By Andy Hochart
In July, a dream came true when junior sailors and coaches from KYC traveled to Italy to compete in the 2024 O’pen Skiff World Championships on Lake Garda at the Circolo Vela Arco. Representing Team Hawaii USA were three sailors in the Under 15 division Dylan Ham, Lucas Doran, and myself (Andy Hochart) and coaches Steven Hochart and Michael Kai Hochart from KYC. The event had over 300 sailors from 14 different countries. The competition took place over 7 days with 5 days of racing. On the first day, the event began with a fun and engaging opening ceremony which included every sailor marching through a historic Italian town representing each country with flags and team shirts. The ceremony was very cool walking through an old town and meeting all of the other sailors from around the world.
During the races, the fleet was split into three different groups based on age U12, U15, and U17. The U15 fleet had 200 sailors divided into three groups because it was the biggest fleet. The first three days of the regatta were very exciting and fun with 15-20 knots of wind. We raced 3 races a day and each race was almost an hour. The last two days were a bit crazy. Unfortunately, we only had 1 race per day due to thunder and lightning storms. The wind forecast was 10-15 knots of wind and all of the boats had to rush into shore. Luckily the Hawaii team all got a tow-in from coach Steve before the storm got worse. Overall the racing was very close with the best competitive sailors to sail against from all around the world.
Throughout the event, the Hawaii USA team had good sportsmanship and expressed the Aloha spirit to all the sailors. The KYC team represented Hawaii well! This was our first international competition! The overall experience was a lot of fun and helped us learn a lot. The memories we made in Italy were ones to last forever. Including meeting new friends and enjoying being in Lake Garda, one of the most amazing places to sail, and eating lots of pasta, pizza, and gelato! During the regatta, I was able to meet up with an old friend, Lochie Faulkner from Napier, New Zealand who was also competing. We met during the 2019 O’pen Skiff World Championships when Michael Kai, Makani, Sage, JP, and other KYC sailors were in NZ competing. After 5 years, it was so cool to see him again and reconnect. We also got to see my friend, Ewan Brazle from Team NZ and the Swiss team had coach CJ Perez from Hawaii. We were lucky to meet a lot of new sailors from around the world and sail against the best in the world. I was also fortunate to be able to sail in such a beautiful place. Lake Garda is an awesome place with super cool waterfalls. The experience of waking up and looking out at a lake full of windsurfers, foilers, and sailboats was just incredible.
Thank you to the KYC Junior Sailing Program, all the parents for the support, Michael Kai and Steve Hochart for coaching, Sage Andrews for helping us by calling our team to brief us about the winds at Lake Garda and helping us find good protein bars to eat on the water, and Jesse Andrews for helping the three of us prepare for the regatta and all the hard work he has done for us! Thank you to my KYC teammates for being there supporting each other and enjoying sailing together!
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