Hi, I'm Jack Gills, and a proud Optimist sailor for Team Canada 2022! I am 13 years old and train as a member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club (RCYC) and am the youngest member of the CODA Worlds team. I currently rank 3rd in Canada for my class. I am very excited to be training hard in advance of competing in the IODA World Championship, in Bodrum, Turkey this June and the North American Championship in Nassau, Bahamas this fall in addition to Canadian-based regattas. I have been training extra hard and am taking this year very seriously. At Worlds, with 62 countries / 285 sailors and I want to make gold fleet and place top 50 or better, it is a very high goal, but I think that with hard work I can achieve it. My goal for North Americans is to make gold fleet and place top 20 or better, this is also a high goal but unlike Worlds, North Americans is at the end of the year so I am going to have had lots of training and regattas completed that I feel I can achieve these goals.
Also, I am hoping to place top 3 in each of the 9 other Canadian regattas this year.
I have progressed quickly in the standings since joining the race team in 2019 after junior club at RCYC. When not racing Opti, I also enjoy racing on my mom's 24 ft Shark and being invited to race on the VXOnes. I enjoy flying spinnaker!
I hope you will support me in Representing Canada this year and into the future as I grow as a sailor.
Thank you so much!
Jack