Since 1998, Fernando has been coaching very successful teams and top athletes at the highest level in Junior, Youth and Olympic level in multiple elite events.
His coaching philosophy is athlete centered and his approach is to train to detail the technical, tactical, racing, physical & mental aspect. His method has proven that his sailors peak when they have to. Fernando has coached in 3 Olympic Games: In Paris 2024 in the ILCA 7 class, Rio 2016 in the 49erFX Class for Singapore and in London 2012 in the Ilca 7 Class for Trinidad and Tobago. Other IOC (International Olympic Committee) events that he has coached, include, 4 Asian Games (2006, 2010, 2014 & 2018) and 3 Panamerican Games (2011, 2019, 2023).
At the youth level, Fernando has coached in the Youth Olympic Games Nanjing 2014 in the Byte CII class, obtaining two historical gold medals for Singapore in the Boys and Girls single handed categories. At the junior level, Fernando has coached in 17 Optimist World Championships and his sailors have won a total of 37 Medals at Worlds. He has led 3 different countries to medal at the Worlds. In 2023, 2022 & 2021 with USA, from 2006 to 2014 with Singapore and in 2005 with Trinidad and Tobago. Fernando positioned Singapore in the podium in every World Championship he coached them for 9 consecutive years and so far is achieving the same with the US Team. Fernando, head coach of Spain, hauled in a total of 4 Optimist World Championship medals in 2024 where his sailors won 3 gold medals and a bronze. In 2021 & 2022 as the US Worlds Coach, the team won a total of 4 medals and in 2023 his sailors won the silver and bronze medal for the US. He got the record to be the only coach to win all 4 trophies (overall, girls, team racing, nations cup) in 3 consecutives World Championships (2011, 2012, 2013) with 3 different athletes who were crowned World Champions. In 2021, Fernando got appointed as the coach for the US Worlds Team and for the first time in their history the US qualified all their 5 sailors to the gold fleet and achieved their second ever medal in the fleet racing championship since the boat became one design in 1995. In the 2022 Optimist Worlds celebrated in Bodrum, Turkey, Fernando led the US to an unprecedent result of winning 3 medals in all the 3 competitions they took part: Gold in Team Racing, Silver in Overall Individual and Silver in the Nations Cup.
Fernando has been selected as an official US National Optimist Coach in 4 events and in all of them the US team has medaled: 1 Gold and 3 Silvers in 2 Worlds (20221 & 2022) and 2 Gold in the Monaco Team Race Regatta (2020 & 2022). For the season 2022-2023, Fernando was appointed as the US Optimist National Team Performance Director. Job that he executed by doing 6 high performance with 6 different world champion coaches. His work at this position was very instrumental for the US success at the 2023 Worlds.
Fernando has been involved in sailing for 34 years and shares his knowledge and experience with great passion and dedication, he has the ability to keep his athletes highly motivated so they can achieve their goals and reach their full potential. Fernando possesses excellent communication skills and is very good in working in a team environment. He can make his athletes thrive under pressure, a key element in high performance sports.
