Recently, my brother, Noah, and I went to Valencia, Spain to compete in the 29er Open World Championships. The regatta consisted of 3 days of qualifying and 3 days of final competition. There were 193 boats from many different countries.
The week prior to the Worlds, we sailed in a Coaches Regatta. We were happy to have finished second in the small but competitive fleet. The regatta was a good way to judge what the fleet would be like and what the race course was going to most likely be during the World Championships. The experience that we gained from that regatta would go on to help us at the Worlds.
Three days before the first day of racing, we met with our coach, Matias Buhler, who has competed in the Rio Olympics in the Nacra and has a lot of experience in racing in big fleets. We trained with him and some of the other American teams. Both Noah and I were very nervous because it was the first time that we would be racing a World Championships knowing that we had a high chance of doing very well. It was a process of getting over the nerves and realizing that it was just going to be a sailboat race and nothing else. Once we had got that in our heads, we were ready to go.
The qualifying series was full of excitement and again lots of nerves. It was the first time that we would be racing against some of the best 29er sailors in the world. It was a quite different experience than the Coaches Regatta because the fleets were ranked. Since we raced with all levels, it was easier to turn a bad start into a top five race. The racing was tight and every boat counted as not many points separated first to tenth in the qualifier. In the end, we qualified 10th in the gold fleet. It was a great place to be, especially when our goal for the qualifying was just to make it into gold fleet, which was the top 40 boats.
The finals competition series began on Sunday. The first day began with a light breeze and slowly built to 12-14 knots. As the breeze built, we climbed up places. Going from a 14th in the first race to 4th in the second and then finishing the day with a 1st place! That had moved us into second place overall after the first day. That was a very hard position to be in with two days left of racing. It put a lot of pressure on Noah and I, as we had to wear pennies that signified that we were the second place boat. With that added pressure, it was hard to do what we normally did. With a 22, 7, and 18 that second day, we dropped down to fifth place. It was not the best day and it was frustrating, but we still had one more day of racing left and first place was only a couple of points ahead of us.
The final day of the final series was light. We tried our best to sail like normal. We did not have the best first race and I knew that it would be hard to come back from a result like that. Noah and I talked and decided that it was the last race and we just told ourselves that we were sailing by ourselves in the ocean off Point Loma. It worked. We were able to sail like normal and were fighting with the top boats again. We pulled off a good enough race to earn 4th place overall at the World Championship.
The 2021 29er Worlds were an experience that neither Noah or I will ever forget. Thanks to SDYC, HPYS, and many others for supporting us and allowing us to take part in the 29er Worlds.
Our eyes are set on our next goal: the ISAF Youth Worlds in Oman!