Making the Europeans Team was my big goal for this year so I can wait to get racing. I'm so excited but quite nervous too. I've sailed in Dublin Bay a couple of times before; last year at the Irish Nationals and in a training week we had at the end of May, so at least I know a little bit about what the conditions can be like. I can't wait to race against so many new really good sailors from around the world and see how I get on but the racing at the Championships is a bit different than what I normally do as the girls and boys are in separate fleets. You can follow the results to see how I'm doing on the Championship website and there is a facebook page for the event too Optimist European Championship 2014 facebook .
When I'm back from the Euorpeans there is only a short time before the British Nationals in Weymouth (with a bit of Gurnard Sailing Dinghy Week in a Pico in between) and then after that a week and a bit before I'm off to the European Team Racing Championships in Lake Ledro, Italy.
We have a team of four of us going to the Team Racing Championships, two boys and two girls who are all in the Euros Team too. I really like Team racing and sailing in the Italian mountains is going to be brilliant.
Last weekend we had a two day training session in Lymington for the Worlds and European Team racing teams which was great fun but really hard work. I learnt loads as I haven't done that much team racing before.
As well as working hard on our skills we did have a lot of fun and after training on Saturday we took our Oppies surfing on a bit of water in the Solent called Fiddlers Race where wind against tide makes these really big waves. I've never gone so fast in my Oppie and our coach Alan Williams had to go really quickly in the rib to keep up with us but did get some great photos of me.
I'm really lucky that I'm about to have such an amazing summer of sailing coming up so thank you to everyone who helps me: Royal London Yacht Club Youth Trust, Crewsaver, Isle of Wight Council talented athlete scheme, SailSpy UK, North Sails, IOCA UK, my coaches, my grand parents (Nan Nan and GD) and all my family and friends.
Here's a video clip from my SailSpy UK GoPro camera from the team racing training. I hope you like it!
