Alice Schmid
After an extremely fun-packed summer racing all over the world, and having to adjust to in-person school, four SDYC 29er teams took off in October to race in the U.S. Sailing Youth Champs. The regatta was held at Camp Seagull, a YMCA summer camp near Minnesott Beach, North Carolina. The competition included Lasers, 29ers, I420s and Nacra 15s.
After a long flight and what felt like an even longer drive we arrived and set up in our cabin for the weekend. With rain, lightning, and wind predicted for the whole three day regatta, Sammie Gardner, my skipper, and I were excited to sail in some unfamiliar conditions and a new venue. We saw super inconsistent, gusty, choppy conditions due to the storm sitting right off the coast. The pressure variations were from around 12-22 knots with extremely steep short chop for the majority of the regata.
The goal for the first day of racing was to stay in the pressure, and stay upright. Day two we saw more rain and more wind. We were postponed on land for two hours due to the heavy winds predicted. When we finally got out, it was around 19 knots and continued to build throughout the day as the rain clouds came and went. After lots of mistakes and lots of takeaways, we were finally feeling confident in our windy boat handling going into the final day. On the sail out to the course, we saw more high winds that were very up and down. But on this day the wind died and went left steadily throughout the day. We were able to adjust for the pressure changes and had some good races.
Looking back, we could clearly see our improvement throughout the event. We started out timid in the heavy wind and were slow, with horrible starts and boat handling because of it. As we got more confident and learned from our mistakes, we were able to keep up with the top boats, having a great comeback on the last day. We ended up placing 4th overall behind our training partners, Ian and Noah Nienhyse, and Peter Joslin with Anton Schmid. All together, we had a great experience at Camp Seagull and can’t wait for our next heavy air regatta. Big thanks to the comp fund for making it possible for us to compete in the 2021 Youth Champs.
Anton Schmid
The U.S. Sailing 2021 Youth Champs were held in North Carolina off YMCA Camp Seagull. Eleven of the top crews from around the country competed in the 29er class with four teams from SDYC. There were also lasers, I420s, and nacras competing. The first two days of the regatta consisted of windy and choppy conditions, including winds from 15-25 knots. There was a storm system that came through that caused these winds. It was raining the first two days as well, on and off the water. The last day the wind got lighter over the day as the storm system moved farther away. Over the three day regatta, there was some really close racing with some great battles on the water. I sailed with Peter Joslin and we finished 2nd overall. SDYC teams finished in four of the five top positions. It was a great experience with fantastic practice in heavy air and challenging conditions we don’t get in San Diego. I would like to thank the comp fund for supporting this amazing opportunity. We all had a lot of fun and learned tons as well.