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.

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!

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.

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

Welcome to Wisconsin

On Monday I flew into the airport in Milwaukee and drove over to Racine where the 2013 F16 National Championship is going to take place. I spent my first day here rigging the boat from the ground up as I previously had to take it completely apart to load it into Red Gear Racing's trailer. On my second day I finally hit the water and was greeted by icy chills when we pulled the boat down the launch ramp. The one thing I will never get used to here is the how cold Lake Michigan's waters are compared to Florida's. It is definitely a necessity to have cold weather gear here year round. Racing starts Friday and it looks as though we are going to have a competitive fleet here that consists primarily of youth sailors but also some veterans who have countless nautical miles under their belts. It'll be interesting to see how this weekend plays out!

2013 ISAF Youth World Championship

This past week was an experience unlike others I have had in the past. High levels of competition, international interaction, and new friendships were all factors that made this event a huge benefit to myself both as a sailor and as an individual. I am very grateful for having this opportunity to travel abroad and I am applying the lessons learned this past week to better myself both on and off the water.

I arrived in Cyprus with my family on July 12th early in the morning and was surprised by the landscape; I had expected to see a tropical island with a large abundance of green and vegetation, however instead I saw dry desert-like land and old buildings. This scene made me realize how different this part of the world is compared to my home. My family and I spent our first day getting accustomed to the time change, meeting the other US teammates and our coaches Andrew Campbell and Zach Brown, and learning about the city of Limassol.

The Ajax Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus.

I ended up staying with the US team in one of the three regatta hotels. Several other countries were also staying there and this allowed us to introduce ourselves and make some new international friends. We received our sailing equipment on Saturday, two days before the event, after waiting in the long line for regatta registration behind many other countries. After taking some time to get the boats set up and tuned to our liking, we were finally able to head out on the water for a short one hour practice. Sam and I paired up with the SL16 team from Singapore and got in some valuable practice time before heading in and returning back to the hotel. Sunday was our first official practice day which we used to set our pace for the rest of the regatta. We got up at the same time as we would for the rest of the week, rode the bus to the venue, sailed at approximately the same time of day that we would be racing, and headed back to the hotel for dinner after a long day out in the sun. The entire day went without too much excitement, except for a broken mast on the French SL16. Luckily the boat suppliers had a spare that they interchanged with the broken spar.

Monday began racing for the regatta. The entire week followed a consistent schedule which provided excellent racing conditions. We would head out on the water at around 11:30 and get three races done every day, except for the final day where we only had one race scheduled. The conditions couldn't have been any better; the wind filled in at around 11:00 every day and built as the day progressed into the 12-15 knot range with the third and fourth days of racing building to 15+ knots. The water, a deep blue color, provided decent sized waves that posed a challenge for the SL16s as they tend to stuff their bows into the back of waves on the downwind. This made for some big gains on the downwinds for the teams that had good control of their boat and caused some interesting wipeouts!

The racing during the week was at a level that I was not used to. All of the top teams had as good if not better boatspeed than me and called sound tactics out on the racecourse. One significant disadvantage that Sam and I had was a lack of experience in the boat. The SL16 is very different from the typical multihull that we sail in that it lacks daggerboards. This causes it to power up less quickly and to slide sideways in the water more than I am used to occurring. Several of the teams in the top five had attended the SL16 World Championship prior to the ISAF Youth Worlds and placed very well, showing their expertise in the boat. I believe that if I had gained a significant amount of experience learning how to sail this boat to its full potential prior to this event I would have been able to execute tactical decisions with less worrying about boatspeed issues. Regardless of this, I am very happy with how I performed at this event and I see that I can only improve from here.

Leeward mark rounding competing with Belgium and Spain.

Overall, I learned a lot at this event and created new friendships that will last the remainder of my sailing career. The experience that I gained at this event will greatly benefit my sailing in the future, but this entire trip would not have been possible without the support of my parents and entire family, coaches Zach and Andrew, and all the other individuals who helped organize US Sailing's participation in the 2013 ISAF Youth World Championship.

Team USA during the opening ceremony parade.

Sam and I with our coaches Zach Brown (left) and Andrew Campbell (right).

During the event the US team had a blog that was updated with news about all the sailors. A link to this blog can be found here. Check it out!

Destination London

These past few days were spent wandering the streets of London, occasionally stopping by the famous landmarks that we passed by. During our stay we were able to see many of the main tourist attractions, including Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and the Tower Bridge. What really stood out to me during our visit was the cultural diversity in this city. There were food stands for almost all the major cultures, shops appealing to the current trending styles, and all sorts of spoken and written languages surrounding us as we walked along the streets. I enjoyed this diversity and realized that America is just a small grain of sand compared to all the different nationalities that are spread around the world. This trip is just beginning and it's already an eye opener!

 

Miami Boat Show

This past weekend I experienced the beautiful scenery of Miami once again. I traveled down there with my family for Saturday and Sunday to get away from our regular routines. While we were down there, we toured the University of Miami for a second time. The advantage of visiting for a second time was that we were able to attend an information session specifically targeting the College of Engineering, my school of choice at this university. Also, we spent some time at Strictly Sail Miami, one of the several boat shows this weekend. I saw the Motive trimaran for a second time and went aboard a Gunboat 66 that made us smaller catamaran sailors jealous. This trip was a excellent outlet for my family and I to escape for the weekend and spend some time together.

College Visits

Boston University sailing team boats

This Christmas break I flew up to New England for a week with my family in order to visit several colleges and spend time with family members who live in Boston. We flew up on Saturday the 29th into Providence, RI and visited some former colleagues of my parents' and walked with my family around Yale University in the snow. The next few days we spent in Boston, watching a parade and some fireworks on New Years Eve. The first college that I toured was Boston University, my parents' alma mater. Then I visited MIT and Northeastern, and finally my family and I drove back to Providence to tour Brown. We flew back home on the 5th, welcoming the warmth and humidity after spending a week in the snow and icy wind of New England. I'm very happy I got the opportunity to tour these highly esteemed schools and I learned a lot about their programs, location, environment, student life, and most importantly their sailing teams!

Boston University

Yale

Brown

MIT

Brown

Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving Break I stayed home to work on a school project while my parents and younger sister sailed on our family's 46 foot Outbound sailboat down to the Useppa/Cabbage Key area. While I was home I spent the time getting ahead in my schoolwork and practicing every other day on the water, in both lasers and multihulls. On Thursday I drove down to Punta Gorda in order to meet my family for a Thanksgiving brunch. I must have gained a few pounds after that meal! Saturday and Sunday were spent sailing in the Thanksgiving Regatta at Davis Island in an F18. Now it's time to get back down to business; I'm sailing at the Laser District 13 Championship back up at Davis Island next weekend and after that my next big regatta is the ISAF Youth World Qualifiers in Clearwater where I will be competing in a F16. A lot is coming up on my schedule!