Recent Impact: Supporting the Road to 2028
Vallarta Sailing Foundation continues to help young sailors from Banderas Bay compete at the highest levels of the sport, including sailors working toward the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
In 2025, Vallarta Sailing Foundation helped Namkhai, Sanka and Inti Bourquin compete at the ILCA North American Championships on the Olympic waters of Long Beach, California.
Their recent results show the level of competition these opportunities can lead to:
- Namkhai Bourquin finished third at the 2026 Santo Domingo Central American and Caribbean Games qualifying event.
- Sanka Bourquin won the 2025 WesMex Regatta and earned third place at the Mayan Wind Fest. He has also competed in two ILCA Under-21 World Championships, including a third-place result in Peru.
- Sanka and Inti Bourquin won gold medals in ILCA 7 and ILCA 6 at the 2025 Nacionales CONADE.
- Inti Bourquin represented Mexico at the 2025 ILCA 6 Youth World Championships in San Pedro, California, finishing first among the three Mexican sailors in his fleet.
Namkhai and Sanka also raced in the 2025 Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta alongside Olympians and other top international ILCA sailors. Experiences like these give developing sailors access to the large fleets and high-level competition needed to continue progressing toward Olympic qualification.
More Than 100 Grants Since 2015
Vallarta Sailing Foundation was founded in 2015 to advance sailing in Mexico and create opportunities for sailors to develop and compete. Since its founding, the Foundation has provided funding through more than 100 grants.
Foundation-supported sailors have participated in regional, national and international competition, including Nacionales CONADE, National Optimist Championships, Mayan Wind Fest, ILCA North American Championships and world championships. Sailors supported by the Foundation have included Mexican Olympian Elena Oetling.
Supporting Sailing Programs and Competition
Vallarta Sailing Foundation supports more than individual competition. Foundation resources also help junior and young-adult sailing programs, training equipment, competition equipment and major sailing events in Mexico.
The Foundation has promoted and sponsored major regattas including the Optimist North American Championships, ILCA World Championships and J/70 North American Championships, helping expand access to high-level sailing competition in Mexico.
2024 Program Investment
The Foundation’s most recent publicly available IRS filing provides a financial measure of that work. In 2024, Vallarta Sailing Foundation reported $138,582 in program expenses supporting junior and young-adult sailing programs and individual athletes participating in national and international amateur competition.
Reported expenses included $27,118 in competitor-support costs and $7,618 in expendable competition equipment.
Where Your Support Goes
Donations to Vallarta Sailing Foundation help support:
- Youth and junior sailing
- Competition and travel expenses
- Training and competition equipment
- Maintenance of equipment used for junior sailor training
- Regional, national and international competition
- Regattas and sailing development programs in Mexico