Nik and I are now back from the Youth Worlds. It’s been a great experience and yes, I can see why some people call it the “Youth Olympic Games”.
The opening and the closing ceremonies were really a bit like the real Olympics, even the sultan of Oman visited the closing ceremony. We’ve heard the national anthems, saw the flags of the 59 participating countries… I was very impressed.
Our own sailing performance was much less impressive. We never really figured out the wind patterns in the Gulf of Oman. We’ve had the expected light wind but it was super shifty and with occasional “lifts” that would push one team forward but not the team five meters away. Of course, the wind was the same for all sailors and some figured out how to read the wind patterns better than others. Our German friends really aced that. We had beaten then at the 420 Europeans by six places but this time they have been ahead of all and became World Champions, big congrats!
Big congrats also to our Swiss team members Anja who won silver in the ILCA6 women’s fleet as well as Axel and Noemie who won bronze in the Nacra 15!
Oman 2021 has been a great experience and I was super happy that it all worked out despite Covid, the bumpy selection process and the problems getting free from school. I just wished we had sailed better in these difficult conditions.
As a small remedy we got some nice pics shot by Mark Lloyd (@lloydImages) and Sander van der Borch @sandervanderborch.photography; ; https://omansailgallery.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/2021-Youth-Sailing-World-Championships-presented-by-Hempel/C0000K1HJcK8yQEE).

Nik and I were again selected into Swiss Sailing Youth Team, the highest support category in junior sailing in Switzerland.
2022 will be the transition year into the 49er and we are very much looking forward to it,

Nik and I were selected to represent Switzerland at the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championships in Mussanah, Oman. We are *very* proud and grateful!
I am very grateful for all the support I received throughout the years from my Club SC Stäfa, my region Swiss Sailing Team Region 5, Swiss Sailing Team and our super coach Simone Malagugini.

Nik and I have been trying our new boat class during fall vacation. We've had perfect conditions with 8-10 knots and flat water. Plus two excellent coaches. A great start into the 49er!

Main learnings for me: (1) figuring out the stuff with the trapeze is not easy and (ii) the crew needs to be a machine and I need to become more of a machine myself. For now, we'll stay light for max performance at the 420 World Sailing Worlds in Oman (selection pending).

We’ve had an excellent week with excellent wind at Lake Garda. Just our conditions. We really enjoyed it and feel well prepared for the World Sailing Worlds in Oman before Christmas - if we actually will be selected. We will sail two two more regattas in Italy before hopefully taking off.

This camp was joint with sailors from our region, around 100 junior sailors in Optimist, 420, 29er and Laser. A monster camp and kudos to Reinhard Rigling and Jaro Kleisner for getting it organized!!

My brother Niklas and I, along with more junior members of my club (and our not so junior father) represented our club at two events of Swiss Sailing League. There was close to no wind in Spiez but we had to sail anyway which sent  us to 8th place. There was excellent wind on day 2 in Neuchatel where we sailed three bullets, a 3rd and a 2nd place. There was very little wind on day 3 where we did really badly. On day 1 my brother helmed in lightwind conditions (I couldn’t sail due to school), reaching two fifths and a first place in races of six boats. We ended up 5th in Neuchatel and 6th overall in Swiss Sailing League Challenge League (second of three leagues) which means we will remain in Challenge League in 2022.

We’ve sailed two national regattas in Switzerland one with very little, another with essentially no wind. Not our favorite conditions as we are no longer light. We ended up third place at both events but at least there are a few ultra lightwind photos.

Our coach Simone Malagugini taught us to fly. All of use took off immediately. Lots of fun at Lake Como.

We’ve sailed the Swiss Sailing League Youth Cup on Lake Thun over the summer holidays. The wind conditions were… well, even worse than at the 420 Europeans and 420 Worlds. I have been sailing with my brother Niklas and two other juniors from my club, SC Stäfa. The locals from Regattaclub Oberhofen and Thunersee Yachtclub really aced it and distanced the rest of the fleet. We ended up fifth place, not really what we were hoping for. Of course, we didn’t train together at all.
Anyway, felixklingpictures.com shot some very nice pics (direct link: https://felixklingpictures.com/portfolio/2021-swiss-sailing-league-youth-cup/).

Our coach Simone promised us 20 knots seabreeze every single day during the Europeans in Formia. Wel,, that did not age so well. We've again had super light wind and it was even hotter (which is why there was no seabreeze in the first place).

No single day with plus eights knots. Not ideal for a heavy team like us.

Not ideal to start with a UDF either. That dragged us down quite a bit since we subsequently had to be a lot more careful not to collect more of these three letters.

Taking this all into consideration we did pretty well. 18th overall and 5th U18 team. I have been the best German sailor atthe Europeans but I think Germany only sent the second best sailors.

Ironically, there were even more teams at the Europeans than at the Worlds and the overseas teams participated in both regattas.

We again were the by very far best Swiss (2nd Swiss ranked 44) which I means that we will be representing Switzerland at the World Sailing World Championships in Oman before Christmas.puts us way ahead in the race for selection for the World Sailing championships before Christmas.

https://2021junioreuropeans.420sailing.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall

No photos of us or of anybody, essentially. There's only a screenshot of our 7th place in the gold fleet.


Next stop: J/70 Youth Cup in Oberhofen.

After we had been breaking the Ligurian waves essentially since the end of February we thought we’d do great at the 420 worlds held in Aregai which is, in fact, in Liguria.

Well, our coach Simone had not been that hopeful since Aregai is known for light wind during high summer – and so it was. Except for a single day with decent wind we’ve had ultra lightwind conditions. Like really, really lightwind. Not a plus for a heavy team like us.

We finished 28th overall which actually is not bad at all given that it’s the best teams from all over the world who had to qualify for the worlds. Still, the result was a big disappointment for us.

The good news is that we were by far the best Swiss team (2nd Swiss ranked 42) which puts us way ahead in the race for selection for the World Sailing championships before Christmas. Another good news is that I am much less sensitive to heat than I thought I am.

We also got great photos taken by Andrea Lelli.

Results:

Very nice conditions - and, most importantly - NIK IS BACK!!!

After the good wind we had to sail our boats from Imperia to Sanremo we've had two good two training days followed by two regatta days with no wind, one regatta day with great wind and a final regatta day with too much wind...
We actually did very well in the ranking but it's been obvious that Simeo and I hadn't spent much time one the water together. It still was great fun to sail with Simeo!
We ended up on 6th place, one rank short of a trophy. Anyway, Andrea Lelli took some great pics and I've glad to be back in regatta mode. We have sail number SUI55645 and bow number 026 and the cool orange spinnaker we got from Philipp.
The other two teams from the region did also very well, 9th and 19th out of 70 in total.

I was super happy when Simeo wanted to sail Sanremo Carnival Race with me. Simeo is from Lake Geneva and we had many regatta battles with him and his helm.
As a warm up we sailed from Imperia to Sanremo in 15-20 knots and 12 degrees Celsius. We sailed with an average speed of 9.32kn and a top speed of 13.8kn. It took us 1h 36min to get to Sanemo.
It was great fun even though we could hardly move our fingers to unrig our boat when we arrived in Sanremo.
Here's some video capture:

Nachdem sich Nik beim Skifahren - also eher beim Skifliegen - ja verletzt hatte dachte ich, jetzt gibt es erst mal kein Training für längere Zeit.
Aber ich hatte Glück, und Theo Pech. Theo segelt nämlich mit Liam und beide sind mit uns im Regionalkader und im Swiss Sailing Team. Theo hat nicht Skifliegen probiert sondern ihm ist einfach ein Ski abgeflogen und der hat dann sein Bein aufgeschnitten. Jedenfalls hatte dann auch Liam keinen Steuermann und ich war froh, dass er mit mir in Imperia segeln war.
Ich habe es nämlich auch mal ganz kurz ohne Liam probiert der mal kurz aus dem Boot gefallen war. Das war kurz ganz lustig aber zu zweit ist schon besser. Im Video seht Ihr wie das aussieht wenn man alleine segelt:

Nik und ich hatten vor Weihnachten Einzeltraining bei Simone in Alassio in der Nähe von Imperia.
Wir hatten oft SEHR viel Wind, man kann es wie immer im Film unten nicht richtig sehen. Es war sehr gut, wieder auf dem Wasser zu sein.
Es war alles etwas merkwürdig weil die Restaurants alle zuhatten und auch niemand umme gewesen ist.
Wir haben vor der Abfahrt einen Schnelltest gemacht und haben ausser uns und dem Superjaro der uns und seinen Sohn (segelt Laser) gefahren hat auch niemanden getroffen.
Ich bin danach mit einem weiteren negativen Schnelltest nach Hamburg geflogen um in Dänemark mit meiner Familie Weihnachten zu feiern.

Leider ist Nik nicht nach Dänemark gefahren sondern in die Skiferien. Dort hat er sich vier Rippen gebrochen und fällt bis Ende Februar aus.

Meine kleine Schwester Nina und ich haben gestern das traditionelle Absegeln unseres Segelclubs gewonnen.
Es war Ninas erste Regatta und sie kann gar nicht segeln.
Das Niveau war jetzt nicht nicht ganz so hoch wie bei der ausgefallenen WM, dafür ist der Pokal riesig und Nina (und der Wettfahrtleiter) haben sich trotzdem sehr gefreut:

Nik und ich sind in der höchsten Förderungsstufe von Swiss Sailing im Rahmen des Talent Pools. Als einziges 420er Team dürfen wir uns jetzt auch für das Youth Team bewerben.
Besser geht’s nicht :-).

Obwohl es lange Zeit gut aussah für die WM in Sanremo ist sie nun abgesagt worden. Sehr schade für uns, wir sind in der Form unseres Lebens.
Doof auch, dass ich drei Tage lang meine Schule geputzt habe um für die WM frei zu bekommen.

In der ersten Herbstferienwoche waren wir wieder in Riva zum Trainieren gewesen. Dieses Jahr ist es am Gardasee besonders windig gewesen – genau unsere Bedingungen!

Wir sind jetzt so gut aufeinander abgestimmt, dass wir sogar mit Masken vor den Augen segeln können:

Vor den Ferien waren wir in Lausanne zum Talent Scout Camp von Swiss Sailing, das ist die nationale Sichtung der besten Seglerinnen und Segler.
Obwohl es in Lausanne war hatten wir an zwei Tagen richtig guten Wind.
An einem Tag war sehr wenig Wind, aber obwohl wir gross und schwer sind, haben wir trotzdem alle Rennen gewonnen.

Letztes Wochenende hatte ich keine Prüfung in der Schule. Deshalb haben wir die nationale Regatta (=PM) auch gewonnen, und das bei erbärmlichen Winterverhältnissen und trotz unseres wenig leichtwindtauglichen Gewichts.
Ausser dem Wind hat es irgendwie auch an Photos gefehlt (oder ich habe sie nicht gefunden) aber es gab eine schöne Thermoskanne als Preis und eine Rangliste.