Harken #1 2016 at CYC

On the week-end of the 27 & 28th February, I attended the Harken #1 in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, South California. This was the last big fleet regatta before the last 2016 USODA Team Trials qualifying regatta (Gulf Coast Championship at PCYC in Pass Christian, MS, where I'm going with my Dad on March 19&20th).

This was the first time ever I:
- sailed in SoCal,
- raced with my 9 of my team mates from SFYC and our coach outside San Francisco Bay,
- attended a regatta without my parents.

I left on Friday the 29th of February with my friend, Henry Boeger and his parents. We drove from Alameda to Marina Del Rey, a six hours drive. I had a blast with the Boeger family who are very nice people. The hotel they picked was really cool I loved the hot tub.

The venue was nice, but not windy. We spent at least 1 hour on the coach boat every day, waiting for the wind to pick up.

Overall I am a little bit disappointed, although we had a great time. I finished 18th out of 52, with a 3rd place finish at one of the five races. My friend Henry actually got 4th overall which is great.

After analyzing my last few regattas, I decided to work at improving the following:
- pumping on the waves downwind to go faster and following a S shape trajectory while surfing,
- not looking back when I'm ahead of the fleet
- balancing my body when going up and down the waves upwind.
-applying Henry's advice when reading puffs on the water

This coming week-end (5&6th March 2016) I'm going to Bays #4 at PYSF. A storm is coming and the wind is supposed to have gust up to 43 knots.

EYC Bays#3 2016

            For the beginning of my Winter Break I raced at the 2016 EYC Bays#3, a local San Francisco Bay regatta. Like most regattas at EYC the conditions were pretty easy, light wind, no waves, and a lot of good weather. My results were not consistent (2,5,8,5,13,5,3,2,5) pretty much up and down. Luckily the people behind me were not consistent either. Thanks too two second place finish I got 3rd. My friend Henry (far right) won the regatta by 11 points with three bullets, and a worse of 5th place.


Here is a picture of me and my team mates at awards.

2015 USODA Midwinters Championship - New Orleans, LA

This year for Thanksgiving we were in New Orleans for the "Midwinters Championship" regatta, hosted by the Southern Yacht Club, along Lake Pontchartrain.

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 the boat I chartered for this regatta.

 This is my brother getting the "farthest traveled sailor" award.

This is my brother (8 years old) hiking in the breeze (sail #3 with the red dot).

     

Daddy and Son: Viper and Open 570

This week-end and last one my Dad and I sailed together once on the Open 5.70 and once on the Viper. On both session when we started the wind was really light and then it got up to 15 to 20 knots.

Today on the Viper, my Dad and I went up to 16 knots in Richardson Bay, the bay that we see from our house. Here is a video of my Dad and I sailing the Viper.

The week before I sailed the Open 5.70 with my Mom, my Brother, My Dad, and I. The wind was around 15 knots, we didn't send the spinnaker until it got calmer. Here is a video of my family and I sailing the Open 5.70.

Summer 2015 and PCC regatta back in SF

During the summer I went to France where my family spent most of our summer.

We keep a 420 in our house in Saint Malo. It isn't one of these fancy racing 420 that most yacht clubs have, it's an old lady from 1976. Sailing it is hard because you can feel it's old, and it was a challenge for my sister and I. At the end of summer, my Mom and my Dad did some fiber glass work on the hull, because it needed it. Thank you Mom !

We sailed the 420 in Saint Malo and in Lacanau. While we were in Lacanau we sailed on the lake, and also surfed on the Atlantic Ocean at Wally Glisse Wally Glisse Surf School.

We also sailed a First 27.7 S which is a Beneteau, it's a cruise ship but it's at the same time a kind of sports boat. Each year my family and I sail on it for 1 week without stopping. This year the wind was around 20 knots (gusts up to 32 knots) every day except one day were it was 10 to 12 knots and we could put the kite up. The waves were up to 1.50 meter. The conditions were really tough, but sunny all along the week, and we all had a good time.

During the 2015 summer I also raced. I competed in one Bays Regatta where I didn't do well in light wind. But I still got 5th overall for the Bays season, and 2nd in Blue Fleet (my age group), despite not racing 2 out of 5 events.

The most important regatta I did was the Pacific Coast Championship. For the second time I competed in this regatta, and this year I was trying to qualify for the US Team Trials. Sadly I finished 36th out of 120 boats, but the last qualified was 31st. I missed the US Team Trials qualification by 5 places but I'm not giving up, so I will go to New Orleans Midwinter Regatta at next regatta of that kind, to try to qualify again.

Over all I had a great sailing summer!

Heavy Weather Regatta June 2015

After weeks of training I finally raced in the Harken Opti Heavy Weather Regatta, which happens at the St Francis Yacht Club, just by the Golden Gate Bridge. This regatta was really special because of the fact that their were about 50 Optis!! They came from the SF Bay, Vancouver Canada, Seattle, and Long beach California. I didn't do really well ranking-wise, but I had a good time. I was happy to race in the practice day, because otherwise I would not have been prepared. To give you an idea of what happened on the practice day, basically I capzised 6 times!! In one race!! After that I didn't capzise until after the last race, and indeed I pitchpoled. Which means that the front of my boat went under water, until the top of my mast touched the water where then I flipped. Here is the video of a Weta trimaran pitchpole.

At the Heavy Weather Regatta, the wind was 15 to 20 knots 4 days in a row!! The current was also strong (3 to 4 knots), the whole time it was flooding, which means that the tide was coming into the Bay. So on the upwinds you would go at 3 knots against the current, but on the downwinds you would go around 6 to 9 knots. The worst of all were the waves: on each wave you would take 5 liters into the boat upwind. The great parts were the downwinds, and my top speed was up to 11knots. Here is a short video.

Overall I finished 12 in Blue fleet (my age group) on 25 boats.

Overall I had a great time! Next year I will be back.

Getting ready for Harken #3 a.k.a. "Heavy Weather Regatta"

On Saturday June 6th I went sailing on my Opti at home, in Sausalito. I am practicing very hard for the Heavy Weather Regatta because it is the toughest and hardest regatta in the whole season. It will happen on the 17th to the 21st of June. I'm sacrificing the last day of school for this regatta. :-)

The wind was over 15knts quite often 20knts, and the sea was not choppy. I was mainly practicing but I also toke my little brother for a ride. Overall it was really fun.

Here is a short video. If the link doesnt work go to http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k7B1cX4KU7DmQXbtLgy.

Here are some pictures:

Here are pictures of me and my little brother: