The following are some reflections on the Snipe Junior World Championships by SSA member Trevor Davis. Over the last year, Trevor and his crew Rees Tindall worked really hard on their Worlds program, practicing, sailing many regattas and fundraising to support their campaign. Fleet 532 is proud of their effort and happy to see the positive experiences that resulted. Special thanks to fleet member Brett Davis (no relationship, other than being a Jumbo) for taking Trevor “under his wing” with the generous loan of his boat over the year. Brett had a very similar experience as a junior and I am sure is very pleased that he could enable the experience for the next generation. This is the kind of camaraderie the Snipe Class is known for and as you will read below makes for a life long Snipe sailor!
Hey everybody,
Our Junior World Championship has concluded and I have just arrived back in Maryland. We finished in 18th, which certainly was not the result we had hoped for but we’re walking away having learned some very valuable lessons. After reflecting over the past couple of days, I think I can boil down our underperformance to a few key factors, which include our lack of experience in venues with extremely steady wind directions and the aggressive nature of international fleets. I’m really looking forward to carrying what I’ve learned here to my next international event where I will hopefully find more success.
With all that said, I will also carry the experiences I had off the water in the city of Porto and the friendships I had built with members of our US team and some of the international teams for quite a long time. While we weren’t cut any slack on the racecourse, Rees and I feel like the most fortunate guys in the world that we were able to put together these last few months of sailing and traveling due to the generous support of all of you.
Looking forward, I’m going to take the next 2 weeks or so camping and visiting friends as a break from sailing and then in the second half of this month I’ll move back to Boston and begin pre-season training with my Tufts University team. After this fall semester finishes, I’m planning on doing some of the US Snipe events in Florida this winter in between working as a coach for some junior teams down there.
Thanks again for your support and we feel that although this wasn’t reflected in the final score, all of our efforts over the past few months have paid themselves off many times over in unforgettable experiences.
Trevor
Annapolis Snipe Fleet 532 