In March, I spent the week in Long Beach, California at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club to take part in the CISA clinic and 2024 Youth World Qualifiers.
We started the week with the CISA clinic that lasted for three days. Our coaches for the 29ers, Willie Bride, Briana Searle, and Evan Heffernan were very knowledgeable. They all provided many resources and information to us with the goal to best prepare us for the regatta the following week, Youth World Qualifiers. I learned so much from this clinic that I can carry on with me for the rest of my sailing in the future. The wind ranged from light to medium during this clinic which was perfect because those were the conditions that my crew, Zach Peterson and I needed to improve in the most.
The following weekend was the Youth World Qualifiers. Our coaches were Antione Screve, Dane Wilson, Noah Nyenhuis , and Giselle Nyenhuis . The first two days were relatively the same conditions as the CISA clinic which was great because we got to execute everything we just learned in real racing conditions. But the third day was absolutely crazy because of a storm rolling through the west coast. We were set up to race in the ocean so the swell was up to about 7ft and the puffs were up to 30 kts. Combined, these two factors made for gnarly conditions that ended up with boats wiping out everywhere on the race course and made races difficult to finish. After all of that, everyone was worried how the fourth day would be because conditions were predicted to be even worse. But, the race committee set us up to sail inside that day, so the swell was way less intense which made the high winds exhilarating. Because of the flatter water, races were way easier to finish but were very intense due to the high winds.
Although the finish wasn’t what I wanted, the experience and training was invaluable. The biggest highlights of this week were being able to learn from all of our amazing coaches that were provided for us as well as hitting my new personal records in the highest amount of swell and wind I have sailed in. Thank you to the San Diego Yacht Club for all of the support. I am super appreciative of being able to represent SDYC in the 2024 CISA Clinic and Youth Worlds Qualifier and am hopeful to compete again next year!