My best USODA regatta ever?

Last week-end I attended the 2016 USODA PCC (Pacific Coast Championship) at Ventura in South California, a little north of Los Angeles.

I went there with my good friend Henry Boeger, my bro Yann and my Dad. Ventura is a venue with usually light conditions but this week-end it was supposed to blow up to 25 knots.

The first day it was pretty light, we spent more time waiting for the wind than racing. My results were up and down, with a 24th and a 5th. West wind peaking at 5-7 knots and long big Pacific Ocean swell. I was 14th after one day, the second day was windy up to 25 knots from the East, and then light from the West, also pretty up and down. With a 6th, 5th before the last race I was 5th overall, then it got really light. Sadly I got a 27th on the last race after the terrific wind shift (180 degrees), getting me in a solid 10th overall, and 5th in blue fleet.

This is a USODA regatta, so as usual the top 25% of competitors qualify for USA Team Trials. There were 20 slots available for qualification. So technically I was qualified, although this wasn't mandatory after my successful qualification at WCC a few weeks ago.

Overall I had a great time, getting my first top ten in a USODA regatta, finishing 2nd of my race team from SFYC, and very happy to have sailed among several members of the USA National Team: Jake, Jagan, Taft, Will, Ryan. A great way to celebrate my 1st anniversary as a member of the SFYC race team !

Here are the final results for the qualified sailors:

Here is a picture of my friend Henry and I:

Top 10 overall award ceremony:

My bro Yann sleeping in his Opti waiting for food poisoning to stop and for the wind to cool down :-)

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Flying on the water?

Early September, my Dad and I finished putting together the newest boat of our family, a Waszp, named Dunes XI. A flying boat, a real fast boat.

So we go, Saturday Sept 3rd for our first practice, at that point I'm pretty stressed. My Dad goes out first: he doesn't fly right away but he is getting used to the boat. Then, Dan the head coach at Richmond Yacht Club who joined us for this first session goes and he flies immediately (Dan is a Moth sailor). Then comes my turn, so I finish putting my wetsuit and get into the boat.

Since the boat has a 8 square meter sail and I'm 50 kgs, I'm a little light for the Waszp. As soon as I pull in the mainsheet, the boat starts going, and then foils and falls back down. At that point I capsize. When I get the boat back in order, I do all the things my coach told me to do, and I start flying again. When you fly all the pressure on the hull goes away, you feel like being a feather going fast in the air. At that point you know that if you move the rudder too strongly you are for sure going to crash: the boat is going fast! Another thing worth noticing is that take-off and flight require to keep the boat very flat if not windward heel, meaning that you can get pretty close to the water at full speed: if your body hits the water, you are going to almost fly out the back of the boat, becoming an anchor!

In the world of flying singlehanded boats, there are basically two leading boats: the Flying Moth and the Waszp. Actually the Waszp was designed by one of the leading Moth companies , with the goal to be twice cheaper and easier to fly, aiming at becoming an ISAF class overtime. The foils of the Wazsp are aluminium (as opposed to carbon on the Moth), they are a lot cheaper to replace, they can also come up so it's easier to launch. Another difference is that the Waszp doesn't have stays: it's safer when you crash!

There are many other flying boats being developed these days, and the Waszp is certainly the cheapest&easiest while the Flying Moth remains THE reference: see for example this video of my friend Philippe.

Here are some pictures:

Hoel21169 on the Waszp:

My coach Dan from RYC:

This is my Dad flying:

Overall this was the best time of my life!