Blouin takes Waszp US National title

Published on October 20th, 2019

The 2019 Waszp US National Championship pitted 11 sailors against each other in a gusty, shifty 18 knot breeze, won by Sam Blouin on October 18-20 in Oyster Bay, NY.

“The race course was protected by the land so it was really, really shifty; I stayed set up for the lulls so I could carry my speed through them,” said Blouin. “We had really awesome, fun racing this weekend; everybody was trading the lead back and forth. I tried to win them all but Ben [Rosenberg] gave me a really hard time and Hoel [Menard] was looking really good out there too.”

Some of the lulls fell below foiling pressure so the top competitors were able to avoid them or stay powered up through them.

“For me, the most important thing was keeping in touch with the pressure downwind and really making sure I was staying out of the lulls and constantly sailing in the biggest puff possible,” said second place finisher, Hoel Menard, a 15 year old French-American. He is currently competing in the Nacra 15 class with the hope of finishing in the top three in the US Nacra 15 Youth Championship in June. His ultimate goal is to go to the Olympics.