I flew to Rhode Island to compete in the US Sailing Youth Championship with my partner Holland Vierling. The flight was 6 hours, which I flew alone to  NYC. Then Holland’s mom Sabrina drove us to Roger Williams College in Rhode Island. We stayed in the Roger Williams dorm which was amazing because I had the unique opportunity to live like a college student. Similar to college life I made some great new sailing friends from Canada, who I plan to meet up with in the future. On our days off, we traveled to Boston and explored many Universities including Boston College, Harvard and MIT.

The first two days of racing definitely lived up to my expectations with wind gusts of up to 25 mph wreaking havoc on competitors, boats, and equipment. Thankfully, we were ready with spare equipment that we are able to use and lend to our competitors. Throughout the four day competition we improved each day and finished in 8th place out of 26 teams. 

The overall experience at Roger Williams was amazing for two fourteen year olds. I am incredibly grateful to my parents and SDYC for their support and Sabrina Vierling for being my chaperone. Holland and I are already planning our return for next year’s Youth Champs! 

We had the great opportunity to travel to Chicago, Illinois to compete in the Club 420 National Championship on Lake Michigan July 7 – 9. On our day of practice, we had 12-16 knots of breeze with 4-5 foot chop. We had never sailed the C420 in waves that big before. It was very challenging but an amazing learning experience. The regatta showed very hard sailing conditions with short and steep Lake Michigan waves combined with light winds to make tough racing. With really tough competition and challenging conditions there was a lot to learn and improve through the whole trip. Our best finish was a third on the last race. We want to thank comp fund for allowing us to always be improving  and compete at this level.

Two weeks spent training and racing in Hog Island Bay for the 29er National Championships as well as the US Youth Championships brought a wide variety of conditions and great learning opportunities for our whole team. Carly Keiding, my skipper from SBYC and I have been together in the boat for about a year. 29er Nationals, sailed out of Roger Williams University’ beautiful boat house brought light wind and flat water, pushing us to focus on current and boat speed on the course. Following Nationals we had a few days of more light air training between the two events.

In February I competed in the 2023 ILCA Midwinters East, in Clearwater, FL. I woke up before the sun even came up and left to the airport. I Had a flight first to Dallas, TX, then a connecting flight to Tampa Bay, FL. Then I lastly took a 40-minute uber to my hotel in Clearwater. I arrived late at night, so I went to sleep right when I got there. The next morning, I woke up to the bright sun bleeding through the blinds and when I walked outside onto the balcony, I saw the bright blue water. To get used to the time being 3 hours ahead, my mom and I took an uber to the beach and walked to a lunch spot in the area. We ate lunch but then I remembered that there was a mini golf place on the way back, so we played mini golf and walked back to the hotel across a big bridge. While I was walking across the bridge I saw multiple lasers, IQ foils and a Nacra 15.

Over this past winter break, my family and I got the opportunity to travel to Miami, Florida for my first Orange Bowl Regatta. We arrived on December 18th for a pre-racing clinic, where I was able to get a feel for the conditions and become familiar with the area. I learned what the general conditions were for each wind direction and how to handle them.

Two days after Christmas, the regatta finally started. The first day was tricky. After being postponed for many hours we only got one race off. The conditions were shifty with around 5 to 8 knots. The pin was favored but it paid off to start at the committee boat and tack immediately onto port. The current was pushing you behind the line and towards the pin so there was a lot of line sag, which was a major aspect throughout the entire regatta.

In late December 2022 I competed in the 2022 Tuuci International Orange Bowl Regatta in the ILCA 4 fleet. Here is how it went. I took a redeye from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale, and then took a 30-minute uber to Coral Gables, where my Mom and I checked into our hotel room. Since I only got 2 hours of sleep on the plane, I took a nap. But then as a fun way to get out of the hotel, and to stay awake because of the time change, my mom and I took a hour long bus ride to the Everglades where we rode on an air boat to see alligators.  However, it was very cold and windy, so we did not see any. But after I got to hold a baby alligator.

On December 24^th my dad and I took a flight from San Diego, CA to Miami, FL for the 2022 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta which takes place over the winter break.  This was to be one of my last regattas of my junior sailing career in the challenging & large ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) class.  Our arrival to Miami was not consistent to warmth of southern Florida in the winter time.  It was cold, windy & wet.  On December 26^th, we went down to Coral Reef Yacht Club for registration, to meet up with my coach at Shake a Leg park and pick up my chartered boat.  I then headed out for a few hours of practice with my coach.  Racing began on Dec 27^th in approximately 9 knots of wind that was extremely shifty.  It was so shifty that the race committee was having trouble setting up a course of which they were only able to get one race off.  For the racing on Dec 28^th & 29^th, the conditions were not only challenging due to the large fleet, but the winds was in the mid to high teens with puffs in the 20s, with a sea state known as the “Miami chop” which made an appearance.  These were not the normal conditions I have been training for here in San Diego.  The final day of racing was unfortunately called off for lack of wind.  Overall, I had good boat speed, and I was unlucky to be called over early in a couple of races that hurt my overall score.  I would like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club Competition Fund for their support in one of my last junior regattas.  I look forward to representing San Diego Yacht Club for many years to come.

Thank you so much for supporting me in the ILCA 6 Orange Bowl Regatta in Miami, Florida. I really liked competing in these regattas. Competing against such amazing sailors really helped me improve. I enjoyed starting on extremely crowded starting lines because it helped me improve my boat handling. Speed testing with so many fantastic sailors helped make me faster. I was also happy because I was able to spend time with my friends. Although my performance at this regatta was not what I had hoped, I am happy that I was able to compete. Thank you for your support. I look forward to competing in more regattas representing SDYC.