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!

WCC - A great regatta in Alamitos Bay Yacht Club: I am TT qualified !

After Nationals, I practiced two days for another regatta: the West Coast Championship, this time in Long Beach, CA.
When my Dad and I talked about my goals for this regatta, we agreed that I was not going there for qualification, but for practice and preparation for the next event.
Obviously, I still wanted to qualify, but I knew the wind conditions might not be favorable and there was a bunch of amazing sailors. I knew that I had to be in top 18 to qualify.

The conditions were just perfect, 7-15 knots, with small waves, and a little current, the air was warm and the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club awesome.

The first day of racing was great for me because I only got good races, with one great race. I was really happy because at the end of the day I was 15th: I knew I could mess up one race and it would still be good.
I started the second day of racing feeling good and thinking that I could actually qualify. When the first race wraps up, I finish near 25th, same for the the second race and the last one around 22nd.
The race committee decides to launch a final race. I'm 19th, even if I don't know my ranking, I know that given my results, I probably lost my qualification.
On the start of the last race, I decide to go for it, and give it all. I know that I have only 2 options: either a really good finish or I am not qualified. Wind picks up to 15 knots which is perfect for me.
I decide to follow my coach, Nico, recommendations and have a perfect start. I was actually very close to the best sailors.  At the top mark, I'm 6th, followed closely by three boats. I manage to finish 8th which put me in 17th overall (out of 56). At the end of that race, I knew I had done it.

When I came in, everybody was happy about my qualification. I feel grateful to have such an amazing support from my Coach, my sponsor Scality, my team, the RYC (where I started sailing) and SFYC, and my parents & family.
I am particularly thankful to Jerome Lecat, CEO of Scality, for his continuous support and confidence. I am proud that I reached the goal we had set with Jerome: being qualified for the Team Trials (Team Trials selection regatta qualifies sailors for both Optimist International Championships and for the US National team).
I am ready now to work hard and improve my sailing even further !

This was an awesome week-end for the whole family, as my Mom learned to sail her RS Aero and my brother, Yann won a race in green fleet.

Here are some pictures:

USODA National championship - Houston Yacht Club - July 2016

On July 28-31, I attended the USODA National championship in Houston. This regatta was a little special because on the sailing side the conditions were far from good. The wind was missing and the heat was here. Therefore, in 4 days of racing the race committee held only 4 races, as opposed to the 15 initially scheduled. It was really hard mentally (a big thank you to my GodMother, Caroline for helping me with the mental preparation). Since there were only 4 races, a single mistake could make you lose the regatta.  You had to be extremely concentrated on the event, and could not afford to have fun with your teammates in between the races.

The conditions were tricky: because of the storms the wind shifted a lot and died, then got back up. During the competition my results were ok, with one good race. The regatta was going well until the third day, at that point I was 100th which I couldn't complain about. Until the point where my Dad and I started leaving to the hotel, we went and checked the protest board (if you have have a protest you have to go in a room and debate with judges). My Dad got a call saying that within ten minutes I was supposed to be in the protest room.
After the protest, I got disqualified at my best race.
My Dad and I went back to the Hotel very sad. My Dad did the maths and from 100, I ended up 162 (out of 243). There were 141 qualifying spots, plus 13 international sailors, and two or three age out.
I told my Dad that if following day, one race was held I could still qualify with the throw-out (after five or six races your worst race goes away).
If this was a normal event I would of not been worried, but since in three days the race committee only got four races in, I was scared. It turns up that on the fourth day no races were held.  I was really sad and disappointed but I got a great lesson of sailing and life: there is no done deal.

I left Houston more determined than ever to work and prepare for my next regatta and get my qualification.

2016 Heavy weather regatta

This year just like last year, I sailed in the Heavy Weather Regatta in San Francisco, except this year at some moment the wind was too low to race in the morning. For me this regatta was amazing, because I won one of the races and I finished 5th overall. During this three days event I met some sailors from all over US West Coast and from Canada, who were really nice, one of them at the last race let me beat him, thanks to that I got 5th overall. This is sportsmanship!

The first day went pretty well thanks to my "bullet": when you win a race, you get a bullet from the Race Committee gun. The second day I managed to get myself in 7th overall, with the 6th place competitor ahead by two points only. On the last day I knew I had to beat Grant Janov, the guy in 5th. I was ahead of Grant only at one race, the first one, but he got disqualified for being over the start line too early, which I didn't know until I was back to shore. On the other races I was one or two places behind him. At the end, I ended up beating him by 1 point.

I was 5th overall (after being 38th last year) and 3rd in my age category. My teammates from SFYC did very well and we mastered the event.

I was so happy to get such a good score overall, this is definitely one of my favorite regattas.

Here is a short video.

Nice colors for the 3rd place award in my age category:

Strapping my boat on the SFYC Trailer:

The results:

A picture with my boat in the background:

Extreme 40 sailing

On the 30th of April, my Dad and I got a chance to sail one of the best and fastest catamarans in the world. We sailed a Extreme 40, or a X40, it is a 40 foot catamaran that when pushed hard enough can reach speeds of 30 knots. My Dad sailed in the Great Vallejo race, a race that goes from Berkeley circle to Vallejo close to the so-called "Delta". Since the boat is so much faster than the rest of the fleet, she has to start last... and of course they still won. I got to sail the boat on the way back to Richmond. We were reaching at a speed of 25 knots hitting 26 knots once towards the end of the day. The X40 used to be the boat sailed in the Extreme sailing series, now it is replaced by the GC32, a foiling catamaran. Overall I had a great time sailing at the fastest speed that I have ever gone.

This amazing day was possible thanks to Jerome T., the CEO of Smart Recruiters and owner of the boat. His crew was amazing: thank you Gilles, Cyril and Chris!

Here is a short video.

Sailing with Team Cert

On the 24th-27th of March I sailed in a clinic with team Cert, a team build of great sailors. They were in San Francisco to train and learn how the venue works for Team Trials. The reason why I was sailing with such a amazing team is because I was the "the local" so I could share my knowledge of local conditions, I knew about the current,wind, and the wake. I was actually sailing with some of the best sailors in the US, and most of all the number one sailor. This sailor won Team Trials last year and went to Worlds the year before, so he has been in the last two years twice to Worlds, last year he won race number 4. I was so amazed to hear that I was also sailing with the winner of the 2015 USODA PCC. The conditions were kind of light but they got heavier and heavier, towards the end of day #4. We were towing back when the wind picked up, some of the sailors were screaming "this is the beginning of San Andreas!". I had this great opportunity to sail with Cert thanks to my old coach Dan, who is friend with coach Clay. Thanks to Clay I improved my roll-tacks, my pumping on the downwind, and my starts.


A big thank you to coach Clay Johnson for taking me with the team.

Overall I had a great time sailing with one of the best sailing team in the country and improving my Opti skills.

2016 USODA Gulf Coast Champs at PCYC, MS

On March 19th and 20th, 2016 I attended the Gulf Coast Champs, in Pass Christian, MS. 
My goal was to qualify for the USODA Team Trials that are going to be held at SFYC, CA, this April. The conditions were just amazing, 15-20 knots and little waves, the sailing took place on the Gulf of Mexico.
There were 61 boats on the starting line, I finished 18th and 5th of the Blue Fleet. To qualify you needed to be 17th, although I missed the qualification I had a great time finishing 6th at one of the races.
I was sailing with team SYC the same team as my last USODA regatta (USODA Midwinters at New Orleans). Before I left, my coach Nico told to me about some key points I had to work on, downwind sailing and my starts. I tried my best to sail downwind as fast as I could and minimize my lost on the downwind and maximize my gains on the upwind. Sadly the race committee was tough and we sailed all the races under the U flag, which means that if you are over the line one minute before the start or under, you are disqualified. We even sailed the last one under the black flag which is the same thing as the U flag except that even after a general recall you are disqualified. It took me a couple of starts to push the line, so I had to make up for the bad starts by, surfing the waves downwind and maximize my speed upwind.

I would like to thank my Dad for this very special trip and to all my friends, in particular from SFYC and my family for their support.
Special thanks to Belvedere Cove foundation for their grant that helped to found my trip.

Here are some pictures: