2007 Junior Coaches

Our Head Coach - will be Diego Ravecca from La Plata, Argentina, age 34. Diego has an extensive career in competitive sailing, which began in Optimists and has included coaching many South American Optimist Teams through national and international Championship events in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Most recently, Diego was the Head Coach for the Optimist and Laser Team for the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club in Salinas Ecuador. Here, Diego’s teams went up against some of the best Optimist sailors from South America including several led by last year's FBYC Head Coach Alejandro Cloos up the Bay at the Salinas Yacht Club in Ecuador. In 2001, Diego led his team to win the first international championship won by an Optimist Team in Ecuadorian sailing history. That year he also led his Laser Radial team to a fourth in the Bolivian Games and in the process, gaining his team’s best finish in Ecuadorian history. Diego has extensive formal training and experience in race management and judging for Optimist and Laser events. In addition, he has a degree in Industrial Design from the National University of LaPlata, Argentina and is savvy with computers including 3D modeling and web site design. Diego and Luis are good friends and colleagues and look forward to working together to help FBYC sailors become the best on the Bay.

The Assistant Coach Luis "Dingo" Canuto hails from Rosario, Argentina where he has been a professional sailing coach for seven years and a racing sailor for 19 of his 25 years. Luis started sailing Optimists dinghies at age six but has since spun a prolific racing history in the Laser, Laser Radial and Snipe classes and he regularly serves as crewman on several IMS offshore racing yachts.

Luis’ specialty is the Laser and Laser Radial Class where he has been a top South American performer as a junior and adult sailor. In 2005, he was the Central and South American Champion in the Laser Radial Class. Farther from home, Luis has sailed extensively internationally and most recently placed 9th overall in the 2006 Volvo Youth World Championship held in Weymouth and Portland, England. He has represented his country at many other international events including the Laser Worlds in Spain (2001), Canada (2002), Italy 2004 and Brazil 2005. This list goes on, but you get the picture.

As a coach, Luis has developed several world class Laser sailors who themselves have come to dominate their class at many South American and international events. He is currently coaching at Club de Velas de Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina where he coaches their laser, Laser Radial and Snipe classes. One of his recent students, Alfredo Soland, placed 1st in the Laser 4.7 in the Argentine Nationals and his Laser Radial student Alvaro Acevedo placed 2nd in the Laser Radial. Again, the list of successes he has been a part of as a coach goes on and on but leave it to say that Luis is a world class racing coach.

In his other life, Luis has been pursuing a degree in Architecture, Urban Planning and Design at the National University at Rosario and has quite an arsenal of computer skills including computer aided design and web design. He speaks Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese and is quite an accomplished athlete who pursues soccer, volleyball and swimming among many others in his spare (?) time. Luis is also quite the world traveler and I quickly gave up counting the number of countries he has visited, worked and sailed in.

Summer Coach– FBYC will employ a paid, full-time Summer Coach from mid June through mid August. The Summer Coach will be primarily responsible for running our local Learn 2 Sail program for beginning and non-racing juniors. Participating juniors will receive on the water coaching and supervision, even when the head and assistant coaches are traveling with the race team. The Summer Coach will also be in charge of boat and equipment check-out. This years summer coach will be Daniel Gillispie. Daniel is a veteran of many summers in FBYC's Junior sailing program. Last season, Daniel successfully completed his training to receive his US Sailing Level I Small Boat instructor certificate. He went on to successfullycoach FBYC's Learn2Sail program and looks forward to helping us improve this year's classes even more.

Learn 2 Sail Coach– Annie MacKinnon from Richmond, VA is a rising senior in the Leadership Center at Douglas Freeman High School. Annie started sailing in the Junior Week Program at age 5 (Opti kids). Annie raced Opti’s competitively until 2003, in 2003 she was Opti Team Captain. She then raced 420s for two summers, and this past summer raced laser radials, finishing 6th overall in the Chesapeake Bay Area. Annie was the recipient of The Roberts Bowl (2001) and The L. Wood Bedell trophy (2002, 2003). Annie has three older sisters who were instructors during Junior Week at Fishing Bay and is looking forward to following in their foot steps.