© Erik Simonson

AYSF gets acquainted with the AC45.

What assistance are you getting from Oracle Team USA?

Ian: As much as we can relative to what can be fit in with their AC72 schedule. But we’ll have access to all the onshore and offshore coaching and technology. The coaching was a big thing for us during the trials. However many hours we would spend on the water, we would then almost double that with time spent in the meeting room watching the GoPro footage and going over every tack afterwards: what was good, what we need to work on. It was huge to have that time dissecting everything we'd done on the boats. We’ll also have access to the gym and physical training at Pier 80.

A big part of the selection trials--on the morning of the second day they put us through a really rigorous fitness test. What was cool about it was that it was the same test that they give to their sailors. In just 5 minutes the test puts you pretty much to the edge of what you can do; it’s insane. It showed you exactly what you would need to do to be on an America’s Cup team. The guys are world-class athletes, and so in a sense we were being compared to the best of the best. It made a difference just seeing the hours that the guys put in at the gym outside of the sailing. The fact that they can work so hard and keep going throughout the day, their stamina is really impressive.

How did you come up with your team name?


Ian: That was the first hurdle; we figured we couldn’t go forward until we had a team name--you need an identity. We ended up writing down a whole bunch of words that we wanted to incorporate into the team, and we whittled that down and came up with American Youth Sailing Force. We really like the ‘Force’ part. We thought we may change later but it seems to be sticking pretty well. Evan came up with the logo and graphic design, which has turned out really well … there’s talk of team tattoos …

What’s the ruling regarding your ISAF category to participate?

Ian: There are no rules regarding your ISAF category as far as the sailing goes. They just don’t want us being paid for this event, so we can’t get a title sponsor who would pay us. It doesn’t mean we can’t make money in other ways, it just mean we can’t directly get paid to sail. There’s no conflict with other sailing work that we may be doing other than the time commitment to this, which of course is huge … but we’re definitely available otherwise! The point of this is that they’re trying to find the best young sailors, it’s a scouting opportunity for Oracle. It also gives us something past the Youth America’s Cup to work toward. This isn’t an end game for us.

Photo: Erik Simonson

What’s your association with Red Bull?

Evan: We don’t deal with them at all but we’re stoked - everyone has seen the kind of stuff Red Bull does. The idea that sailing can be held in the same light and they’re working hard to do that is cool. It’s a good sign for sailing that Red Bull wants to get involved, especially in the United States and with the direction that the America’s Cup is going with the multihulls and making it exciting and available to a more mainstream audience. We’ve all got excited about some Red Bull related event at some point, right?