You won’t get better or win races if you tell yourself you suck at sailing. Or life. Or work. Or while advancing the sport to a better place.

This is the wisdom of professional snowboarder Kevin Pearce, the morning’s keynote speaker on the fourth and final day of the 2023 Sailing Leadership Forum. The topic at this particular moment in his talk is about negativity and how it’s a barrier to one’s personal fulfillment.

Pearce speaks with authority because he has battled his own demons of negativity—from the moment his head slammed into the icy transition of a halfpipe built to launch him to the Vancouver Olympics. The horrific accident, and the traumatic brain injury that resulted, halted his gold-medal quest and detoured him on a long but inspirational journey of recovery. “Focus on the positive” is the point he’s hammering home to the forum audience. There are real chemicals in your brain at work when you do. Trust him. He knows the science.

Earlier, Pearce had posed a simple question after he stepped onto the stage: Why would a snowboarder be at a sailing conference? To inspire, of course. That’s what good keynoters do, but the real answer would eventually come when he closes with a few important takeaways: Use your brain for good, personally and professionally. Love what you do. Focus on the positive. Pass along the stoke.

And that’s exactly what’s happening across the sprawling conference center—on the beach, in the breakout rooms, at the cocktail parties, the award ceremonies and the afterhours. For anyone in the business of shaping sailing’s future, the biennial gathering is the place to be. This year, in early February, nearly 600 attendees hunker down and get elbow to elbow doing the good work for every level of the sport. Growing it. Promoting it. And living it. In the next seat are officers of yacht clubs big and small, sailing schools new and old, and community sailing centers growing faster than they can manage or afford. There are young and senior race officials, coaches and instructors shop-talking, recruiting, and doing recon for the next great solution. It’s four days of learning from each other—immersive enough to make your brain hurt, but that’s what the cocktail hours are for.

From the thick fog of a forum week, however, clarity does eventually come once you sit back and take stock of it all. At this forum in particular, there was a real sense of urgency and excitement. Sailing is on fire, and while each of us are immersed in our own little corner of the sport, it’s easy to miss all the hustle that’s happening across our waterfronts.

The sport is not dying. It’s diversifying—rapidly. That’s a positive for the future of wind-powered sports. It’s a great time to be a sailing kid. I admit I used to gripe about modern-day junior sailing. It was jealousy, really, of all the coddled kids with parents toting them and their coaches around the country and abroad. Skiffs, kites, windsurfers, wings and foils—come on, now. That’s not fair. Youth sailors not only have all the fun boats today, but they also have what you and I did not: professionally organized pathways to anywhere a kid wants to go in sailing and beyond.

Making lifelong sailors is the goal, says John Pearce, US Sailing’s youth competition manager, who leads a session at the forum entitled “Youth Racing Pathways.” He makes a darn good case for the ­modern-day performance-racing paths. His flow chart maps out the many ways to progress: Start the kids in Optis or whatever boat you have until they’re 14 or so. Then for the next four years, take them up a notch to the ILCA 6, Nacra 15 or 29er. Those who don’t take to the dinghy pathway can advance to small keelboats and aim for the Sears Cup—the granddaddy of all youth trophies. From age 16 to 20, it’s college sailing or a committed tack to the Olympic on-ramp. And if all goes to the Pathway plan, the end of the road is pro sailing, marine careers, coaching, adult racing, race officials and tomorrow’s leaders.

The flow is not always fixed or perfectly linear, however, and we know only a select few will sail to the tip of the spear. And that’s OK. Pearce’s co-­presenter at the breakout session, Maxwell Plarr, director of sailing at Virginia’s Hampton YC, says he has no interest in fueling directly into the Olympic pipeline. He’s happy to let those eager birds fly from his nest early, but his focus is keeping it fun. Over the past few years, he’s led a few junior-boat experiments with the support of the club’s board of directors, and the results were surprising. 

International 420s? Nah. The kids didn’t go for it. 29ers? Now, that they are into, but it takes a more careful approach to skill development. How about adding a couple of wingfoil setups to the quiver? Oh yes, they did.

“If you don’t have a wing in your program,” Plarr tells forum attendees, “get one.”

Hampton’s youth sailing program is healthy, he says, and it’s producing top-level keelboat kids too, but he’s not doing it alone. He’s constantly leaning on the resources at US Sailing, which he says makes his life a lot easier. He’s got Pearce on speed dial. And that’s cool, says Pearce, because that’s what he’s there for. It’s his, and US Sailing’s, responsibility to support every organization.

How US Sailing attempts to serve so many masters is a complicated story for another day and place. The organization is not perfect, but it’s trying. And it wants all of us to be part of the progress. Membership revenues are a significant source of income that trickles out to the sailing community. Benefactors and corporate partners are essential too. There are many mouths to feed, but if there’s one thing US Sailing want us all to know, it’s that it’s bent on serving everyone, which is, of course, easier said than done.

Of the estimated millions of sailors in America, only a tiny fraction are dues-paying members, and I suspect you and I know many in our own circles who are not members either. Reasons run the gamut, but the most common is: “There’s ­nothing in it for me.”

Be that as it may, those among us who sit on their hands and complain about a lack of available crew, bad race management, unfair ratings, high entry fees and the like have no skin in the game. Kevin Pearce would say: Don’t complain if you don’t belong, and take your negativity elsewhere. It’s not helping.

Belonging goes beyond “what we get” for the $79 individual membership fee. Sure, we get the digital rulebook and partner discounts that will save us the same amount. But it’s not the money that’s important; it’s each of us doing our part to advance the sport to a better place for those who follow. It allows US Sailing to invest in retaining those who walk through the doors of community sailing centers, yacht clubs and sailing schools—organizations that need certified instructors and educational programming. Think of it as a down payment on your future crew pool.

US Sailing is committed to improving the capabilities of the important offshore office too, which was understaffed and underfunded for far too long. Here, Jim Teeters, head of the Offshore Ratings Office, is getting the house back in order. At Teeters’ forum breakout session with Stan Honey—the smartest guy in sailing—they reveal they’re working on a tweak to handicap scoring methodology that Honey is certain will create better races, as well as happier owners and tacticians. Applying modern weather forecasting technology, he says, will make handicap racing “more fair and less complex.”

Like Pearce and his Youth Racing Pathway, Teeters and Honey also have a flow chart to explain this novel concept of a “forecast time correction factor.” With the FTCF, Honey explains, sailors will more accurately know their time allowance before the race starts, so they can make better tactical decisions during the race. The forecast part of the FTCF is done by predicting the wind before the race starts using the highest-possible-­resolution weather file. In essence, a race committee would estimate the course, enter the polar file for each entered boat, route each boat around the course using Expedition software or a web-based application (to be developed), and deliver “time correction factors” to competitors shortly before the race starts. 

This is the sort of stuff we learn at the forum, from two of the most intelligent guys in the handicapping space. They’re committed to achieving a better race outcome for you and me, and I argue that this alone is worth a slice of the membership. We can’t complain about our rating or the quality of the outcome if we don’t invest in the game, and that applies to both skippers and crews. Yes, if you’re on the rail and calling the shots, it’s to your benefit as well.

One might say that four days neck-deep in US Sailing has me gulping the organization’s Kool-Aid, but that’s not the case. All we have to do is sit and listen—with a positive mindset—to the many people out there advancing the sport on our behalf. Sailing is on fire because of them, and it’s on all of us to help fan the flames.

Take, for example, Jessica Koenig, the outgoing executive director of Charleston Community Sailing (South Carolina), who collects the Martin A. Luray Award at the forum’s Community Sailing Awards Luncheon on the final day. Koenig closes the gathering by sharing that she introduced more than 16,000 people to the sport in her time at the sailing center, and “that feels pretty special.”

Charleston Community Sailing is but one of many organizations across the country that rely on US Sailing for support in some way, and I have no doubt Kevin Pearce would agree that they’re all winning because of it. When it comes to shaping the future of our sport, they’re making a positive impact, and they certainly don’t suck.

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The Florida swing of the US Open Sailing Series culminated in Clearwater in February after four days filled with highs and lows for the 200 athletes and 30 countries and territories in attendance. Nearly all the Olympic classes – iQFOiL Women & Men, 49er, Formula Kite Women & Men, ILCA 6, ILCA 7, and 470 Mixed – came together on the Gulf of Mexico off Sand Key Beach. The regatta saw extremely variable conditions. Thursday was too light for most classes to race, Friday’s gusts over 30 knots kept competitors ashore, and the final two days featured stellar conditions that allowed the Race Committee to run a nearly full slate of races for the competitors.

For US athletes, it was the final selection event to qualify for the 2023 Pan American Games, the 2023 Sailing World Championships, and the 2023 Olympic Test Event at the Paris 2024 venue. The event also served as a country qualifier for the 2023 Pan American Games with many countries in attendance seeking their spot in Santiago, Chile.

Clearwater locals dominated the Men’s iQFOiL fleet, with two of the top three men all hailing from the local sailing center. Noah Lyons took first place with 11 points, achieving USA selection for the Pan Am Games and 2023 Olympic Test Event later this year. His training partners Geronimo Nores and Alexander Temko took second and third with 11 and 16 points, respectively.

IQFOiL Men:
USA Noah Lyons, 11
USA Geronimo Nores, 11
USA Alexander Temko, 16

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Venezuela, Dominican Republic

For the iQFOiL Women, Brazilian Giovanna Prada secured her spot at the top of the podium after winning four of eight races. Following Prada was American Dominique Stater, whose performances in Miami and Clearwater earned her selection for the 2023 Pan Am Games and 2023 Olympic Test Event. Hawaiian native Danicka Sailer represented the islands well and inched out third place over Mexican competitors in fourth and fifth.

iQFOiL Women:
BRA Giovanna Prada, 8
USA Dominique Stater, 10
USA Danicka Sailer, 17

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Mexico, Canada

Newly minted as the 2022 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, Formula Kite phenom Daniela Moroz took first place in the Women’s Formula Kite with 11 points over eight races. She was followed in the standings by two kiters from Great Britain, Ellie Aldridge and Maddy Anderson, who finished with 23 and 24 points, respectively.

Formula Kite Women:
USA Daniela Moroz, 11
GBR Ellie Aldridge, 23
GBR Maddy Anderson, 24

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Argentina, Colombia

In the Men’s Formula Kite, Cameron Maramenides, a 2018 Youth Olympic Games competitor, sailed a consistent event taking the win with 23 points. US Sailing Team member Markus Edegran finished second with 29 points, while British kiter Guy Bridge finished third with 30 points.

Formula Kite Men: 
GRE Cameron Maramenides, 23
USA Markus Edegran, 29GBR Guy Bridge, 30

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Mexico, Canada

Americans dominated the ILCA 6 podium at this year’s Clearwater US Open. Erika Reineke and Charlotte Rose tied for first place with 13 points, with Reineke winning the tiebreaker to take the event, which, along with her performance at last month’s Lauderdale US Open, earned her a spot at the Pan Am Games and the Olympic Test Event. The podium was rounded out by their training partner Christina Sakellaris, who finished with 19 points.

ILCA 6:
USA Erika Reineke, 13
USA Charlotte Rose, 13
USA Christina Sakellaris, 19

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: United States, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, Cayman Islands

The ILCA 7 class saw a strong contingent from the Americas. Peruvian Stefano Peschiera, took first overall, winning four of the seven races and finishing with six points total. He was followed by Olympic veteran Juan Ignacio Maegli from Guatemala in second with 12 points, and El Salvadorian Enrique Arathoon in third with 18 points. 

Leo Boucher, who finished in fourth place, was the top finishing American. Chapman Petersen, who finished sixth overall, won selection for the Pan Am Games, Olympic Test Event, and the guaranteed berth for the Combined World Championship. Note, the United States qualified the ILCA 7 for Pan Ams at the 2022 ILCA 7 North American Championship.

ILCA 7: 
PER Stefano Peschiera, 6
GUA Juan Ignacio Maegli, 12
ESA Enrique Arathoon, 18

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event*: Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Bermuda

American teams swept the 49er podium this year, with US Sailing Team athletes Ian Barrows and Hans Henken finishing first with eight points, securing USA selection for the 2023 Pan Am Games and Olympic Test Event. Training partners Nevin Snow and Mac Agnese came in second with 17 points while Andrew Mollerus and Ian MacDiarmid rounded out the podium in third with 19 points. The United States qualified the 49er for Pan Ams at the 2022 49er World Championship.

49er:
USA Ian Barrows & Hans Henken, 8 
USA Nevin Snow & Mac Agnese, 17
USA Andrew Mollerus & Ian MacDiarmid, 19

Countries qualifying for Pan American Games at this event: Canada, Mexico, Brazil

Four-time Olympian Stu McNay paired up with Tokyo 2020 Olympian Lara Dallman-Weiss this weekend to win the Clearwater US Open’s Mixed 470 class with six points after winning four of the six total races. They were followed closely by US Sailing Team athletes Louisa Nordstrom and Trevor Bornarth, who finished second with eight points. Kyra Phelan and Sawyer Bastian finished third with 16 points. 

470 Mixed:
USA Stuart McNay & Lara Dallman-Weiss, 6
USA Louisa Nordstrom & Trevor Bornarth, 8
USA Kyra Phelan & Sawyer Bastian, 16

[The Pan American Games do not feature the 470]

As of the time of this release, the United States has qualified all nine Olympic classes, the Snipe, and Lightning for the 2023 Pan American Games. Country qualification events for the men’s and women’s Sunfish will begin in March of this year to complete the Pan American sailing slate.

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Allie Blecher and her team from California Yacht Club claimed their second U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championship at Seawanhaka Corinthian YC, besting last year’s runner-up Janel Zarkowsky and her team from Scuttlebutt Sailing Club/Storm Trysail in the finals 3-0.

As Blecher has already won her berth to the 2022 Women’s World Match Racing Championships this November in Auckland, New Zealand, Zarkowsky will receive an invite for her second-place finish. 

Event reigning champion Nicole Breault, of St. Francis YC, bested last year’s third place finisher Bridget Groble and the Bow Down racing team in the Petit Finals, taking third overall. Breault will be joining Blecher at the 2022 Women’s World Match Racing Championships, having qualified because of her World Sailing ranking. 

“For us it’s always about communication, staying heads out of the boat and connecting the dots,” said Blecher. “It was a tricky event – sometimes you had to leave your guy to head for pressure, and it would be well worth it.”

After three days of light mornings, shifting to a Long Island Sound sea breeze in the afternoons, race committee was able to race a round robin, consolation round robin, semifinals, and finals for a total of 70 races. From match racing rookies to seasoned veterans, a multitude of sailors were in attendance with a large focus on learning and uplifting female sailors. 

“My favorite thing about the women’s match racing series is that everyone is really willing to work together to get better,” said Ali Blumenthal, a member of winning Team BAAM. “There’s no ‘every man for themselves’ out on the water or on land, so it is a wonderful opportunity for women of any ability to get into match racing because everyone wants to share information and make the fleet better.”

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Representing the United States in Enoshima, Japan, are Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wisc.) and Maggie Shea (Wilmette, Ill.), who will appear in tomorrow’s 49erFX Medal Race, starting in 10th overall. The four remaining teams whose classes will have medal Races tomorrow have concluded the regatta as of completing the final races of their Qualifying Series.

US Sailing Team athletes in the Men’s and Women’s 470, Finn, Laser, and Laser Radial classes will have one more day of racing with the full fleets before the top ten boats move on to the Medal Races. Of the nine athletes in this group, two teams are starting tomorrow in positions to qualify for the medal race and two are in close contention.

Thanks to the short windward and leeward legs of the three-lapped Men’s 470 course, today delivered tight racing that ultimately favored the US Sailing Team. Men’s 470 Crew, Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.), attested to today’s many opportunities for significant gains and losses, “It was possible that we could have stepped away with a pair of threes or a pair of 15s today.” Hughes and his skipper Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) began the day in sixth place. Despite the tricky conditions, they managed to finish both races in the top-ten to move up to fourth overall. “We’re happy with where we ultimately ended up,” Hughes continued.

For McNay and Hughes, the value of this event extends beyond simply getting comfortable with the conditions of the Tokyo 2020 waters. “I would argue that racing in the Olympic fleet size is also incredibly valuable. For example, there’s a massive difference between the number of boats in a normal Gold Fleet at Worlds, which is maybe in the upper 30s and the 19 boats that will be on the Olympic starting line next year,” said Hughes. “That gives a very different flavor of racing in how the margins are played and the priorities shift throughout the racecourse. Having the 22 boats on our course at this event is extremely handy in preparing for that.”

Ready Steady Tokyo Sailing – U.S. Results

• Men’s 470 – Stu McNay (Providence, R.I.) & Dave Hughes (Miami, Fla.), 4th
• Women’s Laser Radial – Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 8th
• Women’s 49erFX – Stephanie Roble (East Troy, Wisc.) & Maggie Shea (Wilmette, Ill.), 10th
• Men’s Laser – Chris Barnard (Newport Beach, Calif.), 11th
• Men’s Laser – Charlie Buckingham (Newport Beach, Calif.), 12th
• Women’s 470 – Nikole Barnes (Miami, Fla.) & Lara Dallman-Weis (Shoreview, Minn.), 16th
• Men’s 49er – Andrew Mollerus (Larchmont, N.Y.) & Ian MacDiarmid (Delray Beach, Fla.), 16th
• Men’s Finn – Luke Muller (Fort Pierce, Fla.), 17th
• Women’s RS:X – Farrah Hall (Annapolis, Md.), 18th
• Mixed Nacra 17 – Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, Calif.) & Anna Weis (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), 19th
• Men’s RS:X – Pedro Pascual (West Palm Beach, Fla.), 20th
• Women’s Laser Radial – Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.), 23rd

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On this day in late April, Mike Buckley, the newly-appointed interim CEO of Stars + Stripes Team USA is back in his apartment in New York City’s Soho, virtually surrounded by money and opportunity in the economic epicenter that never sleeps. He’s been on the road for a few weeks, but it’s good to be back. The city’s hustle and bustle, and smell of success is everywhere he looks. He takes comfort in being surrounded by everyday Americans making things happen.

If only he could get his hands on a piece of this global cash flow that’s right under his nose—just a small piece in the grand scheme of things—we’d be having a different conversation. We wouldn’t be talking about a half-built multimillion-dollar America’s Cup raceboat waiting for an injection of cash or a build team eager to finish what they started. We wouldn’t be dancing around an answer to the undeniable and fast-approaching moment of truth for the All-American America’s Cup challenger.

Nope. We’d talking about when they’d be sailing their AC75 this summer, what they’re learning from the simulator, or even who is on the sailing team.

If only. Just a pile of millions more.

These are challenging days for Buckley and his co-founder Taylor Canfield who moonlights with the American SailGP squad in San Francisco while Buckley pounds pavement to keep their All-American AC team alive. A few weeks earlier, some of the team’s management gave up the ship, placing the campaign back into Buckley and Canfield’s hands to run with. He’s a self-described dreamer, and over the phone, he’s genuine when he confirms he’s not giving up on a young Cup campaign in serious need of an angel investor.

The team’s host yacht club toed the same line, countering rumors of the team’s demise with a statement in late March that read, “Long Beach Yacht Club’s Challenge for the 36th America’s Cup presented by Prada, Stars + Stripes USA, has not withdrawn from the America’s Cup and has no plans to do so.”

Stars + Stripes USA may well be the only of three late-entry teams to have fully paid the million-dollar entry fee, as well as design fees to Emirates Team New Zealand. The recent change in management, Buckley says, is not out the ordinary for businesses or sports teams [or presidential administrations]. “Taylor and I started it this team two years ago, so this is not a huge change in leadership. We have worked with some of the smartest people we have ever met, but we have grown as a campaign, and unfortunately people come and go and we are focused on the people that are here.”

RELATED: Stars & Stripes Returns to the America’s Cup

When they started out, they knew it would always be a grassroots effort, it would be hard to get across the finish line, and if they did, they’d still be fundraising. The scale of this current America’s Cup, however, with big untested machines, high salaries and a traveling pre-event circuit, may not be realistic or attainable for scrappy first-time syndicates. With fewer entries than fingers on one’s hand, the truth of ETNZ boss Grant Dalton’s final press conference statement of AC35 in Bermuda nearly two years ago rings true: It’ll be expensive, he acknowledged straight-faced, and not for everyone.

But Dalton also acknowledged it’s not impossible while thanking his own management. “They had to learn the ways of the America’s Cup and how incredibly difficult it is to stay going, and how you really have to put it out there, particularly financially, when you can’t actually pay the salaries, but you still don’t shut the door.”

Like Dalton, Buckley is dogged, if anything. “It’s certainly difficult because the budgets are enormous,” he says. “But we’ve watched Team New Zealand, year after year, be that scrappy, low-budget team that uses their money very carefully in places that make a difference.”

Buckley doesn’t intend to wear the CEO badge forever. The search for a replacement is underway, and a new advisory board will be announced over the coming weeks, as they put maximum effort into fundraising. The build, says Buckley was on schedule and the plan is to get it back to 100-percent build capacity by the end of May. They do not have any supplied equipment yet—for example the hydraulic foil control systems provided to teams—but a delay in the foil arms to be provided to all the teams bought them some time. Even if other teams are well down the track build-wise, conceivably, they won’t be sailing anytime soon.

Still, their rivals over at the New York YC’s American Magic have been making serious hay in Pensacola, Florida, over the winter with its test boat. The on-water experience divide grows greater every day, but Buckley says time in their simulator, which is currently staged somewhere in Massachusetts, is keeping them on the curve and ahead of the other late-comers at least.

“We do get lumped in with the other two late entry teams [Maltus Altus Challenge and Dutch Sail Challenge], but we are vastly different. The two other teams, to my knowledge, have not started building boats, and I’m not sure where they are on entry fees, but we want to see them to get to the finish line and get as many teams as possible to the finish line to make this a fantastic event.”

But time is time and time doesn’t wait for anyone, so there’s undeniable pressure to be on the starting line with a sorted AC75 and crew in Cagliari, Italy, in April 2020. One year in a Cup cycle is a blink. They’ve been building the boat since last year and feel he has a little more runway than one may think. There is not a go- or no-go date, so momentum is their fuel.

That momentum, he says, if driven by the comments he hears every day in support of the team’s vision. “A lot of kids under the age of 20 have never seen an All-American team in the America’s Cup,” he says. “Think about that. If we don’t get there, then add four or six years until they do see it. That’s why we wake up every day with a chip on our shoulder to get this done. It’s not for us. It’s for America, and that’s why we continue to push on it.

“Building a Cup team from scratch is hard,” he concludes. “There’s risk and there’s reward, and we know it’s never going to be easy, but we’re sure as hell not going to giving up.”

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US Sailing made a smart move not too long ago when they implemented their biennial Sailing Leadership Forum, which was essentially a mashup of its three big annual meetings: one for yacht clubs, one for one-design classes, and one for the hundreds of community sailing programs doing the good work at public-access points all across the country. With stakeholders finally huddled under one roof, that first Leadership Forum ended up being a long overdue coming out party for the community sailing operations that most racing sailors take for granted.

These are the hundreds of public-sailing establishments with open doorways, through which anyone can walk through and say, “I want to sail.” These are the sailing and boating enclaves on U.S. lakes, rivers, and harbors that survive on volunteers, skinny checkbooks, and fundraisers, to provide low-cost, low-hassle access to the sailing lifestyle. No exorbitant initiation fees, no recommendation letters, or previous experience required.

According to US Sailing, there are currently 36 Accredited Community Sailing Centers and hundreds more that funnel thousands of new and young sailors onto the water. Their collective importance, of course, is not lost on the organization with headquarters in Bristol, Rhode Island. These centers are doing outstanding programing, says John Pearce, US Sailing’s Youth Director, but there’s now a bigger opportunity coming. Not just for recreational sailing, but for racing, too.

Enter the Siebel Sailors Program, a funded initiative to put community sailing butts in new and modern boats, with top-tier coaches.

“We have active racing going on around the country and US Sailing is heavily involved in that,” Pearce says. “Yet, when we look around, we see new community sailing centers popping up and there’s fantastic activities at those sailing centers, but it doesn’t seem to crossover to a lot of what US Sailing does with racing, so there was a bit of a disconnect. In the spirit of experimenting, we’re looking at what we can we do to make this sport look better in 10 years and bring those two worlds together around kids in their prime learning years.”

The connection is now made through a “landmark” donation from the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation. Siebel, a tech-industry sailor from San Francisco, has put up “seven figures” to launch the Siebel Sailing Program with a stated purpose to “increase opportunity and diversity in the sport of sailing by providing resources and support to youth sailors at public access sailing centers across the country.”

RELATED: SailGP Brings the Action to San Fran

The windfall presents US Sailing a three-year timeline to get five fully-funded “Siebel Sailing Networks” up and running by the end of 2020. “The goal is to continue on through philanthropy and self-sustaining initiatives,” Pearce says.

According to a US Sailing press release, the program director (to be hired soon), alongside a working group of volunteer experts, will select qualified community sailing centers to establish five regional networks. Each Network will include four community sailing centers: one a “Primary Siebel Center” and three “Supporting Centers.” Center selection will be determined based on “several criteria, including an established infrastructure for learning, safe facilities, and equipment for youth, and a record of working with underserved youth populations.”

In total, 20 centers will be established by 2020. Each center will get a fleet of sailboats and “associated supervision and equipment.” The plan at the moment, Pearce says, is to have the first three Networks up and running by September (in San Francisco, somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic, and Chicago) with select coaches, boats and sailors in place The next two regional centers will come online in 2020 following a vetting process by US Sailing, with socioeconomic diversity being an important trait. “We feel good about big cities with big sailing communities that are close to the water and have good diversity,” Pearce says.

Each center will get a fleet of new RS Feva XLs, a lightweight roto-molded doublehanded dinghy popular with pre-teens and having international one-design class status. A “Siebel Coach,” employed by US Sailing will be engaged at each Network. Said coaches will oversee the fleet and “be a driving force in advising young sailors on how to take advantage of opportunities for experiences outside of competition, including learning other sailing disciplines, exploring careers in the marine industry, and serving in leadership roles at sailing organizations. As US Sailing staff members, another key goal for these Siebel Coaches will be to assist youth sailing organizations in their regions to implement best practices and grow sailing participation, including providing advanced training for instructors, coaches, and sailors throughout the region.”

Is it a strict development racing track for community sailing kids? Not necessarily, Pearce says. “We want it to be open and accessible. What we don’t want to do is have an elite selection for 10- or 12-year-olds and leave others on the dock. To have too many sailors and not enough boats, will be a great problem to have, but the concept of an elite-sailor pipeline doesn’t apply in this case. It’s more a jumping off point for kids to get involved and get more deeply into sailing and then that leads to whatever may follow.”

Pearce says he’s hopeful the Siebel Sailors will emerge with a high skill set, hooked on sailing, and follow their own path, and as they grow or age out, to move on to local high school sailing teams, another boat, or become instructors at the sailing centers themselves.

“We don’t want to rush them up the competitive ladder,” Pearce says. “Youth sailing is overrun by excess travel, expense and complexity, so what we want to see at each of these networks is 24 boats, a coach overseeing the whole thing and that’s your circuit right there. What would be an amazing outcome would be inter-squad competitions in the network to start attracting other sailors from the area that aren’t involved in the program but may want to come and race and play.

“I’ve heard recently that ‘regional youth sailing is dead,’ and I thought to myself, ‘if that’s true, we are dead.’ This is kind of an effort to bring it back to the simple way of doing it; keep it to the local region, sail against their friends and no need to go to the national championship until their good and ready.”

Siebel Coaches will primarily provide instruction and mentoring to sailors, says Pearce. As employees of the organization rather than the sailing centers themselves, the arrangement is unique, a first of its kind for US Sailing outside its Olympic coaching staff. Coaches will be provided new support boats (currently being sourced) and will oversee the care and maintenance of their respective fleets in cooperation with RS Sailing.

“By having the coaches immersed in the network and in the sailing centers I think there will be some magic that happens in terms of the coaches looking out for their sailors and the programs,” Pearce says. “They’re also a resource to all US Sailing members in the regions as well. This is something we’ve wanted for a long time. [The organization] wants to be more regionally active, and visible and this is a step in that direction. It will be a trickier relationship to make sure the coaches and the sailing centers are collaborating on the day to day stuff to make it all work.”

Like that first Sailing Leadership Forum, there’s a better chance for progress when everyone’s under the same roof. This movement, sparked by one benevolent sailor, US Sailing, RS and community sailing leaders, is what the sport needs to grow beyond the clubs.

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United States SailGP Team was the team on the water ahead of next weekend’s racing, grabbing the attention of shore-side and on-water viewers alike. Each SailGP team will be racing identical wing-sailed F50s, which have been specifically designed and engineered for SailGP competition. These technologically superior boats showcase the most precise and skilled sailing in the world. Capable of reaching speeds never before seen in on-water racing, the foiling F50 is powered by a 78-foot wing-sail and features cutting-edge technology that’s been in development for nearly 10 years. During San Francisco competition, sailors are anticipated to break sailing’s elusive 50-knot barrier, which translates to astonishing speeds of 60 mph.

The boat now features the Statue of Liberty on both the wingsail and on either side of the hull, adding to the patriotic flair of the boat sailed by an all-American crew.

“I love the new branding,” said helmsman Rome Kirby. “We changed it up for the U.S. debut and are excited to get the new look out on the water. It’s going to unreal to watch these boats in action. It’s so intense on the boat, and I’m sure you can see that off the boat. There is a high chance we will break the 50-knot barrier. It will be a wild ride.”

SailGP is redefining the sport, offering the next generation of high-adrenaline, competitive sailing. Bringing the sport closer to fans than ever before, spectators in the Bay Area will be afforded the opportunity to witness the action up close as teams representing the United States, Australia, China, France, Great Britain and Japan battle for the title on May 4 and 5.

Following the San Francisco grand prix, SailGP heads to New York (June 21-22) and Cowes, England (August 10-11), before the Marseille, France, final (September 20-22). The season will conclude with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race to determine the overall champion.

The United States SailGP Team is looking to climb the overall rankings following the inaugural SailGP event in Sydney. With home-water advantage, Kirby (Newport, Rhode Island), and teammates Mac Agnese (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), Taylor Canfield (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands), Riley Gibbs (Long Beach, California), Hans Henken (Coronado, California) and Dan Morris (Edina, Minnesota) are primed to challenge their competitors.

Currently, the Australia SailGP Team helmed by local legend Tom Slingsby sits atop the rankings, with Japan nipping at the Aussies’ heels. The U.S. SailGP Team sits in sixth place, but is a mere two points behind the fourth and fifth place teams.

“We are a new team still coming together, but have already made great progress,” said Kirby. “We learned a ton from the Sydney event, and are looking forward to sailing here in San Francisco. Our team likes sailing in big breeze and that is what San Francisco is known for. “

San Francisco Bay is known for its strong sea breezes and tidal flows and will present exciting challenges to each of the six national teams. Competing in a total of five short-format fleet races over the two-day period, the top two teams will face off in a match race finale on Sunday, May 5 to determine the San Francisco SailGP champion.

The San Francisco SailGP Race Village will run along the Marina Yacht Club Peninsula, providing stunning views of the competition, with the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island serving as backdrops. The course – designed to augment the Bay’s natural amphitheater shape – will be orientated adjacent to the shore.

The Race Village will serve as the center of the festivities, an ideal place to take in the race action and cheer on the national teams. The Race Village will offer an array of food and beverage options, music by a DJ, commentary during the racing to explain and supplement the action, and an award ceremony at the conclusion of the event.

While the SailGP Race Village is free to the public, special ticketed options are available to enhance the SailGP experience. With limited spots remaining, SailGP Race Village Plus offers access to a shoreside area with spectacular viewing, live race commentary, a seating area and refreshments available for purchase. SailGP Race Village Grandstand offers reserved grandstand seats with a premium front row view, live race coverage and commentary, and dedicated amenities – including refreshments – available for purchase.

Additionally, SailGP has partnered with the Red and White Fleet – San Francisco’s leading bay cruise operator – to provide two premium on-water experiences. Exclusive ticket packages are being offered, with both spectator boats positioned within the race zone, guaranteeing the closest viewing of the action, as well as complimentary food and beverage. Tickets are available at SailGP.com/SanFrancisco.

The SailGP APP – a next generation immersive experience that puts fans in control of the action – is available free via the App Store. Fans can view live data and video from the thrilling races and personalize the boats, camera angles and data that features in their feeds. An Android version is anticipated to be released prior to San Francisco SailGP.

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While the next Olympic regatta is 18 months away, the competition for the Olympic berths has reached a zenith. National teams are in the midst of a pitched battle for the limited country berths in each of the 10 classes, and individual athletes are sharpening their game in preparation for their respective country’s Olympic qualifying. Each nation can send a maximum of one athlete or team per class.

For 30 years, Biscayne Bay and Miami have been an important stop on the Olympic-class circuit. This year is no different. Among the 650 athletes, from 60 countries, are numerous Olympic medalists and world champions. The opening series for each class starts on Tuesday, January 29. The top 10 athletes or teams in each class will advance to the double-points medal race on Saturday, February 2, or Sunday, February 3. The Medal Races will be streamed live to a Jumbotron in Regatta Park. The public is encouraged to come watch the sailing while enjoying the Hempel World Cup Series Miami Festival including food trucks and the US Sailing Education Zone. It promises to be a great day for the whole family.

All the athletes and regatta operations for the 2019 Hempel World Cup Series Miami will be based out of Regatta Park and Coconut Grove Sailing Club. This facility is one of the finest onshore regatta venues in the United States with ample space for the athletes and event staff. The park is open to the public during the regatta and people are encouraged to visit Regatta Park and see current and future sailing heroes before or after racing.

Domestic Storylines

This regatta is a qualifier for the 2019 Pan American Games, an important step for many Western Hemisphere Sailors looking toward the Tokyo 2020 Games. The 2019 Pan Am Games will take place July 26 to August 11 in Lima, Peru.

The event is the second of two selection regattas for the 2019 US Sailing Team. Each American sailor and team that places in the top 10 in their respective fleets will qualify to officially represent the country as a member of the US Sailing Team.

In the Laser Radial class, a pair of South Florida natives are laser focused on a top finish here and the inside track for the U.S. berth in Enoshima. Paige Railey (Clearwater, Fla.) is a two-time Olympian and has been a top competitor in the class since winning the 2005 Laser Radial World Championship. Erika Reineke (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) is 12th in the world rankings, one spot behind Railey. Reineke, the 2018 US Sailing Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, has finished as high as sixth in the Laser Radial World Championships. Both struggled here last year, and each will be looking for a much stronger finish to start this critical year of racing.

Other South Florida sailors competing include Ravi Parent (Sarasota, Fla.) in the Nacra 17 class and Luke Muller (Fort Pierce, Fla.) in the Finn class.

Caleb Paine (San Diego, Calif.) won the only sailing medal for the U.S. team in Rio 2016, a bronze in the Finn class. He finished second in Miami last year, but was unable to crack the top three in the other big events in 2018. With the Finn class not currently on the Olympic roster for 2024, the Enoshima 2020 regatta could be Paine’s last chance for an Olympic medal.

After back-to-back wins in the 420 class in the Youth World Sailing Championships, 18-year-old twins Carmen and Emma Cowles (Larchmont, N.Y.) will make their Hempel World Cup Series debut this week. Unlike many other classes, where there is an established pecking order among the U.S. competitors, the Women’s 470 class is fairly wide open in terms of which team will earn the U.S. berth for the Enoshima 2020 Games. The Cowles twins have shown the ability to shine in big events, but the 470 is a notoriously challenging boat to learn, and they have a steep learning curve to climb.

International Storylines

The 49erFX team of Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (BRA) have won twice before in Miami, in 2013 and 2017. They won gold at Rio 2016 and missed out competing last year as Grael was sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race. Grael is the daughter of five-time Olympic medalist and Volvo Ocean Race champion Torben Grael.

Argentina’s Santiago Lange overcame lung cancer to win gold at Rio 2016 with Cecillia Carranza Saroli in the Nacra 17 class. The class has added lifting foils for this Olympic cycle, making the catamaran faster and more demanding. But Lange, now 57, is one old dog who can learn a new trick. The pair won silver in Miami one year ago and placed third at the 2018 Hempel Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. Toyko 2020 would be Lange’s seventh Olympic regatta.

Enrique Figueroa is Puerto Rico’s most successful sailor, representing the Caribbean island in the Tornado class at four Olympic Games from 1988 to 2004. He has claimed four Pan American Games gold medals as well as two Central American and Caribbean Games golds. He is now competing in the coed Nacra 17 class with Gretchen Ortiz and looking to qualify for his fifth Olympic regatta.

Marit Bouwmeester (NED) was the first athlete to be named for Tokyo 2020 after she won gold in the Laser Radial at the 2018 Hempel Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark. Bouwmeester is hoping to defend the gold medal she won at Rio 2016.

Peru’s Maria Belen Bazo is a South American Windsurfing Champion and a Youth Olympian. The Women’s RS:X sailor is targeting gold at her home Pan American Games and is using Miami to prepare for the competition.

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For America’s Cup rumor slingers, the December 12 announcement that Taylor Canfield’s and Mike Buckley’s American challenge for the 36th edition in Auckland in 2021 was accepted by the Defender was a long time coming.

The long-time-coming is true as well for Canfield and Buckley who, between their own pro sailing gigs, have been knocking on doors and calling in favors for nearly two years as they hustled to fill a war chest. The road to the Cup is a long one, however, and even with the support of Los Angeles’ Long Beach YC and a millionaire’s club of patrons, the upstart team of first timers enter the Cup arena as a sports better’s long shot against the experienced juggernauts of INEOS Team UK, Luna Rossa, and the New York YC’s American Magic, all of whom have been busy designing, sailing, and training in earnest for many months now.

“I think this will be a defining moment for American sailing,” said Canfield, raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands but now living in Miami. “We have already begun assembling our sailing roster and will announce more details, soon. It has been my professional goal to compete in the America’s Cup my whole life and I am confident we will be very competitive in Auckland.”

According to a team spokesperson, the team intends to play the long game — at least a few Cup cycles — as an all-American squad, but the current order of business is to continue to recruit a team, both sailing and shore, while building a fan base under the livery of Stars & Stripes Team USA. The team name, says Buckley, of New York, New York, is a nod to Dennis Conner’s iconic brand of America’s Cups past.

“We are the next generation,” says Buckley. “We feel honored to revive that legacy and met with Dennis in person where he affirmed both our use of the name as well as our goal to create an authentic and inclusive American team.”

With Conner’s blessing, and with the support of Long Beach YC commodore Bill Durant, who’s signature event is LBYC’s annual Congressional Cup match race regatta, Canfield and Buckley will continue their search for homegrown talent while construction of an AC75 continues in Michigan. Design direction is being overseen by JB Braun, of Marblehead, Massachusetts. Braun, who’s been in the Cup game for two decades, is the Director of Design and Engineering with North Sails and directed Oracle Team USA’s sail and rig package for the 34th and 35th editions of the Cup, so he knows plenty of both the aero and foil considerations. Not to mention complications.

Braun, of course, brings a direct link to North Sails and its technical resources. Ken Read, North Sails president and Stars & Stripes alumni under Conner, says Braun will continue to his current role with the company while integrating his new America’s project.

“North Sails has a long-standing history of ‘loaning’ key designers and engineers to the design groups of America’s Cup syndicates, which not only helps us make better product for each team but also pushes our software and our smartest people to completely new levels,” Read says. “We currently have key designers and software engineers working with Ineos, Stars and Stripes, Luna Rosa and ETNZ.”

The build of its AC75, the team states in its first announcement, has been accelerate with the purchase of a “design and technology” package from Emirates Team New Zealand. Design packages vary from Cup to Cup, and while Buckley declined to share the contents of the team’s starter package, he does say they’ve been at it for a while now. “The lights have been on for a while and the boat is under construction in Michigan [Holland],” he says. “That part fits into our story because in 2008 to 2009 manufacturing was shutting down shop there, and now we’re back there in the manufacturing capital of America building a boat, and we’re really happy about that.”

With limited in-house design resources, the design package would likely be thorough, says Scott Ferguson, design director for Oracle Team USA in the previous Cup. “I don’t know what they negotiated, but if you don’t fill a decent-size design team with structural engineers and the like, you’re going to have to rely on information going directly to the builder. So, what a package might include would be full scantlings of the hull and the hull structure. The most sensitive part of this whole thing will be the foils and that’s one area where Team New Zealand would hold back on certain things. The package will certainly have all the basics to get the boat built and sailing.”

What’s the going rate to a get a jump on the AC75? Several million for sure, says Ferguson, and of course, everything is negotiable from there.

Leading the management team as CEO is 36-year-old entrepreneur Justin Shaffer, of San Francisco, who left his career in the tech field to pursue a career in professional big-boat sailing. He’s supported by COO Tod Reynolds, the director of Chicago’s Match Race Center who oversaw the hugely successful America’s Cup World Series Chicago event. Melinda Erkelens, of San Francisco, has been retained as General Counsel to guide the team through the Cup’s sea of red tape, a role she is versed in having counseled both Oracle Team USA and Artemis Racing in past Cup campaigns.

“We’re not running it like a first-timer team,” says Buckley. “We got to a point where we were comfortable properly launching this team. We will be lean and mean, and we’re not going to have a huge group of employees. We are here to win this thing and we will have as many smart people as we possibly can. Building an organization has been the most important piece of the puzzle over the last six months. Getting everyone onboard legitimizes our organization and that’s something that Taylor and I needed.”

With Buckley and Canfield essentially East Coasters, how is it that the team landed in Long Beach? “We were trying to get the right fit,” says Buckley. “There are so many great clubs in the United States, and we had to see which one felt like home. That’s what it feels like in Long Beach Yacht Club. Taylor has won for Congressional Cups there and they love him in that city. There is no other place like it in the world, with the volunteers that show up for that event. We hope that we can involve all yacht clubs, but Long Beach is home.”

“They’re great people, very supportive members,” Canfield adds. “It’s incredible what they do at the Con Cup every year. They dig into their pockets and put on an amazing event and that’s the type of people we want to have involved in a project like ours.”

There is much work to be done, and fundraising will continue all the way thought the campaign, says Buckley, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It keeps people hungry, he says, and he’ll have a hungry team that will fight all the way to the end.

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In 10 years, only 10 years, the Olympics return to Los Angeles. If it’s your job to put the United States on top in medals won, that might be the right amount of time. Thirty‑four years ago, at Los Angeles, American sailors medaled in every class. Lately, not so much. But on the upside …

American kids won four gold medals at the 2018 Youth Worlds. And one silver medal. And the Nations Cup for the best national performance. And it was no accident. Four years ago, Project Pipeline kicked off to join the talent development of regional youth programs with Olympic-level coaching from the U.S. National Team. Now we see what that can do. The kids are cranking, the kids believe, and maybe, just maybe, it’s easier for the rest of us to believe.

RELATED: Medals of Aarhus

For the next huge step along the pipeline, we head to California: It’s a bright summer day, 1227 PDT, and the chief of U.S. Olympic Sailing, Malcolm Page, has the floor in a container-village ­restaurant on Treasure Island, in the middle of San Francisco Bay. His audience is not average. Picture a fair sampling of every American sailor on an Olympic track, some of them dazed from trans­atlantic/trans­continental flights plus an early call to tour the skunk works of their new technology partner, Autodesk. Also on hand, the full administrative complement of American Olympic sailing. Meeting in a “container village” sends a message. Oracle Racing has donated its container-village America’s Cup base to US Sailing, to be installed on Treasure Island and to become the first full-service, full-time training base for U.S. Olympic sailors. When you talk about realizing a dream, having ­something as solid as an America’s Cup base picked up wholesale and hauled over from Bermuda goes a long way toward making the point.

On this day, the container base is sitting in a warehouse in Oakland, awaiting permitting, but the point is made. “We’re flipping the system,” Page tells his audience. “The American model has been athlete-driven, athlete-promoted. That stopped working when the IOC dropped the prohibition against professionals, and other countries professionalized their sailors. We’re not going to have government funding like the U.K., but here on San Francisco Bay, Americans who support Olympic sailing are creating a year-round center of excellence, a place where coaches will be with their athletes every day they need to be, working closely with the top one or two but with their eyes on another half dozen in development. It will become a place accommodating everything an athlete needs, from trainers and physiotherapists to, eventually, a solution to housing and support for access to higher education. What you see here is US Sailing planting a stake in the ground on the West Coast. What you see is evidence of the most important thing that could happen in Olympic sailing in America, a cultural shift, and it’s being led by the San Francisco Bay Area, and it matters that this is the ­technology hub of the USA.”

And you, dear reader, will be needing some background: San Francisco’s Treasure Island was created of landfill for the 1939 World’s Fair. It soon became a base for the Navy, which returned it to the city in 1997. The rest has been a long time coming. There is an ambitious plan to renovate the island for homes, office space, retail, hotels and 300 acres of parks over the next 20 years. Looking back 20 years, Treasure Island Sailing Center was created on a protected cove on the leeward side of the island to do all the things you expect in community sailing. TISC’s signature experiential learning for fourth-graders was seeded during the 2013 America’s Cup. A major supporter since has been the St. Francis Sailing Foundation, which sparked the turn of events we’re relating here. The foundation’s leadership created FAST USA, the Facility for Advanced Sailing and Technology, and FAST is now partnered with TISC and US Sailing. The goals are to transform American Olympic sailing and to elevate every feature of community sailing on San Francisco Bay — kids rubbing shoulders with the greats, inspiration flowing both ways. Coordinating with the Southern California city of Long Beach, where planning is already underway for 2028 Olympic sailing, was an early order of business.

It’s a long-term vision.

“It takes time to develop an Olympic-level athlete,” Page says, drawing from his own experience of choking the first time out, falling short the second, then winning gold medals in subsequent Olympics as a 470-class crew. And yes, it was the Australian anthem that played while he was on the podium. There is criticism that the United States did not hire its own, but what I know is that the sailors are happy. Paige Railey, celebrating her return after a (courageous) year of rehabbing from injuries, declares, “The camaraderie of this team is a thing of beauty.”

But why plant Olympic training on San Francisco Bay? Credit the readiness of TISC to have temporary facilities functioning in 2018, with a multiyear plan for the build-out. Credit the support of the St. Francis Sailing Foundation, a new outlook at US Sailing and uniquely varied sailing conditions. Finn bronze medalist Caleb Paine has invested countless sailing hours here. Paired now with training partner Luke Muller, he says, “San Francisco Bay allows you to choose your conditions. For speed testing, we go to the East Bay. For light wind, we go to the South Bay. To challenge ourselves, we go to the cityfront and sail in the Golden Gate wind funnel.” On many days of the year, San Francisco Bay offers a menu mimicking Rio, Tokyo, Marseilles, whatever the need. That menu was part of the sell when FAST chairman Peter Stoneberg toured Page around and pitched the notion of planting this stake in this ground. Stoneberg says, “I have a friend in Olympic skiing, and I asked him what made the difference when American skiing turned around and started winning medals. He said it was creating a center in Utah where the skiers have everything that could be ‘home’ for an athlete in training. We’re building that home for Olympic sailors.”

Following lunch and a crash course on the vision for FAST, the sailors, coaches and Olympic staff make their way to the sailing center to mingle with public-school kids and then get serious about getting wet on San Francisco Bay. The neighborhood surrounding is a zone of destruction and ­construction — the island is thick with piles of rubble — and the sailing center is still the diamond in the rough familiar to locals, but Olympic training on San Francisco Bay is launched. Soon, FX newbies are testing their chops in the protected cove, while on the Laser front, Charlie Buckingham, Chris Barnard, Erika Reineke and Railey mix it up with budding hopefuls from Project Pipeline. It’s two years to Tokyo, six years to Marseilles, 10 years to LA, and it’s about time.

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