Standing taller on the big stage

America One Racing (A1R) is on a mission to raise the level of elite USA sailing, identifying athletes and events that would benefit from support. Their Olympic roster excelled at the 2025 Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta, and more recently were on the podium at the 2025 WASZP Games on July 19-25 in Weymouth, UK.

The WASZP Games, considered the Class World Championship, attracted 248 sailors to compete in this one design foiler. A1R, which has identified the WASZP as a gateway class to develop advanced skills, provides this update from Weymouth:

Pearl Lattanzi (USA) was crowned the 2025 Women’s Waszp Games Champion with a race to spare. Additionally, on the podium was Gavin Ball (USA) who finished 5th overall and 1st in the Core age group (21-29) category.

For the past few weeks, the USA WASZP squad has been training hard in Weymouth, the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. The trip to the UK started with a few days of training that led into the Pre-Games Championships, a three day event held before the WASZP Games. The Pre-Games allowed the squad to race the international field, get some practice on start lines with 70 boats, and see the race areas for the Games.

Between the WASZP Pre-Games and the Games, the Women held the Women’s WASZP Sprint Championships. This consisted of SailGP style courses and slalom courses, and Pearl came out as champion of this too, qualifying her for the Sail GP WASZP Grand Finals in Sydney in February.

The 2025 WASZP Games kicked off July 21 as the largest foiling single event in history. With ages ranging from 11 to 60+,  it was a great event for all involved. The USA had 16 athletes competing.

The first two days of racing had winds in the mid to upper teens. The 8.2m and 7.6m WASZPs had 8 qualifying course races. With 8 races complete, the athletes dropped their worst two scores and the fleets were split into Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The USA had 8 qualify for gold fleet, 6 for silver, and 2 for bronze.

The forecast for the next three days did not provide wind as great as the first two days. Wednesday was originally designed to be slalom racing and a long distance race for the fleets, however, with the forecast not promising wind until later afternoon, the plan was changed to course racing.

The fleets hit the water around 2pm, with bronze sailing inside the harbor and gold and silver headed outside. The wind proved to bet better inside, and the bronze fleet managed to get three races off quickly. As rain showers rolled in, it made the wind outside the harbor unstable and eventually the two courses were moved inside to finish the last few races for the day.

Similar conditions prevailed for the second day of finals racing where the silver and bronze fleet inside the harbor managed three races to the one race gold had outside of the harbor, which forced gold to have to do course racing on the last day where bronze attempted sprint racing before switching to course due to the wind strength, and silver being cancelled for the day.

From early on in the racing, Pearl proved herself to be the one to beat in the women’s category. Averaging a 16th place finish in qualifying, she entered gold fleet with a 26 point edge on the next best woman (men and women competed in the same fleet). On the men’s side, the USA came out of qualifying with some great positions, having three boats in the top 10.

As the finals racing started, racing became tight and every little mistake was noticed, which meant the athletes had to execute each race. When asked about sailing in the big fleets, Bryce Huntoon (USA), who finished 55th overall, “I didn’t find myself getting overwhelmed with the size of the fleets but what was pretty clear was that the starts were very feisty and close and the margins were really just tight on the on all of the starts.”

The change in wind conditions between the qualifying and the finals seemed to mix up the results a little too. Those that were able to successfully do well in both came out on top. 12th place overall finisher.

“Qualifying was really good, but I struggled in the inconsistent breeze and keeping my head out of the boat in the light air and dropped the a few places,” noted Hoel Menard who finished 12th overall. “I was happy with the qualifying; I was happy to see how I could do when it was pretty steady breeze.

“On the first day it was a little lighter and the second day was windier and I did well in both those. I really wanted to get top ten, that was the goal, and I came a little short so I was a little disappointed, but I expected I’d have some issues in the light air finals racing being one of the bigger sailors and so I guess it went as expected.”

As the finals races progressed, Pearl was able to slowly add to her lead, securing a big enough margin heading into the last race that she had secured the title.

“I’m so happy right now, it doesn’t even feel real,” said Pearl as she hit the ramp. “ I’ve wanted this for a long time. It was a really competitive week of racing and the most boats I’ve ever sailed against. I’m very proud to be representing the USA and Hawaii. We have a great team at home and America One Racing puts it all together and makes it happen. I’m so happy, I can’t believe it.”

“I’m so incredibly proud of Pearl and the work she has put in over the last year,” said Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias, one of the America One Racing coaches for the WASZP Games primarily focusing on the women at the event. “The hard work she has put in on and off the water to get stronger and improve her game has been impressive and I couldn’t be happier for her. She is very talented and has a bright future ahead of her.”

Top US Finished, Gavin Ball finished 5th in the overall standings and 1st in the Core Category, ages 21-29. “I’m happy with the result. I was able to get quite a few bullets and gold fleet which is I’m really happy about. I definitely made a fair amount of mistakes that I’m gonna be thinking about for quite a bit.”

First-time Game’s competitor Jaxon Hottinger (USA) added, “After the pre-games, I had a lot of confidence coming in the event that I could have a top thirty overall in the gold fleet but I’m not too happy with my result [after finishing 63rd in Gold], but I am happy I made gold fleet. I feel like there were a lot of ups and downs in the event.”

In addition to Tobias, the USA team had A1R coaches Ravi Parent and Tom Burnham.

“I think the squad did quite well,” shared Parent. “Everyone has different goals and are at different levels that they’re coming here but I think that throughout different times throughout the week people worked on different things and everyone saw progress and at the end we had some pretty good results. Of course, winning the Woman’s Championship was also excellent.”

The USA WASZP Squad will now work their way home and start planning their path for the 2026 WASZP Games on March 18-29 om in Pensacola, FL. As Hottlinger shared after racing, “I just know that there’s a lot of things I need to work on for the Pensacola Games and that’s what I’m looking forward to in the coming year. I’m looking forward to taking a month to reflect on this event and then go straight back into training.”