is a challenge I am always ready to tackle.

Now that I am back in Florida I have been sailing as much as I can and plan to do the Tradewinds Regatta again this year in Islamorada before school begins on the 19th. Below I have listed an ad for the F16 Viper that I have for sale. Please contact me if you know of anyone who would be interested in this boat.

F16 Viper for sale

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.

First Semester of College

It has been quite some time since I last posted on here, but I have been very busy in school and now as my classes are drawing to an end I have more free time and can publish more content.

Since my last post I have attended three months of school and even though this is a short period of time the transition from high school to college has been quite drastic. Academics have become much more challenging. Even though I am only taking four classes, it is still quite difficult to keep up with the course work and perform well on exams. Sailing while in school adds another level of difficulty to this task and now my time management and efficiency skills are really being put to the test. This first semester has been physically exhausting as well. After attending classes during the day, I spent my afternoons practicing as a member of the BU sailing team on the Charles River. Sailing took up the majority of my free time and on the weekends we were traveling to regattas around New England. Even though this schedule led to several late nights of studying or returning from regattas, this past semester has been very rewarding and I have created priceless memories with the new friends I have made at school.


Sailing on a collegiate team is a very unique experience. Even though I have only competed for one semester, I have still learned a great deal about who I am as a sailor and how to succeed in this type of sailing environment. Throughout this first semester I sailed at numerous venues, including:

Maine Maritime Academy
University of Vermont
University of New Hampshire
Mass Maritime Academy
MIT
Tufts University
Salve Regina University

We spent a few Wednesdays practicing on the Upper Mystic Lake at Tufts leading up to our freshman championship, the Nickerson Trophy, which was also held at Tufts. In addition to these practices, we frequently sailed on the east side of the Mass Ave Bridge with MIT, Harvard, and Northeastern. These practices were sailed in very large fleets and training with these schools provided us with more experience sailing in larger fleets. We practice regularly in the standard FJ, but some of this fall's regattas were held in other boats such as Fireflies, Larks, 420s, and Z420s.

A view from the Charles River.

Now that the fall sailing season has ended, I am using the majority of my free time to stay up to date with my studies and to explore Boston. It's starting to get cold and we've had a few days with snow so I'm hoping my Floridian blood thickens quickly! I'll be returning home for winter break in a few weeks and by that time I'll be in dire need of a break from the cold. It's shocking to think this semester is almost over, but there is still much to come in the few weeks left and I will be making the most of my time in one of the greatest cities in the world.

First regatta at Maine Maritime A.

Regatta win at Mass Maritime A.

Sailing F18s in Rye, NY.

Fireflies at MIT.

Larks at Tufts.

Last regatta of the season and a win at Salve.

The Beginning

As the summer has drawn to a close, big changes have taken place in my life. I have now packed up the catamarans, said goodbye to my friends back home, and moved on to college at Boston University. This change will also bring several new opportunities.

I left Florida for Boston a week before my classes began in order to do some pre-season practicing with the BU Sailing Team, aka the BUDS. During this week we've spent several days on the water and had the opportunity to sail in both open water conditions in Marblehead, MA as well as in protected waters at our home venue of the Charles River. I have learned a lot of new skills and refined some older ones in this short period of time; this is an indicator of how much our team as a whole will progress throughout the year. Our first regatta is in two weeks after the beginning of class.

As a new student to BU and a freshman on the sailing team, I was initially quite intimidated by what I thought were the expectations of the upperclassmen. However, the BUDS have approached all the new freshmen with open arms and have really made us feel at home at BU. This team is going to make sailing at BU one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

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!

Academic Priorities

This is a very busy time of year for a student. As a senior in the International Baccalaureate program, I am currently in the midst of my final exams. These tests are unique in that they are all given on the exact same date to IB students around the world. My scores on these tests will determine several things, including which college credits I receive and whether or not I earn my IB diploma. After working through this program for a total of four years I am happy to say it was worth all the extra time spent studying, completing homework assignments, and performing labs. Now that my time in high school is near a conclusion, I am beginning to reflect upon the memories and friends I have made over the years. It is very interesting to see that the most memorable moments were when I was sailing in different regattas. The next few weeks will primarily be spent studying for these exams and sailing when I have the free time. Southeast High School's graduation will be held on May 31st and I am looking forward to walking along that stage and moving on to the next chapter of my life at Boston University.

Boston University!

I am very excited to say that I am planning on attending Boston University next year! I have been accepted into the College of Engineering and am very interested in studying aerospace, materials, or mechanical engineering. I'm looking forward to spending my next four years studying and sailing at the collegiate level in the bustling city of Boston.

The Remainder Of This Year

The beginning of my final academic school year of high school has arrived and with that also comes an increase in my workload. Since I am enrolled in the International Baccalaureate program I have a different set of graduation and diploma requirements than the typical high school student. IB students must complete projects called Internal Assessments in each of our classes throughout the school year. IB students are also required to write an Extended Essay over summer. I won't go into details about each of these assignments but it is fair to say that they have taken up the majority of my free time. Fortunately, I am still able to sail several days a week if I budget my time according to my schedule. Over the next few months I am planning on racing in several high caliber regattas, including the F18 America's Championship that will be held at my home club, the Sarasota Sailing Squadron. Prior to this event is the Buzzelli Multihull Rendezvous which is a smaller event in memory of an avid multihull sailor. These events will provide world class competition and I am excited to meet, sail against, and learn from this competition.

I will continue to keep you updated on my sailing and life experiences!

The regatta site for the 2013 F18 America's Championship is here.

School and Sports

Over the past few weeks I took both the SAT and ACT. My scores on these two tests will help gain my acceptance later on into my schools of choice. The difficulty of these tests made me realize that it is a challenging world out there in both academics and a future career. Sure, it would be great to sail professionally but only a very small portion of the entire youth sailing community progresses to competing at that level. I am realizing that it is important to strive in school and progress into an enjoyable career in the future, all the while sailing as much as possible. I am becoming more and more interested in the fields of materials, aeronautical, and mechanical engineering because they involve properties and concepts that can be directly applied to sailing and other water sports. I would like to keep my passion for sailing directly involved with my profession, and engineering appears to be that outlet. But it all starts with good grades and test scores! I'm currently focusing primarily on my academics at the moment but am still refining smaller skills on the water and am maintaining my fitness in the gym.