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 24th 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 26th, 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 27th in light, shifty conditions where I had a great finish, with a 12th 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 27th 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.
In December I flew to Miami, FL to compete in the Opti Fleet at the Orange Bowl Regatta. The host club was Coral Reef Yacht Club. My mom and I arrived early Saturday morning as we took a red eye from San Diego. Our hotel room was not ready yet, so we took a nap in the warm morning in a cabana by the pool. I was scheduled to do a clinic with the Lauderdale Yacht Club starting on Tuesday, so we had time to get over our jetlag, watch the Cressy Finals and get my charter boat. The charter company was running behind, so we helped them by building dollies so we could get our boat and new sail. We were happy to be in Coral Gables with the nice weather and beautiful bay.
In December 2021, Ian and I had the chance to travel halfway around the world to a place we would never have thought we would travel to in order to participate in the Youth Sailing World Championships. The regatta was held in Mussanah, Oman in the Middle East and ran from December 11th to the 17th, 2021.
Our regatta started several days beforehand when we left our house to travel 36 hours to get to the venue. We drove to LAX and from there flew to Qatar, had an 8 hour layover and then flew on to Oman. It was quite confusing when we arrived due to the twelve hour time change and the fact that we had lost a day traveling. Luckily, we had a few days before the event to get used to the time change.
This Thanksgiving break I traveled to New Orleans for the 2021 Allstate Sugarbowl Optimist Midwinter Championship. I landed in New Orleans on a warm day to a very flat landscape and the Gulf of Mexico in the distance. However, we would be racing on in front of Southern Yacht Club, which is on the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain. When I arrived, the breeze was mild at about 7 knots and the water was brown. There was a long causeway (Bridge), about 25 miles in length that I could see to the west. As the sun was setting and I looked at the waves reflecting off the neighboring break wall, I became excited for upcoming days of Opti sailing.
Ship 1886 hosted the Elroy Cup on November 7, 2021, in the shallows off the southwest end of Shelter Island. The Elroy Cup is a qualifying event for the 2022 William I Koch International Sea Scout Cup scheduled for July in Galveston, Texas.
Sunday was a sunny San Diego day on the water beginning around 1100, when the first starting sequence began. The course was a windward – leeward, with the marks about 200 yards apart, and the start/finish line approximately in the middle. We raced 8 races, racers ate lunch in their boats with the series ending at 1430.
In the beginning of October, my brother, Noah, and I went to North Carolina to compete in the 2021 US Sailing Youth Champs. They were held in Camp Seagull, North Carolina. This event was one of our training events for the 2021 ISAF Youth Worlds that are happening later in December.
On the first day, we were met with a solid breeze in the mid to high teens because of a low pressure system sitting just off the coast. We won the first two races by a large margin, which was a nice way to start the regatta. The third race of the first day, we let a boat get to the strong side of us and they got past us. There was not enough time to catch them. That last race of the first day, we won. That night a big storm came through causing lots of wind, rain, and lighting. We stayed in the open air cabins and the windows did not really close. My window's shutters were slamming open and closed all night long.
After an extremely fun-packed summer racing all over the world, and having to adjust to in-person school, four SDYC 29er teams took off in October to race in the U.S. Sailing Youth Champs. The regatta was held at Camp Seagull, a YMCA summer camp near Minnesott Beach, North Carolina. The competition included Lasers, 29ers, I420s and Nacra 15s.
This summer, the 29er Open Worlds was held in Valencia Spain by The Real Club Nautico. The worlds look place from August 23-29th, with six days of intense racing. There were a total of three days of qualifying, then another three days in the final series. There were over 200 boats registered, split into 6 groups for both the qualifying and the finals. On the water there were three courses that each had two groups, and switched daily. We did three races for the first five days of the regatta, doing 2 on the last.
US Sailing has named the 16 athletes that will be representing the US at the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships. The 50th edition of the premier event in international youth sailing will take place December 11-18 in Al-Mussanah, Oman and is open to athletes under age 19. SDYC's Ian & Noah Nyenhuis will be the Male Skiff (29er) team.
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.
After a summer packed with 29er practice, clinics, regattas, and travel we felt prepared to race in the Zhik 29er Open Worlds in Valencia, Spain. So at the end of August my little brother, my skipper, my dad and I hopped on a plane and headed to Europe to compete in our first world championship event. The event was 6 days long: 3 days of qualifiers and 3 days of finals. With 6 talented US teams at the event we were ready to represent.
The highlight of my sailing this summer had to be competing in the C420 nationals off Long Beach Island, New Jersey. Those three days felt so long despite the fact that the conditions didn’t hold up for much racing on the last two days. Our best race would’ve been on the second day. We were fighting for a top 10 spot on the last downwind, and I looked behind us to check if our breeze was clear. Just at that moment, I saw one of the first (of many) lightning strikes of the day. There was a mad dash to get back to shore, as this massive thunderstorm started to quickly take over the race course. many boats flipped in the sudden heavy winds. Luckily it was very shallow and they were plenty of people running into the water to assist in promptly getting onto land. It was truly a team effort and luckily the only damage was a bent mast. I wish we would have had a little bit of that wind leak into the next day, which was completely dead.
On the first of August, I landed in Ireland to sail in the 2021 ILCA 4 (4.7) Junior World Championships. With six days of training and six days of racing in Europe, it was a great experience in every way. This was the most hardcore sailing I have ever done. The wind, waves, and competition were consistently very strong. Throughout my time in Ireland, the wind ranged from 20 to 40 knots, with only a couple days of lighter breeze. The waves were very big at times and, of course, it was Ireland, so there was a lot of rain.
Thanks to the Comp Fund, I was lucky enough to compete at the 2021 ILCA National Championships in Norfolk, VA, from June 15 to 20. The regatta was hosted by the Big Blue Sailing Academy and Old Dominion University (ODU). It was a great venue, right on the ODU campus.
There were 277 boats across the Standard, Radial, and 4.7 fleets. I was proud to be the only sailor representing San Diego Yacht Club. The winds were shifty but pretty strony, especially on the last two days of the regatta. The most challenging part was the heat with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. We all had to work extra hard to keep hydrated. I sailed with the Lauderdale Yacht Club team, which was fun. The whole regatta was a great learning experience, especially because of the strong competition, and one I will never forget. Thank you to the SDYC Comp Fund for supporting me in this regatta!
At the end of July, myself (Jack Egan), along with Jack Plavan and Diego Escobar, made the trip up to Newport Beach to compete in the prestigious youth match racing invitational known as the Governor's Cup. We had earned an invitation to compete in this event from our second place finish in the Rose Cup this past June. The Governor’s Cup would present many new challenges, including new boats (being the Gov Cup 22s which were specially designed for the regatta), new formats, and new competitors, including a handful of international ones.
Besides all the great stuff happening on the water, it’s time for our elections for the 2021-2022 Junior Board! If you have ideas about how to make the Junior Sailing experience at your Club even better, and are motivated to put those plans into action, we want you on the Board!
With over 375 youth sailors from all over the world and six different fleets, it was spectacular to see that many lasers in one place. Garda itself is a venue of pure natural beauty. After practicing in the north winds (traditional for Garda) for nearly a week, on regatta day the wind was light and shifty and coming from the south.