With the US qualifier for the USAF Youth World Championship happening in Clearwater, Florida I was uniquely supported to be able to spend an extended period of time training in the same waters (all thanks to Robbie and Jill of Red Gear Racing).
When we were at the F16 National Championship regatta in Panama City back in November Taylor Reiss and I decided to sail together for the ISAF Youth Worlds event in January. This is great because Taylor is a great skipper and we both have complementary skills on the racecourse. The only down side is that we had not spent any time on the boat together. So we talked about spending some time in December and January to get ready for the event.
Unfortunately, we were unable to coordinate schedules in December and so we arrived at January 1 still lacking in having time to train as a team. So I made the decision to come into town to train the entire month and this would give us the best chance to spend time on the boat around Taylor’s school schedule.
We were able to sail together for two days before Taylor had to head home for school so that left me with the undivided attention of Robbie. We spent a couple of days on the boat together working on timing and calling wind shifts on the Gulf. This was hugely advantageous for me since the waters of Clearwater through top sailors from all over the world for a loop! Taylor came back down the following weekend so we were able to spend three days on the water, but a little distracted by the fact that the NACRA 17’s (the Olympic Class boat) arrived in the country and so we put one of them together and wanted to get on the water for a shakedown…
Taylor then had to head back home for mid-term exams and I had some schoolwork to catch up on (sorry I got behind Dad) so I spent a couple of days working on school at Robbie’s house. The next weekend brought the regatta!
The winds of the qualifier proved to be light and shifty, and the competition was ready for an all out brawl. We had 9 races scheduled over the three days of the regatta and we had finishes ranging from bullets to 3rd’s over the nine races. One race we had a killer start and were putting distance between us and the fleet when Taylor’s trap line broke and he fell off the boat…Needless to say, we went from the top to the bottom in a hurry so we had to fight our way from dead last at mark one up the fleet. Good news is that we ended up finishing the race in third but it would have been a game changer if we would have won…
We had a great time racing and both realized that we were beat by our lack of timing and coordination as a team. We did pull off a close second in the regatta overall and that earned us a spot on the US Sailing Team for the 2013 season!
I have to say that I am pleased with our performance and our ability to turn some negative situations on the water to positive outcomes on the water. Anyone that has been following my development over the year
s knows that this has been a huge issue of mine (focusing on the mistakes for too long) and being able to get over it and sail on is key to success in sailing (and life come to think of it).
I am thrilled to be named as a member of the Nations top sailors and will use this as a stepping stone to winning Gold in Rio!