ANTIGUANICE YACHTING INSIDER NEWSLETTER

Jules Mitchell participates in the 2015 Cork International/Sail Canada Youth Championships.  Photo (c) Luka Bartulovic.

Earlier this month Antigua’s Jules Mitchell participated in two world-class events held in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.  The first was the 2015 Cork International/Sail Canada Youth Championships and the second was the Laser Radial Youth World Championships.

In the Sail Canada Youth Championships Jules competed in the Gold Flight and finished in an exceptional 9th place in a fleet of 57 boats.  That was good enough to give him an overall finish place of 9th in the entire fleet of 166 boats.

In the Laser Radial Youth World Championships which saw some of the best youth sailors from around the world participate, Jules raced in the Bronze Fleet of 47 sailors and also finished in a fantastic 9th position.

Jules worked very hard in advance of these events and felt he was very well prepared going into them, both physically and mentally.  His 9th place finish in the Sail Canada Youth Championships gave him a lot of confidence going into the Laser Radial Worlds.  On the first day of that regatta he managed an 8th place finish but he received two penalties in the second race which set him back a little.  That was the beginning of a week of very light winds during which Jules held his own with his final result being 9th in the Bronze Fleet.

Jules is one of only a very few Antiguan sailors to have taken part in a World Championship Laser Class regatta.  He went in with high expectations and believes he learned a lot from the experience which will help him when he participates in his next World Championship – the ISAF Youth World Championship in Malaysia in December of this year.

Jules’ family and friends are all exceptionally proud of him and are very happy to have him home safe and sound.  Jules participated in the Canadian events on his own and worked with a coach that he didn’t know.  It was also his first time sailing on a lake which he found different from the ocean in that the boat seemed to sit lower in the water which, coupled with light winds, presented Jules with some new challenges.

Jules is currently raising funds to help finance his trip to Malaysia for the ISAF Youth World Championship in December.  Anyone wishing to make a donation can make cheques payable to the National Sailing Academy with Jules' name in the memo of the cheque and give them to NSA President Elizabeth Jordan.  Cheques can also be made payable to Antigua Yacht Club on Jules’ behalf and an Indiegogo fundraising campaign will be set up soon.

Well done Jules!

Full results of the 2015 Cork International/Sail Canada Youth Championships can be found here.

Full results of the Laser Radial Youth World Championships can be found here.