This 2-days regatta is a "US Team Trials Qualifier", which means that the top 25% of competitors get qualified for the "USA Team Trials", which we would call "Championnat de France" in France. There are several qualifying regattas like this along the year, such as the PCCs, WCCs etc. This was my 2nd attempt to qualify, since I joined the SFYC race team last September. At these regattas we sometime have international teams joining: in New Orleans there were many Mexican sailors.
The whole week the weather was pretty warm (20deg C), the water temperature was way warmer than in the SF Bay, the wind was high on practice day (15knots) then it got lighter and lighter down to 5knots on the last day. As it is a lake, waves depend on the wind: they were quite high on practice day (making downwinds sketchy) and then smaller.
For this regatta I had a different approach:
- I was going to focus on pleasure of being on the water and sailing
- I was not going to look at the score boards... and I succeeded doing so until the end!
I overall got ranked 32nd for qualification, knowing that out of the 87 boats some 18 kids had already qualified for the USA Team Trials. There were 21 qualifying slots, so all together it wasn't easy to make it. My best result was when I got 19th at one of the 10 races, and at one offset mark I was 3rd once as well.
For this regatta we chartered a Winner 3D Star Optimist, which is the best Optimist hull. My parents had also just before the regatta bought me a J sail, which is the best sail on the market. This was very cool.
At this regatta coming with me from SFYC was Garret Blosen, a good friend of mine that races with me over in SF Bay. One of my favorite moments was when the Race Committee was waiting for the wind to pick up, Garret and I were sailing along the line... and I tried to hike but didn't put my feet in the hiking straps, so I fell in the water: NEVER fall again in this lake water. It smells! I also gybed on a 17 knots gust while surfing at the same time... and capsized :-) Over all I had a great time at this regatta. The yacht club offered lots of awesome activities, and they had gear that you could win during a raffle (my brother got a awesome bag).
I would like to give special thanks to:
- my Dad for helping me go throw out all the big emotions,
- my Mom for being here and not saying anything when I got all mad and stressed,
- my god-mother Caroline: je voulais juste dire que sans toi j'aurais explosé de stress tout le temps et je n'aurais rien réussi: merci de tout mon coeur,
- my friend Philippe: merci pour tout tes conseils et la date de fabrication de ma voile :-),
- my sister Nolwenn: merci d'avoir accepté de fêter ton anni à New Orleans,
- my brother Yann: merci d'être venu et juste d'avoir été là, et bravo pour tes courses en Green Fleet,
- my sponsor Jérôme: thank you for coming on this long journey with me.
Overall I had a great time and hope to come back. I will not give up and continue trying to qualify!
Here are some picture of the regatta.
This is a picture of me going downwind, coming in the harbor.
This is me arriving at New Orleans airpot, the big tube is a fishing rod case, my sail was in it.
This is the 3rd place award trophy, if you look behind you will see the 1st place award.
This is Garret and I waiting to launch our boats.
This is my brother (8 years old) hiking in the breeze (sail #3 with the red dot).
