Sailing's Emily Mueller wins Youth Sailing World Championship
2/23/2022
In December 2021, freshman Emily Mueller of the Brown sailing team competed in, and won, the 2021 Youth Sailing World Championship in the women’s 29er class.
Mueller, a Guildford, England native, and her crew mate Florence Brellisford competed as a pair representing Great Britain at the event held in Oman.
A great deal of training and preparation went into Mueller and Brellisford winning the event, and Brown Athletics asked Mueller a few questions to learn more about it. Check out her answers below.
Tell us about the event. Walk us through how you won?
We did 13 races in total over the five days of the event against the other female 29er teams, so I had to stay calm and focused throughout. We sailed consistently well, relying on our speed, tactical decision making, and the teamwork dynamic we developed over three years, and finished all races within the top six boats in a fleet of 18. We had a very close battle with Team USA the whole week, but built up enough of a points gap on the penultimate day that we were guaranteed to win going into the singular race on the last day. This meant there was no pressure and we could just race for fun. We won this final race and jumped into the water as we crossed the finish line to celebrate the amazing week.
Did you have to qualify for the event? What was that process like?
The qualifying process for Youth Worlds is very competitive, as each country is only allowed to bring one male boat and one female boat per class. The selection event was the Royal Yachting Association Youth Nationals, held in Plymouth, England last summer, with 58 29ers competing. We finished Youth Nationals as the top girls 29er and 5th overall, so we gained our spot on the team heading to Youth Worlds.
What kind of preparation went into it?
Going to college in a different country than my crew, who was back in the UK, meant we couldn’t practice much together prior to heading to Oman, but sailing almost every day with the Brown team pushed me to maintain and improve my racing skills. I came back to the UK a few weeks before the event and we fit in lots of training then, but it was the many years of hard work beforehand that put us in a strong position going into Worlds.
How did an event like this compare to racing with the Brown team?
We race FJs and 420s in college, instead of 29ers, so the style of racing was slightly different, with fewer and longer races. I was also not directly competing for a team, unlike at college regattas where our scores are combined, but there was still an incredibly strong team atmosphere between all the British sailors racing in the 11 classes of boats. Even though we were not competing on the water together, we spent all our time on land together and solidly supported one another, just like with Brown Sailing. I am very excited to get back to racing for Brown this semester.
Have you competed in any other youth events?
Due to the pandemic, we did not get many chances to race internationally in the 29er, but we competed regularly in the UK. Our biggest achievement was winning the British 29er Nationals last summer, as we were the first women’s team ever to win!
How long have you been sailing?
I started sailing 11 years ago while living in Miami, Florida because the weather was perfect for learning and there was a sailing club near my house. For about a year, it was just for fun after school, but I fell in love with it once I started racing. I sailed in lots of local events in the Optimist class around Florida, and then raced throughout the UK and Europe when I moved back to England. After 7 years in Optimists, I transitioned to the 29er – the class I raced in at Youth Worlds – which is a fast double-handed boat, and began sailing with my crew Flo.
How will this experience help you compete at the collegiate level?
As one of the most prestigious events in Youth Sailing, I definitely felt the pressure going into each day of racing, but I managed to deal with it well by sticking to my routines both on and off the water and not overthinking anything. The small number of points between me and the USA girls in silver all week showed me how important it is to fight for every position in every race, which will be really useful to keep in mind while sailing in college because the racing is so tight. The lessons and confidence I gained from this experience at Youth Worlds will be invaluable to carry with me into big college regattas like Nationals in the Spring, as well as the many other types of sailing I will do in the future.
Photo credit to Lloyd Images/Oman Sail.
