CSULB student Tatiana Misares was one of 170 sailors to compete this week for the Rolex Farr40 World Championship in Long Beach.

The event, which was sponsored by Rolex and hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club, invited some of the world’s preeminent sailors to Long Beach from September 24-27, 2015. 

Misares, a 24-year-old senior in CSULB’s School of Engineering (and former commodore of the Sailing Association), sailed aboard the Farr40 “Temptress,” which finished 13th overall in the international fleet of 17 yachts.

After 11 races sailed over four days, the US yacht “Groovederci” — owned and helmed by John Demourkas — was crowned the 2015 champion. His team grabbed a second place finish in Race #11 to vault one-point ahead of overall regatta runner-up “Plenty,” owned by 2014 Farr 40 World champion Alex Roepers.

Full results are available here.

While 17 yachts entered the regatta, nine of them competed in the “Corinthian” division (an amateur designation), including Temptress. In the Corinthian results, Misares and team earned a fifth place finish, which she was more than pleased with in her first international sailing competition.

“It was an unbelievable opportunity to race against some of the best sailors in the world,” said Misares, who will graduate from CSULB in 2016. “I didn’t believe it when [yacht owner Ray Godwin] invited me to join his team for the regatta. I never thought I would be sailing for a world championship.”

The reason Misares never thought she’d have an opportunity like this, perhaps, is because she’s still new to the sport.

She first learned to sail only two years ago after taking a sailing course offered through the CSULB Sailing Association. After breezing through the sailing course, Misares quickly moved on to racing small one-design keelboats and honed her skills.

In the short amount of time she’s sailed, she’s become one of CSULB’s most promising sailors, according to Capt. Charlie Abbott, an instructor with the CSULB Sailing Association and one of Misares’s coaches.

“Tatiana gets it. From her first day on the water with our racing fleet, she has shown a natural talent for sailing. Couple that with her solid skills from engineering and you have a winner,” said Abbott, who has sailed for more than four decades and who holds his fourth issue USCG captain’s license. “The Farr40 Worlds was her first major regatta—I’ll bet it’s not her last.”

The Rolex World Championship was the final event of the Farr40’s 2015 schedule, but the class is already gearing up for 2016. According to its website, the class will travel to Sydney, Australia for the 2016 Worlds, to be hosted in February, followed by a summer schedule in Italy and the Mediterranean.