Preparing for the 2017 USA Team Trials

I have decided that since Team Trials is coming up really fast (6th to 13th of May), I have to get ready to do the best I can. So I have decided to practice my starts really seriously, to do some workouts, to do some extra practices to work on my boat speed, and to practice some mindfulness.

So an opportunity came up, the Harken #2 regatta at SFYC. I decided to try the hardest I could on starting first row (meaning with no one in front of me), and on the favoured side of the line. When I started for the first race, I was on the favoured side and started with a perfect start. The whole regatta went on the same way except one race, which was the one with the most wind (20+ knots steady). I sadly started second row, so I had boats in front of me. This did not bring me down, I tacked and sailed to a puff. Later on I found my self in second place, and the first place sailor tacked but the wind was so strong he almost flipped, so I was then in first. I stretched my lead on the upwind and the reach, then when I started to go downwind, my team mate started to catch up to me, and then the fleet did too. At the bottom gate I was barely ahead, the whole last upwind leg, my team mate was getting further and further away from me. At the end, I won the race. Overall at the regatta across 8 races in 2 days, I finished 5th out of 41 champion fleet sailors, which I am happy with, given that there were two members of the USA National Team and one member of the Development Team. My little 9 years old brother Yann who has recently joined the champion fleet finished every race in conditions going from 5-23 knots, which is awesome.

Workouts wise, I have been working out every single day, and plan to continue on. I have been doing some running, biking, and leg workouts. I plan on continuing so except during my Spring Break vacation, when I will be sailing to practice my boat speed.

I have also been doing some mindfulness, which helps me when I am in a tough situation, like a bad start, a bad race. Mindfulness was introduced to me by my Dad a little less than a year ago. I have been using different apps on my phone, and the one I prefer is called "Breathe". This app gives me suggestions on what kind of sessions I should do based on how I am feeling. I believe this has helped me in sailing but also in life, from dealing with a bad start to a class mate lying about my subject.


Here is a picture of the award ceremony, second in Red fleet (my age group):

Here is the overall results (congrats to my friend Henry):

Here is a picture of my teammates and I rounding the top mark (photo credit Jack Boeger):

2016 Midwinters in New Orleans

From November 23rd to 25th, I attended the USODA Midwinters in New Orleans, and this time unlike last year it was also the qualifiers for the Spring US Teams.

The qualifiers is a regatta like Team Trials, except it is an open regatta. If you do well in this event you have the possibility to represent the USA in a International event like South Americans Championship.

The venue was really nice, with wind from 5-15 knots, no current, and waves up to 2 feet tall, during the clinic we had before the event. However conditions were not so good for the regatta itself, which was supposed to be three days long. The first two days, my fleet did not race, so we only had one long day of racing. I finished 134th (out of 265 Optis), so not the best result. After this event I compared it with all my USODA regattas since I joined SFYC. I always do better when the regatta is 2-4 days of racing, so when you have several balanced days of sailing.

The first day of the regatta was basically waiting around, although my coach Nico asked us to stay focused, calm, and to not hurt ourselves. The second day we did not run races, although the Committee tried their best. They tried to run a race twice: on the first attempt I was 10th, so when they abandoned I was pretty unhappy, for the second attempt I had a bad start which got me in the back of the fleet, so that time I was happy they abandoned.

On the third and final day, the race committee managed to get 5 races off. The conditions were really shifty, with really different wind speeds, from 5 knots to 15 knots, and sometimes the waves were up to 4 feet tall. Since the conditions were so different, it was hard to keep up with the wind pattern and where it was going. Although most starts were on the pin side of the line and on the left side of the course, the wind was always shifting during the race itself. My best score in a race was 21st .

This regatta was an awesome experience just like last year, and this time most of my friends from SFYC were here with me which was really nice.

I would like to say thank you to my Mom that came with me to New Orleans and who followed me during the event. I would also like to say a big good job to Henry Boeger, my team mate who is going to the South American Championship in Paraguay, he finished 25th overall.


BREAKING NEWS: I am extremely happy and proud to announce that I have been invited to represent the USA in July at the 2017 Topsport Vlaanderen Regatta in Belgium. 


This is a picture of me sailing:


This is my whole team in a meeting before the next race:

This is me in the first race of the last day:

Picture credits: Laura Burns




This is a beautiful sunset picture:


This is Henry and I talking with Jason in the blue:


This is were all the Optis were stored:


This is all of us coming back on the first day:

Bermuda Nationals 2016 - my first international regatta!

The Bermudan Opti Nationals (organised by BODA) where held at Dockyards in Bermuda, from November 10th to 13th. This regatta had a lot of international sailors such as teams from USA, Belize, Canada and Bermuda. The Polish National Champion was also competing. As you can probably imagine, this was a tough regatta. Conditions were solid 13 knots with some times gusts to 25 knots. The waves were the toughest I think, because they were not like waves in San Francisco (long ocean waves), but they were little short chop. It was complicated, because you had to really work on getting the bow of the boat up and over the waves.

My result was not so great (38th out of 75 in Champion fleet), but again this was my first international event.

At this regatta I learned a lot of interesting things on clouds. For example, I learned that a cloud coming your way would make the wind shift right a little bit, and the same cloud with rain would make the wind shift even more right. This happened a lot on the race course. It mostly happened during the last leg, upwind to the finish. One of those times, a sailor from Canada who was in the back of the fleet ended up winning the race. This got people really frustrated, but thanks to all my mindfulness activities I managed to keep my calm and finish the race.

The best part of the event was visiting two of the three America's Cup bases. I visited Oracle and Artemis. The Oracle base was already planned, since it was organized by BODA, but the Artemis base was a surprise. The reason I got to go is because I was sailing with the Canadian  National Team, and their head coach is the friend of the head coach of Artemis. In the bases, we were allowed to see the boats, but in the Oracle base we were also allowed to touch the boats, which for me is just amazing.

My awesome brother Yann had a great regatta in Green fleet, he managed to pull of the 2nd place!!!

Overall I had an excellent time there, even if I did not get the results I wanted. After all this was my first international regatta ever, and it was awesome.

Thank you Belvedere Cove Foundation for supporting me it really was useful !

This is me sailing out of the harbour:



This is Yann during a work out with the Green Fleet:




This is Yann sailing:





This the Champ fleet waiting for the signal to sail out:



These are the two AC 45T boats I saw:

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!

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.