Trinidad and Tobago sailor, 17, to debut at Youth World Championship

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD Stefan Stuven will represent Trinidad and Tobago for the first time at the Youth Sailing World Championships in Mussanah Sports City, Oman, from December 11-18.

Stuven will compete in the men’s laser radial class. He was invited to participate as part of World Sailing’s Emerging Nations Programme (ENP).

The ENP aims to increase the number of sailors and member nation assemblies participating at the Youth Worlds, with a goal to narrow the performance gap and promote worldwide competition.

Stuven, alongside a small fleet of five other TT sailors, is currently being coached by TT’s three-time Olympic sailor Andrew Lewis twice per week. He has, however, opted to do additional training sessions by himself to ensure he stays in good form.

Initially, the ENP offers elite training by specialist coaches to potential sailors through an intense, hands-on five-day clinic. Young sailors are usually flown out to sailing locations and taught the fundamentals and advanced techniques by the sport’s top-flight coaches.

Owing to the pandemic, this year’s edition was done virtually and Stuven, alongside a host of young sailors from emerging sailing countries, took part.

He was then invited to another edition, this time an in-person session, in Oman from December 10.

After working out travel and other logistics with World Sailing, the TT Olympic Committee, TT Sailing Association (TTSA) and his parents, Stuven accepted the offer to go to Oman for the ENP and then make his international competitive debut at Youth Worlds.

“I feel quite excited for the experience because I’ve never competed at this level. Because of covid19, World Sailing held their ENP online this time. We had meetings once a month and the coaches would talk and explain the theories of sailing and we would interact and ask questions.

“That’s happened for over a few months. Coming to the end of it, the organiser of it asked me if I wanted to come and do an in-person ENP. I thought it was quite far to travel and there were a lot of technical challenges like that to overcome. But it’s been confirmed,” he said.

After the session, Stuven heads right into the world regatta.

His father Andreas, has always been an avid yachtsman. The St Mary’s College graduate, however, got into sailing at age seven after attending a holiday sailing camp hosted by the TTSA in 2011. Since his introduction, he’s never stopped sailing.

Stuven trains in Chaguaramas and previously worked with TTSA head instructor Stephen Phillip. Under his new coach Lewis, he is impressed by the Olympian’s work ethic.

“He’s (Lewis) very intense in his training. He trains at a very high level and tries to push everyone in the field. It’s not just me, it’s a fleet of us. He’s trying to get everybody to the highest possible level of training.

“He teaches us how to race, how to think tactically, being aware of our surroundings and not thinking only of what’s inside the boat but also outside, looking at the conditions, observing what everybody else is doing on the course and think ahead.

“It’s a very good experience to be dealing with a high-level person and three-time Olympian,” he added.

Stuven, however, has never competed in laser radial, not even at a national level. He started training for this class just before the pandemic hit in March last year.

He said it’s been very hard to train with the fluctuating restrictions and beaches being closed. He was grateful though that the TTSA secured an exemption for him to train at one location.

Looking ahead, he said, “I want to continue sailing after Youth Worlds. They’ve already set the date for Youth Worlds 2022 in July and I want to try to go again and maybe either get into college sailing in Canada and obviously the Olympics.

“Right now, I’m taking a year off to do some subjects I never took, like A’ Level Chemistry. After I get that, I’d like to go to a university where there’s a proper sailing programme, whether it be at UWI, Canada or even Germany.”

For the Youth Sailing World Championships, Mussanah is renowned for its high-quality sailing conditions all year round.

During December, temperatures are expected to be around 24°C on average, while the average wind strength is expected to be around 10-17 knots.

The 2020 Youth Worlds were scheduled to be held in Salvador, Brazil, in December 2020, but the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.