This past week we, Julia Stewart and Bennett Simpson, flew as a team to Bristol, RI to compete in the US Youth Champs in the 29er fleet. It was a great experience and we learned many lessons from it. A few of our goals for this event was to go out there and have fun, work on communication, and get experience sailing in heavy breeze. We both are so proud of how we have come together as team and have accomplished all of those goals.

Upon arriving, we first had the opportunity to participate in a US sailing prep clinic. During the 4 day prep clinic, we had one of US Sailing’s Youth Coaches, Phil Mueller, coach us and a few other SDYC 29er teams. Over the course of those four days we learned and improved so much as Phil was was a great at teaching tactics venue and emphasizing team communication on the boat.

Coming into the first day of the regatta, we both felt prepared and ready to race. Sunday’s wind forecast was 20 - 25 knots but we still went out and sailed out to the race course in the steep chop and wind. We started the first race and tried our absolute best, but due to our size and experience level as a team in heavier winds, we had to leave the race course early. This was disappointing but also was an opportunity ti shine with sportsmanship. The launch ramp was set up in a way where you had to come in down wind thru heavy wind to a very rocky area. So after we de-rigged, ben decided to help all of the boats come In. In the end, he ended up spending two hours in the water helping flipped boats, boats with broken centerboards, and kids that where very banged up from sailing in 28+ knots of wind.

Our second and third day allowed us to shine in the lighter wind. We focused on working on communicating with each other. One of the races, we rounded the windward mark in second . We had a few top ten finishes which felt super rewarding to our hard work. We finished the regatta with very light wind and strong current making the last race difficult, but even this was positive because it provide yet another learning experience. Even though our regatta standings were not what we hoped for, we are still proud of our hard work and improvement.

We would like to give thanks to our coach Noah Nyenhuis for giving us positive feedback when we really needed it, to Steve Stewart for trailering the teams’ boats, and to all of the parents for helping support our team during the event. But most of all, we would like to thank JJ Fetter, the HPYS program, and the Comp Fund for giving us the opportunity to have this experience.

Results