The Bishop\u2019s School sophomore Jessie O\u2019Dell is starting to make some waves in the world of sailing. A member of the Bishop\u2019s sailing team, O\u2019Dell is sailing locally to prepare for the SCIRA Women\u2019s World Championship in Florida in November. “I\u2019m totally psyched about that and it\u2019s going to be so much fun,” O\u2019Dell said. “I\u2019m really, really excited.” On the water, O\u2019Dell partners with Aine McLean Fretwell, a La Jolla resident who doubles as her coach at Bishop\u2019s. The duo finished third in the USA Snipe Class Women\u2019s National Championship held last month in Jacksonville, Fla., behind two boats that featured former Olympians. “It was just an unforgettable experience and it\u2019s really cool to be around these incredibly good people and good role models,” O\u2019Dell said. Although O\u2019Dell has raced in her family\u2019s large sailboat for six years, she has only been racing smaller 15-foot boats, known as snipes, for about a year and a half. O\u2019Dell said sailing in snipes competitions, where all boats are the same, is all about tactics. “It\u2019s like playing chess on the water. You can make one mistake and the whole fleet will eat you up,” O\u2019Dell said. “You have to combine being fast and being smart. It definitely has the physical side to it, but it\u2019s very strategic, too.” Despite their age difference, O\u2019Dell and Fretwell have fostered a unique relationship that is equal parts player-coach, teammates and friends. It tends to be more businesslike on race days. “We\u2019re really close. When we\u2019re not racing we\u2019re just always talking. She\u2019s one of my best friends,” O\u2019Dell said. As a member of Bishop\u2019s year-round sailing team, O\u2019Dell said the Knights\u2019 boaters are like family. She said team sailing has a different feel from two-person competition. “When you travel to a regatta you take your whole team with you and you only have two boats, so you rotate people in and out all the time,” O\u2019Dell said. “It\u2019s cool because you can watch for a little while.” Despite a strong showing at last month\u2019s national championships, O\u2019Dell said she sees some areas of improvement before her and Fretwell set sail against the world\u2019s best. During the summer, she plans to sail as much as she can, splitting time between local waters and her hometown of Mammoth Lakes. During the summer, O\u2019Dell will routinely make the six- to seven-hour drive with one of her parents. During the school year, she actually lives with her family on a boat, “Catalina 36,” docked in Harbor Island. “My life is all about water and sailing,” O\u2019Dell said. And so far it has been smooth sailing for the local teen.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Bishop\u2019s School sophomore Jessie O\u2019Dell is starting to make some waves in the world of sailing. A member of the Bishop\u2019s sailing team, O\u2019Dell is sailing locally to prepare for the SCIRA Women\u2019s World Championship in Florida in November. “I\u2019m totally psyched about that and it\u2019s going to be so much fun,” O\u2019Dell said. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":279934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Bishop\u2019s sailor, coach making waves against the best","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11553,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-sports","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}