Vallarta Yacht Club has become a very popular place to sail out of for athletes competing in various International Championships. Some of them have come up through our own Junior Sailing Program. And, some of them have been attracted to the club because of its location and the great sailing conditions of Banderas Bay – not to mention the incredible hospitality of the Vallarta Yacht Club staff and members.
This is the first in a series of articles to be published over the summer highlighting these incredible athletes and members of VYC and Ander and Danel Belausteguigoitia, also known as Equipo Belauste, are the first to be featured and the only “Team” to be interviewed. They have literally been sailing all their lives and come from a family of Olympics class competitors. As they were finishing their week of training here at Vallarta Yacht Club, I sat down and talked with them about their plans, goals and their experience here this week.
How long have you sailed together as a team?
Danel: That’s an interesting question because we’re brothers and have always lived together. We have competed a lot against each other. We have occasionally sailed against each other on larger boats. But this is the first time we are sailing together as a team. We competed together at the J70 Worlds in Marblehead last year and managed to be first in the Mexican team and 43rd of 91 boats. It was a tough championship but fun to begin communication with Ander at the team level. At a high pace, we need to work on it a bit more, but it’s feeling natural. We feel like we are in a state of improving and in a good place.
Ander: I competed a lot in Opti’s. Danel wasn’t very interested when he was little, but he sailed a lot on Lasers and we competed against each other in Lasers.
Which of you is the helmsman?
Ander’s the helmsman and Danel “does all the work”
How did you decide to compete in the 49er as it is not a popular class in Mexico?
Danel: My dad is a fanatic and had the 1st edition of the 49er. It’s a 1996 and is as old as Ander! We sailed it a lot when we were kids with him. There are only 6 49ers in Valle. So, we occasionally get to compete on it.
Ander: We have always fantasized about competing together at possibly the Olympic level. Finally, we are in a place where we can work together and put in the time together training and I think we are becoming a really good team.
It was just announced in January that the 49er would be part of the Pan American Games and the announcement just came out before the OCR in Miami and the OCR was the qualifier. We made the decision to go 5 days before the OCR. So, it was a last-minute decision and we realized we had to take advantage of the opportunity. It was our social responsibility for Mexico! We asked for the support of the FMV (Mexican Sailing Federation) and they approved the decision and encouraged us to “go for it”.
Our goal is to win the first medal for Mexico as a Team in Paris at the Olympics in 2024.
Who is your coach and how did you choose him/her?
Danel: Valentin Prat is our Coach and Team Manager. He is also a good friend and excellent sailor as well. He is handling our logistics while also coaching.
What has been your training plan this past week?
Danel: We have been doing lots of maneuvers, getting comfortable with the boat in these conditions. We set marks – upwind and downwind – practicing tactics. It’s a hard boat to maneuver so to be sailing in these conditions – which are some of the best conditions in the world, it’s great – you have the waves, you have the wind – it’s really tricky. In this type of boat with this chop, it’s great training.
How much time do you spend on the water during training?
Ander: Every afternoon, we have been on the water training. When we’re not training, we have been catching up on our rest as the training has been very exhausting.
What do you see as your biggest challenge going into the Pan Am Games…which country do you feel is your strongest competition?
Ander: The hours in the boat. Getting time to train in that particular boat. I think that tactically, and sail trim, we can be a little bit more intelligent because of the other boats we have sailed. But the maneuvers and the way to sail that particular boat, you can only get it by hours and hours of training. We will be sailing on the weekends in Valle de Bravo and in May we hope to be back training in Vallarta Yacht Club
Danel: Argentine is our biggest competitor. They are among the top 49er competitors in the world so they will be the biggest competitor. However, the Pan Ams are the qualifier for the 2020 Olympics, and North America has one spot making the US and Canada our two big competitors.
If we manage to defeat them, we can go to Tokyo. But we have to be realistic; we know we have to spend a lot of time on the water training. So, we have a long way to go.
How has your time here been for you?
Ander: I think the help from the club has been fantastic. Any problems we have had, the club has been great in directing us find a solution and get things resolved. It’s been great to be able to leave the boat here.
Danel: In my opinion, I think Vallarta Yacht Club is a great place to train. It has everything we need – clean facilities, showers and helpful staff. It would be great if the ramp could be open a bit later. But I think it’s a great place to train.