Thank you for giving me this amazing opportunity to sail in the Brooks Gonzalez Clinic in Newport, Rhode Island. I was very thankful to receive an invite to this prestigious event. The top teams in the nation were invited to this in preparation for the i420 Worlds in Europe. This clinic really helped in building my confidence and skipper abilities. Hopefully, I can go back next year so I can keep learning more about the i420.
The first day was a little chaotic, as I hopped on the flight the night before to make the clinic on time. I took a red eye flight, so that was interesting sailing on no sleep. I was very thankful that my dad came in a couple days before me to help set up my boat so I didn’t have to worry about it.
The first day was the longest day. We didn’t really work on off-water things too much because our coaches wanted us to get the maximum time sailing. The Clinic provided some really great coaches (Elizabeth Kratzig, Skip Whyte, and Lior Lavie).
We were split into three different groups. Since there are 15 boats, five boats went with one coach. On the first day I was with Skip Whyte. Having Skip in the coach boat behind me, critiquing our sail trim, boat position, and my driving continuously help me make big gains in understanding the boat. Skip taught me more about body position and posture and it was great having stay with me for so long on the first day.
I felt by the second day I was getting more confident with my skippering abilities. We switched groups, and Lior coached us. Lior helped me a lot with my sail settings and trim. He helped me figure out the perfect spot for my bridle when going upwind, and also showed me how much he wanted me to play my main.
There was chop and swell all 3 days, but it was harder to sail the first two days. Near the end of each day, the group would come together and we would do some short practice races. It was under 10 knots, and my crew and I performed well the first two days. I think the small races helped alot because they made me focus more on tactics rather than speed. We had really good downwind speed and we could keep up with everyone upwind. I was really proud of that because I haven’t skippered since February this year.
The final day was the regatta day. There was more wind than we were training in so that was a different change of pace. Lior helped us the most on the regatta day, and gave us really good advice between races. In addition, Lior really helped us with our downwind strategy and I cannot wait to use what we learned at our next event.
This was my first time attending this clinic, and it was by far the best clinic we have ever attended. The coaching was top notch, everyone got great feedback and we were able to practice along some of the best sailors.