Dear MSSF,
With the help of your funding, I was able to sail 29ers for the past four months with Pearce Mendoza through Skiff Squad. From September to December, we sailed at three clinics and two regattas. The first clinic was at California Yacht Club in late September. At that clinic, my boat handling as a crew was sloppy, to the point where I was arguably the worst crew attending the clinic. At this clinic, however, we got coaching from Willie McBride, who is the coach for the 49er FX Olympic team. When I found out that is who would be coaching us, I realized that I was going to learn a lot from sailing with the Skiff Squad. The next clinic was in late October at Long Beach Yacht Club. The conditions changed a lot throughout that weekend, and I could see how sensitive the 29er is to big wind velocity shifts and choppy conditions. The following weekend, Pearce and I sailed in our first regatta as a team, which was the Halloween Regatta at Alamitos Bay Yacht Club. After a day of long races and shifting conditions, we finished 9th out of a 12-boat fleet, which was a decent finish since we were a new team. Three weeks later, in late November, we sailed the Turkey Day Regatta at ABYC which was our second regatta. The first day of that regatta, the conditions were very consistent, so it came down to which teams had the best boat speed, and not so much what side of the course was favored. We ended up having a pretty solid day, with mid fleet finishes. The next day, we only got one race off because the wind shut off. We finished that regatta in 8th place out of 15 boats, which we were happy with because it was a big improvement from our last regatta, and we knew we worked as hard as we could. The last clinic we did was at St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco on December 10th and 11th, where we trained with and became friends with the NorCal squad. At this clinic, we got to experience heavy wind and choppy conditions that are not very common in Southern California, which was very interesting to see. Our coach Evan Heffernan commented on me and Pearce, saying that we had the best boat handling out of the five teams that were at this clinic. I was proud to know that we had improved so much over the four months of sailing together, and that our coach could see that improvement. These clinics and regattas have largely improved my skills in the 29er, and I have learned so much more about the sport of sailing. Pearce and I will continue to sail as a 29er team, and we will compete in future regattas together, including 29er Worlds next summer in Long Beach. The funding from your foundation allowed us to have these amazing experiences, and I personally cannot thank you enough for your generous contribution.
Sincerely,
Jack Flores