Fun

I'm continuing to practice and spend more time on the water. Now that the major pressure of competing in regattas is lifted, it's time to focus on the fine tuning details in the different boats and academics!


US Sailing Development Team

I have officially been named to the US Youth World Championship team and the US Sailing Development Team. This article on the US Sailing Team page sums up the news:


Portsmouth, R.I. (January 22, 2013) – Twelve youth sailors have qualified for US Sailing’s 2013 Youth World Team, and will receive invitations to represent the United States at the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth World Championship in Limassol, Cyprus from July 11-20. The U.S. Youth Worlds Team members were selected based on first-place finishes in their respective classes at US Sailing’s 2013 ISAF Youth World Qualifier regatta, hosted by Clearwater Yacht Club, Jan. 19-21. Full results are online.
“The U.S. Youth Worlds Team represents a new generation in American sailing,” said Josh Adams, Managing Director of U.S. Olympic Sailing. “As we continue to reshape the Olympic pathways, I’m encouraged by the ability, hard work and skill exhibited over the weekend.”
The sailors named to US Sailing’s 2013 Youth World Team:
•Laser Radial (boy’s one person dinghy): Addison Hackstaff (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
•Laser Radial (girl’s one person dinghy): Haddon Hughes (Houston, Texas)
•International 420 (boy’s two person dinghy): Wade Waddell (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) and Henry Fernberger (New York, N.Y.)
•International 420 (girl’s two person dinghy): Casey Klingler (Larchmont, N.Y.) and Fiona Walsh (Rye, N.Y.)
•29er (open high performance dinghy): Quinn Wilson (Ojai, Calif.) and Dane Wilson (Ojai, Calif.)
•RS:X Boys: Maximo Nores (Miami, Fla.)
•RS:X Girls: Marion Lepert (Belmont, Calif.)
•Multihull: Ravi Parent (Bradenton, Fla.) and Sam Armington (Sarasota, Fla.)
While most of the 2013 Team will make their debut in Cyprus, three are returning members: brothers Quinn and Dane Wilson, and Sam Armington. “It’s really exciting to be able to compete again,” said Armington, who sailed in 2012 with a different skipper and finished 8th overall. “2012 was an awesome experience and I met a bunch of great sailors and coaches.”
He went on to explain that he has grown up sailing with and against his 2013 skipper, Ravi Parent, but they spent extra time preparing for this year’s Youth World Team Qualifier. As they prepare for the Worlds, they will spend time in a variety of multihulls and monohulls and work on becoming well-rounded sailors. They see Armington’s experiences as an advantage. “I know what it takes to do well and what to expect at the Worlds,” he said. “This puts a bit of pressure on us, but it’s an advantage. I can help Ravi and help us prepare.”
The Youth Worlds Team members also will be named to the 2013 US Sailing Development Team. The team, which is annually named by US Sailing, is comprised of the country’s top sailors in the classes selected for the 2013 Youth Worlds and the 10 events selected for the Olympic Games.
The above article can be found here in full: http://sailingteams.ussailing.org/News/2012/13_Youth_World_Team_Named.htm

ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifiers

Results
This past weekend I competed at the ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifiers with Sam Armington at the Clearwater Sailing Center. On Saturday the wind filled in from the North with a steady 10-15 knots, bringing some nice waves on the race course in the gulf. We began our regatta with bullets in the first two races and a 2nd in the third, putting us in first with a marginal 2 point lead. Sunday brought lighter conditions with some leftover swell from the previous day, but we conquered these challenging conditions by placing 3rd in the first race of the day and winning the next three when the breeze filled again to a consistent 10+ knots. By Monday morning we had a healthy 4 point lead and we decided on maintaining a more conservative game plan, determined to hold our lead through the remaining two races. In the first race of the day we had a bad start and tacked off behind the fleet; fortunately the breeze filled in to our preferred conditions and we worked our way back up into first by the windward mark, but after a few mistakes and a penalty turn we fell back to a 2nd place finish by the end of the three lap race. In the final race of the regatta we were more aggressive at the start and won the pin end, pulling in front of the fleet to leeward and then conservatively covering the fleet for the remainder of the race, finishing with yet another 1st place. We ended the regatta with a total of 10 points, a 6 point lead in front of the next competitor, and bullets in 6 of the 9 races sailed! This regatta shows that all of our hard work and countless hours practicing paid off and will continue to in the future. I'm very excited to represent my country this summer as a member of the US Sailing Development Team at the 2013 ISAF Youth World Championship in Limassol, Cyprus!


Gearing Up

Over the last week I have been practicing almost every day in the Viper refining small details in techniques, calling tactical moves in the changing breeze, and gaining more experience by simply being out on the water. Today we had three F16s and two F18s out during our Sunday practice, the average fleet size during weekday training. The majority of the sailors are training for various events: three teams for the Tradewinds Regatta and one, myself and Sam Armington, for the ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifier. Both regattas are next weekend and all of the traveling teams are excited to race and represent Sarasota Youth Sailing in nationally competitive events!


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

GoPro Footage

I've been messing around with the GoPro video footage that I've taken during practices with different editing programs, including the one provided on the GoPro website and also CyberLink PowerDirector 11. The latter program is a little difficult to get into as I am still a novice when it comes to video editing but I'm starting to get the hang of how the program functions. I just can't figure out how to maintain high video quality after trimming down several clips and sticking them all together in one short video!



Winter in Florida

On Christmas here in Florida you can typically count on these two things: wearing flip flops and battling snowbird traffic. Even though it's "winter" time it's still sunny as ever and the chilly 50 degrees wind doesn't prevent that shorts and flip flops style attire! Now that school is finally on break for the holidays, I'm sailing as much as I can. I'm sailing multihulls practically every day in order to practice for the ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifiers and also throwing in some J22 sailing in there since I'm planning on sailing the Midwinter Championship in February. Practices now require loading up on gear and occasionally wearing a full body wet suit, but I'm still focusing on the finer details, particularly the stuff I worked on at the Red Gear Racing clinic I attended last weekend. Sarasota Youth Sailing had its annual Christmas party tonight were we all got together, ate food, and had our gift exchange which brought out lots of laughs. This break I'm also heading up to New England to visit some higher education schools, with Brown, MIT, Boston University, and Northeastern University acting as a few of our stops. This holiday break should be very refreshing and productive!


Clearwater Clinic

The Viper's all packed up and ready to be towed up to Clearwater for this weekend. I won a free day of a training clinic with Red Gear Racing and Robbie Daniel and I'm going to use it up this weekend. I've been planning ahead and getting my coursework for the weekend done early so I can focus solely on sailing this weekend. It should be a fun and productive two days of training!


District 13 Championship

This past weekend I competed in the District 13 Championship at the Davis Island Yacht Club for the fourth consecutive year, my third time in a Radial. I drove myself up to the regatta, car-topping my boat, which was a new experience. Saturday presented light winds around 5-10 knots out of the northeast which died off later in the day, but was soon replace by a consistent 10-15 knot breeze out of the northeast which was not part of the forecast. I set a goal for myself this weekend: place within the top five in every race. On Saturday I managed to accomplish my goal in three of the four races, placing 9th in the second race. Consistency pays off though, as my results proved; I led the fleet overall after Saturday's racing in 1st place by three points. Sunday brought similar conditions to Saturday, a light 5-10 knot breeze from the northeast dying and then building to the now familiar 10-15. I placed consistently in the top five until the last race of the regatta, which became my throw out. At the end of the day I placed 2nd after a tiebreaker with 26 points overall. This regatta was one of the few Laser regattas that I am planning on doing this year, yet it still presented its unique challenges. Davis Island is a tricky venue, with multiple nearby land masses and a breeze that does not always follow the forecast, yet I began to figure out what was happening on the race course by the end of the regatta. Overall, the District 13 Championship is one regatta that I have always enjoyed in the past and I'll plan on attending it next year!