Push learning now to win later

With elite events such as SailGP, America’s Cup, and The Ocean Race requiring female participation, and their foiling boats going faster and faster, opportunities to upskill are necessary. This report is from 2024 Olympian Erika Reineke:

With the support of America One Racing (A1R), our country’s top tier female sailors were able to progress their foiling skills using the Switch Class in Long Beach, CA. Attending the week-long camp was Paris Henken (Olympian), Maya Kwasniewski, Sophia Reineke, Stephanie Roble (Olympian), Helena Scutt (Olympian), and myself.

With all of us coming from different sailing backgrounds, the knowledge we gained from each other was monumental. One thing we all shared was that we have wanted a learning opportunity like this for a VERY long time.

It’s no secret that single-handed foiling in the Moth Class, though impressive, comes with a great expense, leaving many sailors on the bench when it comes to racing. The Switch Class builds on the foundations of what the WASZP Class has done so well and offers the next step up in accessible high-performance foiling.

With its one-design status, the Switch focuses on the racing rather than equipment advantages while still utilizing the latest high performance foiling technology. In other words, skill wins.

Since the boats are one-design, each of us was able to jump into one of A1R’s hulls and begin lining-up, testing, and learning immediately. Practicing low riding, light air take-offs, straight-line speed, sail set-up, maneuvers, starting, and match racing were all on the cards.

“I was really energized by line-ups, practice starts and racing with other outstanding female sailors with various levels of experience,” noted Scutt.

Each day, briefings led by Ben Rosenberg and Gavin Balls included video, data, and sail-shape comparisons from the previous practice while the training day concluded with a capture meeting of the session.

The camp coinciding with the announcement of a United States America’s Cup challenge hitting the press was nothing other than perfect timing. As the 38th America’s Cup will include a female onboard, this means with certainty that selected women will gain knowledge and experience on the AC75.

Additionally, with the Women’s America’s Cup back online for its second edition, these Switch camps are absolutely necessary to streamline the foiling skills needed in the AC40.

As this is the first time an elite women’s single-handed foiling camp has taken place on American soil, we couldn’t be more eager to gain further exposure in this field and the work starts now.

“I left feeling inspired and excited about the future of women’s foiling and high performance sailing in the United States,” shared Roble.

Thank you America One Racing, the Sailing Foundation of New York, Schoonmaker Foundation, American Magic, and the Saint Francis Sailing Foundation for believing in this vision, seeing the value the Switch Class has as a platform to raise our level, and understanding the urgency to host more of these camps. Let’s push the learning hard now so we can win later.