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.

Many Finn sailors were using the Finn PCCs as a warm up to this weekend’s Finn North American Masters Championship, sailed on the same course out on the Coronado Roads. One return sailor was Rob Coutts from Mission Bay Yacht Club. Coutts placed mid-fleet at the PCC and returned this weekend for the North American Masters finishing second on Beverley with 21 points. However, even those who came with practice could not compete with Gregg Morton on Pickle Dish.

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.