I arrived bright and early on Saturday at the ISAF Youth World Qualifiers to find that the forecasts were wrong…we had wind!! I ate some food and quickly rigged my gear to get ready for the long sail out we had to do to make it to the racecourse on time. We sailed around for a while out there while the race committee was setting the course. In the time it took them to set the course the waves and wind really kicked up. The first 2 races were challenging for me because I was still getting use to the RS:X in waves. I had some bad crashes, which put me out of first, but I was quickly adjusting to the conditions. For the last 2 races I became much more comfortable with the conditions and was able to win them both!! The second day of racing I found out that I was tied for first and it was very light. It quickly became a pumping battle between everyone and a very challenging one at that. With the waves still big from the previous day it was hard to keep the board moving in the big waves. The day proved to be a wake up call of just how challenging it is to race these boards in light wind conditions. I was able to hold on to second place at the end of the day. The third day was very hard to be physically ready for after 2 days of very hard sailing, but I was able to climb my way out of bed and get ready. The wind was in my optimal range with it being sub-planing, which requires very powerful pumps. It was apparently very windy all night because the waves were even bigger than they have been all weekend. Downwind required a lot of surfing the waves and up wind was all about playing the waves to stay going fast. I was able to work with the waves very well and win the last 3 races of the regatta putting me in first place. I am very excited about qualifying for youth worlds and it should be a great learning experience sailing with the top kids from each country. I can’t wait to travel to Turkey, especially since I have never left the country before.
Next week I will be competing in the Rolex Miami OCR, which will be my first international regatta. Last weekend was great practice going around a racecourse in all types of conditions and I have been resting all week to prepare for this long regatta next week. I hope it will be a great learning experience and give me a feel of international competition before I head over to Turkey this summer!
Cullen Ahearn
