STARS & STRIPES TEAM USA
TAYLOR CANFIELD
Taylor Canfield celebrates after winning the 2014 Argo Group Gold Cup semifinals of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour.
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t's been an exciting time for America's Cup enthusiasts. This past December two additional teams signed up as challengers for the Auld Mug, bringing the total to six as of this writing. The second American challenger is Stars & Stripes Team USA, representing the Long Beach Yacht Club. Stars & Stripes — cofounded by Taylor Canfield and Mike Buckley — is the first all-American team to race for the Mug in 15 years. It is a real pleasure having a conversation with Taylor Canfield, who is arguably one of America's greatest sailing talents. At the youthful age of 29 he has amassed a litany of successes, elevating himself and his teammates into the rarified realms that few before him have occupied. He is a four-time winner of the Congressional Cup, was ranked the #1 match racer in the world three times over the past five years, and was the 2013 World Match Racing Champion.
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aylor, who presently calls Miami, FL, home, was raised in the tropical environs of St. Thomas, USVI, where his parents enrolled him in St. Thomas YC's sailing school at age six. "It took some time for me to enjoy [sailing] after so many capsizes in the strong trade winds. I was eventually hooked, and it became an enjoyable social activity," says Taylor. "We used to race from island to island and did a lot of exploring as well. I sailed Page 64 •
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• February, 2019
my first regatta at age 7 in Puerto Rico and got fourth in the Optimist green fleet. I've been racing ever since." Taylor prepped for college at the Antilles School and began sailing 420s with his classmates. Together they eventually formed their own sailing team with ambitions of racing in the United States. "We raised money at fundraisers throughout the year in order to get to the States twice annually for the national championship qualifier and then Nationals if we managed it. After our second year we became both team race and fleet race national champions!" Following his early racing success, Taylor enrolled in Boston College and quickly began competing on their sailing team, managing to get an excellent education while simultaneously having the opportunity to be on the water up to six days a week. "While at Boston College I sailed in five of the many national championships our team won and came in second at another two." Asked what motivated him early on, Taylor recalls watching fellow St. Thomas resident, world-class match racer and America's Cup challenger Peter Holmberg "battle his way to the top of the match-racing game." Holmberg's success pushed Taylor to try to reach the same level of match-racing skill and to one day race in the America's Cup. So, after graduating from Boston College in 2011, Taylor moved to Chicago and landed a spot at the Chicago Match Race Center,
an organization founded by Don Wilson. "This launched my career in professional sailing," says Taylor. "While I spent countless hours training, coaching and umpiring races, my teammates and I quickly found ourselves getting wild-card invites to the World Match Racing Tour events in 2012. We went on to win two tour events as non-tour card holders. We then got offered a tour card in 2013 and went on to win the tour! I saw the World Match Racing Tour as a path to the Cup up until the Cup transitioned to multihulls and foiling. I quickly transitioned too and began sailing multihulls and as many foiling boats as I could." Success on this scale rarely happens without the support of family and others in one's immediate community. About his parents, Taylor says, "They gave me an opportunity to be sailing every day as a child and supported me through my junior sailing days and into my early match-race days." Taylor's childhood friends Thomas Barrows and Cy Thompson also played important roles. "I grew up with them and have sailed with and against them ever since. They pushed me to be a better sailor every day we were on the water. There's also Greg Wilkinson, my Boston College coach. He was instrumental in teaching me how to be part of a team and create a winning environment. And Don Wilson (owner of the Chicago Match Race Center) created a platform for me to become the best match racer in the world. Later on, Hayden Goodrick started USOne with me and was a great business partner and teammate while we competed together on the M32 circuit." (M32s are Marstrom 32 catamarans.) "None of my success could have been possible without the help of all of my crew I have sailed with over the years," he adds.
"I sailed my first regatta at age 7 and got fourth. I've been racing ever since." Competing on a level of this scale creates a number of obstacles of its own, so it is important that Taylor has a strong competitive strand or two of DNA in his system. "There have been challenges along the way and moments
