This past June I got the great opportunity to sail an at home match race regatta, that being the USMRC. My primary goal in this event was to switch my brain back on to match racing, as I had not competed in this discipline in 2022. Additionally, I will be sailing the Governor's Cup, hosted by Balboa Yacht Club at the end of July. The Governor's Cup is an international match race regatta hosted in custom “Gov Cup 22s” which occurs each year, and is invitation only.
San Diego provided some great early summer conditions, with perfect match racing conditions both days. As per usual, San Diego did a great job running the event and the J22s were a great platform. After day one I was leading the round robin, but unfortunately did not have the same success on the second day as I finished third overall. The event as a whole had a great energy to it, and attracted sailors from across the country to compete. Thanks to the competition club and San Diego Yacht Club for their continued support, and I’ll be back on the water soon!
Summer Update: Long Beach Youth Worlds Training Camp, West Marine US Open Sailing Series / 29er Nationals, and US Sailing Youth Championships
We have just wrapped up a three-week training and racing session that was made up of 5 days of training in Long Beach, 3 days of racing in San Diego at the West Marine US Open Series / 29er Nationals, 3 more days of practice in San Diego, and 3 days of racing in Mission Bay at the US Sailing Youth Championships.
The first stop in the West Marine US Open Sailing Series’ California tour comes to San Diego Yacht Club this week, June 17-19. Supported by Title Sponsor West Marine and National Sponsors Gowrie Group a Division of Risk Strategies and Gill Marine, this event features the ILCA 7, ILCA 6, 470, 29er, Finn, and Snipe.
2022 C420 Midwinters in Jensen BeachWith conditions ranging from windy, stormy, and wet to warm, sunny, and light, this years C420 Midwinters Championship was extremely challenging and competitive. My skipper Emily and I never seemed to have a moment to relax, whether it be staying upright between races on the first day, or fighting for a spot on the line the next. The current was ripping from boat to pin, and the pressure could be quite unpredictable. The right often paid, so we usually set up near the boat in hopes that there would be an opportunity to tack once we sailed up course into the shallower water. It was a great experience, and congrats to Peter Busch and Cam Spriggs for getting second place! SoCal crushed it, taking up many of the spots in the top 10!
After many weekends of training and practice we were ready for February 19th things finally came around for and 29er Midwinters East. This event is one of the biggest in our season as it is the first qualifier that determines which teams represent the US in the 2022 Youth Worlds.
Earlier in February, my skipper Anton Schmid and I traveled to Miami for the first of the Youth Worlds Qualifiers (YWQ) in the 29er class, MidWinters East (MWE).
We arrived on the Thursday before the regatta for a practice day. We towed out to the ocean from Miami Yacht Club, the host for the event, where we were met with 7-10 knots and a really big chop. We had a productive warm up session with our SDYC training partners Alice Schmid and Sammie Gardener, as well as Noah and Ian Nyenhuis.
Ian and I got the chance to travel to Miami for the 29er Midwinters East Regatta. This year, the regatta was the first part of the two-part Youth World Championship qualifier. The regatta was
held out of Miami Yacht Club and was raced in the ocean just south of Miami Beach. It is a place where we have raced several times before and were comfortable with our experience sailing at that venue. But one thing we have learned about Miami, like everywhere, is that anything could happen.
The Open Orange Bowl 2021 took place in Miami Florida through the end of 2021. Racing in the 29er fleet, I sailed in the Open Orange Bowl with my crew Peter Joslin. It was an overall light air regatta with the big Miami chop. The clouds and temperature affected the wind and waves a lot through the regatta, as we learned from a local coach there.
This year I sailed an Optimist for the first time at the 2021 Miami orange Bowl regatta at the coral reef yacht club. Overall my experience was wonderful, every day we would wake up at sunrise and walk to the Coral reef yacht club, get rigged, and head out on the water around 8:30. The conditions for the regatta were pretty light, the high for the wind was about 7-9 knots in the late afternoon. On the first day we had flight selection but because there wasn't very much wind we only got one race done so our flight selection carried on to the second day of racing. On wednesday we were put into our flights and we started to begin our racing. On the last day of racing oly gold and silver fleet got one race done while bronze didn't get any. After we came off the water they held the awards and then we checked out our boats. Overall I had an amazing time at the 2021 Miami Orange Bowl and I hope I get to compete in it again.
Experiencing my first national level laser event was incredible. Competing in the Orange Bowl was an eye-opener for the level of competition there. Whether it was learning starting positioning, lanes upwind, picking the correct shifts to sail on, or sailing super high to not get rolled on the reach. These are just some of the sequential lessons I gained from the Orange Bowl.
Over the Christmas break my crew Cam and I flew out to Miami and sailed the Orange Bowl regatta. We were sailing with the NB4T group that we have been sailing with in addition to practicing out of SDYC. We flew out a few days before Christmas to get some productive time on the water.
On December 24th my dad and I took a flight from San Diego, CA to Miami, FL for the 2021 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta which took place over the winter break. I raced in the ILCA 4 (Laser 4.7) class. This was truly, an international regatta, with participants from 7 different countries. On Christmas day we rested because of the time change and jet lag. On December 26th, we went down to Coral Reef Yacht Club for registration, to meet up with coach Brett Davis at Shake a Leg park and pick up my chartered boat, then headed out for a little practice. Racing began on Dec 27th in light, shifty conditions where I had a great finish, with a 12th place in race #2. The wind was pretty light for the entire week. So much so, that the final day of racing was called off due to the lack of wind. I was extremely pleased with my boat speed in light air all week for an overall finish of 27th out of 56 boats. I would like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club Competition Fund for their support. I look forward to representing San Diego Yacht Club in future regattas.
In December I flew to Miami, FL to compete in the Opti Fleet at the Orange Bowl Regatta. The host club was Coral Reef Yacht Club. My mom and I arrived early Saturday morning as we took a red eye from San Diego. Our hotel room was not ready yet, so we took a nap in the warm morning in a cabana by the pool. I was scheduled to do a clinic with the Lauderdale Yacht Club starting on Tuesday, so we had time to get over our jetlag, watch the Cressy Finals and get my charter boat. The charter company was running behind, so we helped them by building dollies so we could get our boat and new sail. We were happy to be in Coral Gables with the nice weather and beautiful bay.
In December 2021, Ian and I had the chance to travel halfway around the world to a place we would never have thought we would travel to in order to participate in the Youth Sailing World Championships. The regatta was held in Mussanah, Oman in the Middle East and ran from December 11th to the 17th, 2021.
Our regatta started several days beforehand when we left our house to travel 36 hours to get to the venue. We drove to LAX and from there flew to Qatar, had an 8 hour layover and then flew on to Oman. It was quite confusing when we arrived due to the twelve hour time change and the fact that we had lost a day traveling. Luckily, we had a few days before the event to get used to the time change.
This Thanksgiving break I traveled to New Orleans for the 2021 Allstate Sugarbowl Optimist Midwinter Championship. I landed in New Orleans on a warm day to a very flat landscape and the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. However, we would be racing on in front of Southern Yacht Club, which is on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain. When I arrived, the breeze was mild at about 7 knots and the water was brown. There was a long causeway (Bridge), about 25 miles in length that I could see to the west. As the sun was setting and I looked at the waves reflecting off the neighboring break wall, I became excited for upcoming days of Opti sailing.
Ship 1886 hosted the Elroy Cup on November 7, 2021, in the shallows off the southwest end of Shelter Island. The Elroy Cup is a qualifying event for the 2022 William I Koch International Sea Scout Cup scheduled for July in Galveston, Texas.
Sunday was a sunny San Diego day on the water beginning around 1100, when the first starting sequence began. The course was a windward – leeward, with the marks about 200 yards apart, and the start/finish line approximately in the middle. We raced 8 races, racers ate lunch in their boats with the series ending at 1430.
In the beginning of October, my brother, Noah, and I went to North Carolina to compete in the 2021 US Sailing Youth Champs. They were held in Camp Seagull, North Carolina. This event was one of our training events for the 2021 ISAF Youth Worlds that are happening later in December.
On the first day, we were met with a solid breeze in the mid to high teens because of a low pressure system sitting just off the coast. We won the first two races by a large margin, which was a nice way to start the regatta. The third race of the first day, we let a boat get to the strong side of us and they got past us. There was not enough time to catch them. That last race of the first day, we won. That night a big storm came through causing lots of wind, rain, and lighting. We stayed in the open air cabins and the windows did not really close. My window's shutters were slamming open and closed all night long.
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.
This summer, the 29er Open Worlds was held in Valencia Spain by The Real Club Nautico. The worlds look place from August 23-29th, with six days of intense racing. There were a total of three days of qualifying, then another three days in the final series. There were over 200 boats registered, split into 6 groups for both the qualifying and the finals. On the water there were three courses that each had two groups, and switched daily. We did three races for the first five days of the regatta, doing 2 on the last.
US Sailing has named the 16 athletes that will be representing the US at the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships. The 50th edition of the premier event in international youth sailing will take place December 11-18 in Al-Mussanah, Oman and is open to athletes under age 19. SDYC's Ian & Noah Nyenhuis will be the Male Skiff (29er) team.