Dear MSSF,
Thank you so much for your generous funding of Jack Flores and I for the Skiff Squad SoCal and NorCal Clinics. Over the last few months, Jack and I have had very steep learning curve and have been working hard to make sure that we are improving as much as we can in as little time as possible, and the Skiff Squad Clinics have helped us so much to do that. The first Skiff Squad Clinic that we attended in September was at Cal Yacht Club. With very light and lumpy conditions, which are some of the hardest to sail the 29er in, it was a great opportunity for Jack and I to increase our feel and it allowed us to get more comfortable in the boat as a team. We also learned a little bit about tuning and measuring things such as mast bend. This was also Jack’s first ever event in the 29er and was his first time meeting some of the coaches, such as Evan Heffernan and William McBride, which are some of the coaches that I had been training with all last summer. The next Skiff Squad Clinic was at LBYC. The first day we had light to medium breeze. We did many physically demanding boat handling drills such as rudderless, Circle Drill, and kill the crew drill. Another drill that we did was a round Robbin of races, with each race the skipper sailed with a different Crew. The first race was normal pairings and Jack and I finished 3rd out of around 10 boats, which was awesome since some of the best 29er teams in the U.S, such as Ryan Ratliff and Sam Merson, where at this clinic. After that race, the round robin went on and I was able to sail with some of the best crews in the nation. Even though it was just little one leg buoy races, I was able to see different techniques and mindsets that the top teams have while racing. The next day was light with rain but we split into two groups and Jack and I were super excited when we got put in the more advanced group and were able to sail with the top half of the Clinic. The next week was the Halloween Regatta in Long Beach. Jack and I finished 12th which was not as good as we wanted but it being Jack and my first 29er regatta together and Jack’s first ever regatta in the 29er, we were happy. Our next event was the Turkey Day regatta in Long Beach at ABYC, Jack and I had been training hard between Halloween regatta and this event trying to get at the least two days in the 29er a week, in order to get the results that we wanted. We ended up 8th and just about mid fleet and missing 7th by about a point which was awesome for our second regatta together and we and our coaches were pretty happy with our performance! Jack and I decided to also attend the NorCal skiff squad clinic at St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco in order to get some big breeze training, have a ton of fun, and learn a lot. It proved exactly that. We were able to drive from Newport to Santa Barbara with our parents, and then from Santa Barbara to San Francisco we were able to drive with our coach Evan Heffernan, which was an amazing bonding experience and gave Jack and I the chance to talk a lot about our goals and things like that with our Coach Evan. We were able to stay with Jack Sutter and his Family who is a sailor from Richmond Yacht Club. That was an amazing chance to make new friends and have a lot of fun. The first day proved to be exactly what Jack and I wanted. Really windy with a lot of rain. With a solid 20 kts, Jack and I were one of only three boats to go out. This gave us the chance to get our windy boat handling down, have a ton of fun screeming down the bay with the kite up, and to of course practice our capsize and recovery drills. The next day was the exact opposite with a little bit of rain and no wind, we went in early since the bay was glassed off. I must say that sailing on the San Francisco Bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, is super surreal and both Jack and I could not believe that we were actually sailing right by the Golden Gate Bridge. I have been to San Francisco many times but it was my first time sailing there and it was really amazing. With all of these clinics and practicing on our own Jack and are campaigning and working very hard in order to be ready for the 29er Worlds in Long Beach this year at ABYC. Our goal is to finish in the top half of gold fleet at the World’s and with the right amount of coaching and enough hours on the water we believe that we can accomplish that. These clinics have steepened our learning curve and have put us on a good track to achieving our goal. Thank you so much for your support and and funds to help Jack and I to achieve our goal. Without your funds we would not even be close to where we are today and thank you for helping us accomplish things that used to only be in our dreams and thank you for helping us toward our goal of being in the top half of gold fleet at the 29er Worlds 2017!
-Pearce Mendoza
Balboa Yacht Club