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.
Twenty Finns lined up for the 2021 Finn Pacific Coast Championships hosted by San Diego Yacht Club w/ sailors from as far away as Missouri, Chicago and Colorado. Many Finn sailors were using the Finn PCCs as a warm up to the following weekends Finn North American Championships, sailed on the same course out on the Coronado Roads. On Saturday, the fleet sailed in near perfect sailing conditions, with the SDYC RC doing a great job and with three different competitors each winning a race, keeping the scores close with AJ Nosar UKR7 leading after day one.
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.
The Beneteau 36.7 North American Championship regatta is returning to San Diego Yacht Club for the first time since 2005 on September 24-26, 2021. This year's competition will see 11 Beneteau 36.7s sail up to 11 races through the weekend on the Coronado Roads south of Point Loma, San Diego.
It was more than just the steady breeze across the 2,225-nautical-mile course that made this year’s Transpac a spirited race. And it was more than just the tenacity of intrepid sailors who waded through pandemic protocol, masked up and voyaged to Hawaii anyway. It was the ghosts of Transpacs past, carried by the team of the Farr 57 Ho’okolohe, who whispered to the winds and made the 51st Transpacific Yacht Race a truly spirited affair.
Cecil Rossi’s Ho’okolohe carried a crew of nine plus the cremated remains of five others to the finish line off the island of Oahu.
It was great to get back out east for the 2021 Morgan Cup Hosted by New York Yacht Club. After a year Hiatus from the team race circuit, it was refreshing to see familiar faces and do some keel boat team racing. Having not team raced in a regatta in over a year the first day of racing saw some cobwebs getting removed from team SDYC. The first two days saw challenging conditions ranging from 2 knots to 22 knots and spinnakers being removed from racing Saturday afternoon. SDYC hovered around .500 for the two rounds robin rounds.
San Diego, CA (August 13, 2021) If you’re looking for a fleet with both fierce competition on the water and a whole lot of fun off the water, look no further than San Diego’s Finn Fleet. San Diego’s Finn Fleet has remained one of the more active fleets in the past year considering they’re single-handed, and the fleet’s natural camaraderie has kept the racers coming back for more. This September, over 40 Finn sailors return to the San Diego Yacht Club for two exciting events: the Pacific Coast Championship and the North American Masters Championship.