U.S. Youth Championship
Author- Taylor Escola
Last month, I was fortunate to compete (ILCA 6) in the U.S. Youth Championship in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. This regatta brings all the top U.S. youth sailors together, and the winner
will represent the United States at the upcoming Youth Worlds, held in Portugal in December.
The ILCA 6 fleet had a total of 63 participants with male and females combined. Having
become friends and competing against most of the sailors, I felt confident in my performance
going into the regatta, especially if the forecast was to hold for the usual south Florida wind.
My mom and I left Santa Barbara early Thursday morning, no easy way to fly there, it takes a
full day and is kind of exhausting. We watched a couple movies on the plane and lots of people
watching.
The following day, I arrived at the venue around 9:00am on Friday. The first thing to do was
check in at Registration. After checking in, we unloaded my charter boat. It’s nice to charter a
boat as it’s usually new and picked up at the regatta’s location, no towing or parking trailers!
Unfortunately, it was not a long day on the water, but rather on land as we were met with rain
and lightning storms, making it unsafe to sail on the racecourse. The breeze at the Lauderdale
Yacht Club was perfect with steady mid-teens and puffs into low 20’s but offshore on the
racecourse, it was determined to be dangerous. We made the best of the day dialing in the
charter boat and catching up with other sailors from around the country.
The Lauderdale Yacht Club area had extreme King Tides mixed with torrential rains…. Getting
around Lauderdale was a bit tricky as many Uber drivers wouldn’t drive during the high tides as
the saltwater overflowing on the streets would cause severe corrosion to their cars. A couple
times we had to wade through knee deep water to get to a safer street for an Uber pick-up.
The next day was Race Day 1. Saturday the report time at the Fort Lauderdale Yacht Club was
8:00am and the first warning was at 10:30am. My dad and I checked weather and wind 100’s of
times, we hoped for a good breeze until midafternoon at which time it would shup off. The tow
out of the harbor was 30 minutes and as soon as we turned at the jetty, we were met with no
wind. We did not get any races off this day and were on the water for almost 8 hours. The sun
was out, and all sailors baked in the sun waiting for a start.
Sunday the report time was moved up to 6:30am, the Race Commitee thought there would be
more wind in the morning, which is traditional in South Florida, before the sun heats up and
sucks the pressure out. We stayed out on the water for 9 more hours and were only able to get
1 race off, which was under 5 knots. The Race Committee was getting nervous as lots was to
determine on the results of this regatta and who would represent the United States at the Youth
World Championship in Portugal.
Monday, we had to get 2 races off to make the regatta official. Report time was again at
6:30am, I have never dreamed of rigging my boat for a race before breakfast. There was slightly
better wind, however we only got 2 races off, which did make the regatta official…. But barely,
after 4 days of scheduled sailing and only getting 3 races off. This regatta was difficult in all
aspects, with no throw outs and light shifty breeze, the scores were all over the place. I am glad
to have raced at this regatta even if the conditions were not what I had prepared for going into
Youth Champs. Overall, I finished 34th and 9th female. Congratulations to my friend /
competitor Louise Martin out South Carolina, she is representing the United States at the Youth
Worlds. Based on my age…I’ve got 2 more tries at this regatta and Youth Worlds, next year is
being held in Long Beach!