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.





2014 ISAF Youth Worlds Qualifier

My teammate Nico Schultz and I have been officially named to the 2014 ISAF Youth Worlds Team and will be sailing in this event in Tavira, Portugal. This summer Nico and I will travel to Europe, meet up with ten other sailors that will also be representing Team USA, and compete in the most prestigious youth sailing event in the world. Each country that is able to support a team sends sailors to race in different boats including the Laser, I420, 29er, RS:X, and SL16. This will be my second year at the event and I will bring experience as well as a matured perspective that will hopefully be of benefit to all members of Team USA.


In order to qualify to be a member of this selective team, Nico and I competed at two qualifying events over this past year to demonstrate our commitment and skill in the multihull class. The first event, the US Youth Sailing Championship, took place during August in Corpus Christi, TX and presented us with rough sailing conditions and 15-20 knot winds every day. The second event, held during January in Miami, FL, differed from the first as we sailed in a mixed fleet of F16s and Nacra 17s and had more diverse atmospheric conditions. The members of Team USA were then chosen based on the combined results from the two regattas. This two-part qualification system gave sailors a chance to race at two venues and in different weather conditions, truly forcing consistency in racing results.

2013 US Youth Sailing Championship

Training was absolutely essential to our success in these two regattas. We spent our time in the months leading up to both events sailing F16s, F18s, Club and High School 420s, and various keelboats in order to gain experience racing against the level of competition we expect to face in Tavira. Of course it is essential to perfect boathandeling and speed in our specific class; however, we understood the importance of becoming well rounded athletes and did not limit ourselves to only multihulls. In addition to spending time sailing, we performed boat maintenance to make sure our equipment would function properly in use and improved our physical fitness by exercising regularly in the gym. Sailing is a physically demanding sport and as regattas are typically held over several days muscular endurance allows sailors to remain strong throughout an event.

A view of downtown Miami.

Now it is time for us to focus on the path that lies ahead. Nico and I are planning on attending several regattas in the near future, including the F16 World Championship. In late June F16 sailors of all ages from around the world will travel to Newport, RI and race in a five day regatta. The winners will become the new F16 World Champions and the top team from the United States will be named the F16 National Champion and take ownership of the perpetual trophy Sam and I claimed in Racine, WI last summer. Even though we will not be sailing together for this event, Nico and I will be able to use the experience gained from sailing in Newport and apply it to the Youth Worlds. We are both ready to display our hard work and commitment to our sport at upcoming regattas and I am especially excited about having a second opportunity to represent my country in Europe this summer.

To read the full press release on the 2014 ISAF Youth Worlds Team click here.

To read the full press release on the 2014 US Sailing Development Team click here.

Back to Miami Again



It has been a few weeks since my last post but I have been very busy with my sailing and scholastic activities! I spent a large portion of last week in Miami sailing on the Olympic class Nacra 17. This boat has curved centerboards, a carbon mast, and other features from fast cats such as the F16 and F18. I also had the opportunity to train against other American and international sailors with Olympic ambitions which proved highly beneficial both on the water and in our daily debriefs after sailing. The conditions in the Atlantic Ocean were excellent all week with a strong onshore breeze the first two days of training shifting to a stronger offshore breeze during the final day of training. The combination of deep blue water and strong gusty wind created rough conditions and big waves that posed a challenge for even the most experienced sailors. In addition to training among other Nacra 17s, I was able to sail around a few TP52s that were heading to their race course. Unfortunately, these boats were much faster than our small catamarans in the ocean's rough conditions and passed us very easily. By the end of the week I had improved upon several of my boathandling, tactical, and communication skills as well as formulated a training and competition schedule for the upcoming months. Now that I am back on my regular school and sailing schedule I will continue to update this blog at more regular intervals.




Interviews with the Lead Pack

I recently found this article on the United States Formula 18 Association website about an interview from the F18 Americas Championship last year. Apparently I now have the nickname Ravi "The Young Gun" Parent! The original article can be found here. The USF18 class site has excellent organization and sections for viewing ads, tuning tips, purchasing F18 merchandise, and other related subjects.

Interviews with the lead pack: Ravi (The Young Gun) Parent

What is (are) your name(s), and where do you sail?
Ravi Parent, I sail in Sarasota, FL on the Sarasota Bay.

How long have you been sailing F18s?
RP:  I have been sailing F18's for 3 years now, starting in the middle of my freshman year in high school.

Did you do anything special to prepare for the 2013 F18 Americas Championship?
RP:  I trained twice a week in multihulls, F18s and F18s, and two additional days in monohulls in order to perfect boat-handling maneuvers and learn the wind patterns of the bay. I also train [in the gym] 6 days a week in order to keep myself in peak physical condition which proved helpful on the windy days. Over the summer I traveled to three high caliber multihull regattas in order to gain big line starting experience, battle against other top teams, and re-learn wind patterns in different venues.


What do you think was the biggest factor in your success in Sarasota?
RP:  My time spent consistently practicing in the boat prior to the event was the biggest factor in my success in Sarasota. I mastered fast boat-handling techniques and limited my mistakes in the boat which helped me hold consistently fast boatspeed on all parts of the course.

The Americas Championship was a 17 race event with conditions from 5-25 knots. How did you manage to have success over such a broad range of conditions?
RP:  I had prepared in all these conditions prior to the event. I gained big wind and wave experience in regattas over the summer and was comfortable in these conditions. I knew what needed to be done on the race course and took each race one at a time. I was in a disadvantage on the windy days as I was a light team, but I focused on my strengths during the races, upwind and downwind angle rather than speed, and used these to my advantage. I positioned myself on the start and around other boats in a way that took full advantage of these strengths.

What was the most memorable regatta moment for you?
RP:  My most memorable regatta moment was winning the final race of the regatta. The actual winning of the race wasn't the most significant part for me, but actually the combination of all the right moves my teammate and I made during that race. Our decisions during the race displayed the results of our persistent training and showed that all our hard work paid off when we were able to nail the start, maintain fast boatspeed, and call the correct shifts on the course. Winning this race showed me that hard work truly does pay off and that I am capable of achieving my desired results through all this hard work and preparation.

Every event has difficult moments. What was yours, and how did you overcome that setback?
RP:  My difficult moments occurred on the windiest day of the regatta, Wednesday. I was a light team and knew I would not have the boatspeed advantage on this day. In order to overcome this setback I chose to take each race, even each leg of the race, one moment at a time and focus on how I could make the best of each situation on the race course for my ability in the boat. I pushed as hard as I could and maintained decent race results, kept a positive attitude, and reminded myself that there were many more races left in the regatta for us to regain positions on the scoreboard.

If you could get a redo for one sailing mistake during the week, what would it be? What would you do differently?
RP:  I would have started more conservatively during race 3 of the regatta. Unfortunately I was scored OCS during this race which I had actually won and if I had started more conservatively and made sure I was not over early I would have had the same chance to win the race and would not have used one of my race discards, placing my points closer to that of the competitors in third place on the final day of racing.

For new teams just getting into F18 sailing, what would be your biggest piece of advice?
RP:  Spend as much time as you can perfecting your boat-handling and boatspeed before events. It is important to perfect these aspects of racing so you can forget about them while you are actually on the race course. If you are able to maintain fast boatspeed with limited boat-handling errors, you will be able to devote more time and energy to analyzing the wind conditions and predicting shifts.

 I do not own the content of this article. It can be sourced to the USF18 Class Association and the original article can be found here.

Resume

I am going to keep an updated copy of my resume attached to my blog profile. This will help present the information on this site's resume tab in a more formal and concise manner. The PDF file for the shortened version of my resume is here.

Several changes to the layout and links in this block have been made so have a look around and explore the differences!

Club 420 Midwinters


The importance of cross training and diversification cannot be stressed enough when it comes to sailing. Every single skill required to sail a boat efficiently on the race course cannot be perfected in one single type of boat; therefore it is necessary to sail in different fleets. I have decided to spend some time in the 420 in order to work on my tactics and wind prediction. Since these boats do not sail as quickly as the F16 and F18 catamarans I am able to pay close attention to the wind shifts and spend more time in boat-on-boat situations.

I raced in the Club 420 Midwinters this past weekend with one of my teammates, Clayton Shaffer, in order to gain more experience sailing in a large fleet. With 95 boats registered, this regatta provided crowded starts that could not be simulated in a regular practice. The weather throughout the event varied between each day. On Saturday a frontal system in the atmosphere brought cool air and a very strong breeze averaging around 18 knots with occasional gusts over 25 knots. The race committee decided to send us out early Saturday morning, but we quickly returned to shore because of the rough conditions forecast for the afternoon. This worked to our advantage because we had to replace a shroud that broke on the way to the race course and were worried that we would miss the first starting sequence. We were able to get three races off by the end of the first day, but we scored an OCS the final race which hurt out position overall.


Sunday and Monday had similar conditions with a northeast breeze ranging from 5-10 knots. Our course was set fairly close to shore which made predicting the patchy breeze difficult. After all three days of the regatta we had completed 11 races and ended up finishing in 32nd overall. Even though this was not the result I had hoped to achieve, I used this regatta to show me my current areas of weakness when it comes to racing in a larger fleet.

During the upcoming weeks I will resume my regular training schedule and continue my studies as I approach my high school graduation on May 31st. I shall continue to update this site with my scholastic and athletic achievements and future plans.

The website for the Club 420 Midwinters can be found here.

Charlotte Harbor Regatta


The skills involved in making tactical decisions, creating long distance strategies, and  managing a large fleet cannot be fully developed anywhere other than out on the actual race course. I make it a priority to spend as much time possible competing in regattas, no matter how big or small the event, in order to gain experience in these situations. This past weekend was spent racing in the annual Charlotte Harbor Regatta and even though the F18 fleet only had nine boats on the starting line this regatta still provided exposure to long course racing and difficult tactical situations. The wind from Friday through Sunday remained consistently light. Every morning a thick fog covered the mainland and even the entire racecourse Saturday morning. As the day began heating up the wind would die off and change direction to the North. These unstable atmospheric conditions provided shifty breeze that would at times appear unpredictable, but this made for several lead changes and kept the racing exciting. After three long days of sailing and a total of 9 races Sam and I came out on top as the first F18 overall, winning seven of our ten races.




Our sail number for this regatta was NED.

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

This upcoming weekend I will be sailing in the Club 420 Midwinter Championship in Jensen Beach, FL. This regatta already has close to a hundred doublehanded dinghies registered with sailors coming from all parts of the country. I will be missing a day of school for this event and am looking forward to using the skills I have begun to perfect during practices in this regatta. Continue to check this site for more updates!

Expanding Into Social Media

I am learning the importance of networking and communication to an athlete as I travel to national and international regattas and have decided to create a Twitter account to help represent this site. This will be updated more frequently about smaller accomplishments, endeavors, and activities in which I partake as well as provide links back to this site. If you are interested in following my RPSailing Twitter page the link can be found here!

2014 Youth Worlds Representatives!


This past weekend my teammate Nico Schultz and I qualified to represent the US Sailing Team at the annual ISAF Youth World Sailing Championship this summer in Tavira, Portugal. In order to qualify for this spot on the US Sailing Development Team we had to be the top team at two qualification regattas; the first took place in August and the second this past weekend. We trained on the water several days a week in the months leading up to these events and our hard work showed in our results. Now we are looking forward to having this opportunity to race against the world's best youth sailors, learn from highly successful US Sailing Coaches, and create new international friendships that will last a lifetime.



Nico, his older sister Sophia, and I drove down to Miami trailering two F16s in order to compete in this regatta. In addition to an F16 fleet, this regatta consisted of other Olympic classes including 49er, 470, I420, windsurfing classes, and the new Nacra 17. The F16 class, due to it's very small fleet size (a measly 2 boats) was grouped with the Nacra 17s on the racing course so we had a large mixed fleet of 23 boats. This provided us with valuable experience on a crowded starting line and a very competitive fleet. The Nacra 17s, having curved daggerboards, were noticeably faster than the smaller F16s on the downwinds in the big breeze but overall we were very well matched with speed.

This regatta taught me several lessons about sailing in shifty frontal conditions. The puffy offshore Miami breeze was rather unpredictable at times, but I learned about effective fleet management and tactical proficiency in these conditions. Now that Nico and I have qualified for the Youth Worlds, we are organizing our training schedule and travel plans. It looks like this summer will be filled with some more traveling!

The regatta site can be found: here.