After many weekends of training and practice we were ready for February 19th things finally came around for and 29er Midwinters East. This event is one of the biggest in our season as it is the first qualifier that determines which teams represent the US in the 2022 Youth Worlds.

Earlier in February, my skipper Anton Schmid and I traveled to Miami for the first of the Youth Worlds Qualifiers (YWQ) in the 29er class, MidWinters East (MWE).

We arrived on the Thursday before the regatta for a practice day. We towed out to the ocean from Miami Yacht Club, the host for the event, where we were met with 7-10 knots and a really big chop. We had a productive warm up session with our SDYC training partners Alice Schmid and Sammie Gardener, as well as Noah and Ian Nyenhuis.

Ian and I got the chance to travel to Miami for the 29er Midwinters East Regatta. This year, the regatta was the first part of the two-part Youth World Championship qualifier. The regatta was
held out of Miami Yacht Club and was raced in the ocean just south of Miami Beach. It is a place where we have raced several times before and were comfortable with our experience sailing at that venue. But one thing we have learned about Miami, like everywhere, is that anything could happen.

The Open Orange Bowl 2021 took place in Miami Florida through the end of 2021. Racing in the 29er fleet, I sailed in the Open Orange Bowl with my crew Peter Joslin. It was an overall light air regatta with the big Miami chop. The clouds and temperature affected the wind and waves a lot through the regatta, as we learned from a local coach there.

This year I sailed an Optimist for the first time at the 2021 Miami orange Bowl regatta at the coral reef yacht club. Overall my experience was wonderful, every day we would wake up at sunrise and walk to the Coral reef yacht club, get rigged, and head out on the water around 8:30. The conditions for the regatta were pretty light, the high for the wind was about 7-9 knots in the late afternoon. On the first day we had flight selection but because there wasn't very much wind we only got one race done so our flight selection carried on to the second day of racing. On wednesday we were put into our flights and we started to begin our racing. On the last day of racing oly gold and silver fleet got one race done while bronze didn't get any. After we came off the water they held the awards and then we checked out our boats. Overall I had an amazing time at the 2021 Miami Orange Bowl and I hope I get to compete in it again.

Experiencing my first national level laser event was incredible. Competing in the Orange Bowl was an eye-opener for the level of competition there. Whether it was learning starting positioning, lanes upwind, picking the correct shifts to sail on, or sailing super high to not get rolled on the reach. These are just some of the sequential lessons I gained from the Orange Bowl.

Over the Christmas break my crew Cam and I flew out to Miami and sailed the Orange Bowl regatta. We were sailing with the NB4T group that we have been sailing with in addition to practicing out of SDYC. We flew out a few days before Christmas to get some productive time on the water. 

On December 24^th my dad and I took a flight from San Diego, CA to Miami, FL for the 2021 Orange Bowl International Youth Regatta which took place over the winter break. I raced in the ILCA 4 (Laser 4.7) class. This was truly, an international regatta, with participants from 7 different countries. On Christmas day we rested because of the time change and jet lag. On December 26^th, we went down to Coral Reef Yacht Club for registration, to meet up with coach Brett Davis at Shake a Leg park and pick up my chartered boat, then headed out for a little practice. Racing began on Dec 27^th in light, shifty conditions where I had a great finish, with a 12^th place in race #2. The wind was pretty light for the entire week. So much so, that the final day of racing was called off due to the lack of wind. I was extremely pleased with my boat speed in light air all week for an overall finish of 27^th out of 56 boats. I would like to thank the San Diego Yacht Club Competition Fund for their support. I look forward to representing San Diego Yacht Club in future regattas.