Patrick Snow, Kyle Sutter, JP Barnes and I [AJ Reiter] wanted to express our extreme thanks to you as well as San Diego Yacht Club for the amazing opportunity of sailing in the EUROSAF Youth Championships. We finished eighth out of twelve, which disappointed us, but we learned and grew so much on and off the water from this experience.
On the first day of the the Championship, in Marsala, Italy, we opened the racing as part of the first flight of six teams on the water. The day showed a consistent five knots, but tapering off at the end of the day. We faced Germany in our first flight, beating them with some last minute gybes that took them past the layline to the finish. After that win, we went on to race the top ranked team, number 29 in the world, Joachim Aschenbrenner and team Denmark. Racing Joachim exposed us to genius tactical moves that we had never practiced before. After that race we made it a point to watch all of his matches. Although we lost to him, as well as the Russians, we went on to beat Team Sweden by a fairly large margin, bolstering our confidence once again. We then went on to face the Slovenian team, and a tactical error on my part was all it took for the Slovenians to extend beyond reach. We finished day one with a record of two wins, three losses.
The second day of racing arrived with extremely light winds and a postponement on land, which happened each day. We first faced the French team, which we beat by a quarter of a boat length. That race was particularly exciting because of the perfect boathandling exhibited by our team, especially the pole work by JP Barnes, and spinnaker trim by Patrick Snow that let us jump the French gybes to take the lead from them. We then faced the regatta winners, Valerio Galati and Team Italy. After a penalty was called on us by the judges, we spent the race trailing and working our hardest to catch up. Unfortunately, we weren't able to gain back the big distance that separated us from them due to their crush start. After that loss, we raced the Swiss, with a similar result, which pushed us back in the standings. However, we were able to take one more win, from the Italy 2 team. We started that race with a ten boat length lead and a penalty, and we were able to lose the penalty upwind by doing a gybe on the starboard layline and still win the race. The next race came along after a short postponement for wind, and we raced the Austrians. With two minutes left in the start, we were pushing them back to the line, only three boat lengths away, when the wind completely died. The power immediately shifted and they were able to sail straight for the line . I tried to stress to the team that that race was absolutely no one's fault, just pure bad luck. We finished the day racing Team GBR, whom we were beating before they abandoned the match due to light wind, and the second time we raced them they were able to put a penalty on us and crush start us, like the Italians. We ended the day winning two more matches, but losing four more, so we were praying for the knockout series to be sailed, so we could possibly move up to fifth place.
On the last day of racing, we sat on the dock watching the boats slowly sailing out, with race committee only having to start three races in two hours. We watched in agony as the clock struck noon due to absolutely no wind, and we were no longer able to sail the knockout series due to time constraints. More bad luck. My team and I recognized our own personal victories, due to how much we trained in two months, and how hard we had tried and bonded as a team. After watching the Italian team beat Denmark 2-0, we were sad, because it meant goodbye to all of our new friends, fellow competitors, and one of the most beautiful places we have ever sailed.
I cannot thank San Diego Yacht Club for all of the match racing we have learned, on and off the water, as well as Dave Perry for permitting us to represent the United States, Atlantis WeatherGear for sponsoring our team, and USSAILING enough for their generous donation for our flightsand for all of the match racing we have learned, on and off the water. I look forward to having the opportunity to represent my country and my Yacth Club again in the future.
Best,
AJ Reiter