WOW! Solid September!!

Following on from a brilliant summer of sailing, the Autumn is shaping up to be pretty solid too. In September, I've done training in the Summer Squad, the Spinnaker Open, Bart's Bash and the RYA South Zone Championships.

First up, the Summer Squad training. This was a weekender at Lymington and a super light wind one. On the Saturday we mostly worked on boat handling and light wind speed with a few short races in the afternoon. 

Saturday night we stayed at my Grandparents with BBQ ribs and chips for tea, yum. This also meant we didn't have to get up super early and I got pancakes for breakfast! More yum! 

On Sunday we did quite a lot of team racing. We wanted to race as the Euro Team Racing Team but we were split up but I did have Sophie in my team and we won all our races - the dream team! Despite the light winds it was a good weekend and really great to see loads of my friends who I hadn't seen since the Nationals.

Me with the silverware!

Next up was the Spinnaker open. I was a bit of a last minute entry to this as we decided to go so we could help Arthur who sails at my club and his Mum who were going to their first ever event. It certainly turned out to be a good one for me. It was another light wind weekend and as, always at Spinnaker, really shifty. The starts were epic, with over 50 boats on a really short line, loads of shouting, boats going everywhere. In total we did four races and I got a 1st, 2nd and two 3rds.  

I finished up with 6 points and was the overall winner and the top junior sailing.  It's the first time I've won a regatta in a while so I was really pleased. Great prizes too. A new windex, Spinnaker SC glass, a copy of the Optimist Photo book and two trophies. The overall trophy has some great names on it including Greg Carey, Nick Thompson, Phil Sparks and of course Milo Gill Taylor. Thanks to everyone at Spinnaker for running the regatta.

Tongue out with concentration!!

The next weekend it was Bart's Bash. On the Saturday I went Oppie sailing with Oliver Evans and Freddie Ellis to do a bit of practising with our V4 North Sails and speed work then in the afternoon we went Feva sailing as me and Oliver sailed the Feva in the Bart's Bash race. We thought some practice would be a good idea as I've never helmed with an asymmetric kite before. Guess what it was really light winds again so all pretty straightforward!

Upright and in control downwind!!

Sunday morning for Bart's Bash it was a bit of a different story as the wind was blowing about 15kts and conditions were a bit choppy in parts of the course. With the conditions we had our hands full as we are both small and light, way too much so for a Feva XL. Add to that 100 boats on a shared start line ranking from pico's and toppers to foiling moths and it was game on!

The race lasted for 70 minutes and we did four laps. We did have three capsizes one with the spinnaker up so our overall time wasn't that flash but we completed the race flew the spinnaker on every lap and had a blast, which was the main thing. It was such a good laugh and brilliant race to be in! 

A nice tack!

A flat boat (a rare experience)!

 













Last weekend it was the RYA South Zone Championships at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy.

There was a big turn out of Optimists with 93 in total. Again, you've guessed it, it was a really light wind weekend! On Saturday afternoon we had two races and a lot of waiting around as we were sharing the course with the Fevas and Mirrors. I had a good start with a 2nd in the first race and a 4th in the second, although I really should have won the first one as I was in the lead going in to the final leg, but still finished the day in second overall. 

Saturday night's dinner was fish and chip dinner (well sausage and chips for me) with Freddie and Cordelia and a bit of table tennis. Apparently according to Dad I should stick to sailing as table tennis isn't my sport! 

On Sunday I felt like I had a good chance to win the event as Vita Heathcote, who was in first place, wasn't sailing the second day. On Sunday we did three races and like Saturday it was a day for sailing up the middle of the course, minimising risk and watching for the shifts and pressure. We did three races and I had two 2nds and a 3rd, but unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough as Henry Chandler who sailed really well got three 1st places. It was really close especially going into the last race where I still had a chance of winning but in the end Henry won with 6 points and I was second with 9. Although coming second was a good result I was pretty disappointed and annoyed with myself as I should have won two races that I was leading but got overtaken. I get a bit nervous when I'm out in front and am probably not making the right decisions so that is something I definitely need to work on.

So It's been a full on September and in the middle of it all we got a call to say I've been selected to go the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup in Bermuda from 21-26 October  How awesome is that. I'm so lucky to be going and can't wait. But before then we have the End of Season championships in Rutland which is the final ranking event of the year!

Some downwind practise in Light Winds

What a summer of sailing part 2: British Nationals to European TeamRacing Champs

Hello, back again with part 2 of my solid summer of sailing. 

After the European Championship and Gurnard Dinghy Week it was straight onto the British Optimist Nationals down at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. I like sailing there because it's such a great racing area and because it's where the Olympic sailing was in 2012.

The nationals were awesome, probably the best one I've done so far with brilliant weather, a mix of wind strengths and tough competition with a lot of international sailors taking part. The year was my last in Junior main fleet and as a National Squad sailor and having just come back from being in Team GBR at the Euros, I felt under a bit of pressure to do well and quite nervous. Also the first six races count towards our rankings for the squad qualifications at the end of the year.

We went to Weymouth as a family as Freya was sailing too. When we eventually got there after an interesting trip I was straight onto the water for a bit of a warm up sail. It was really windy (not my favourite conditions) so it was really good to test myself out against all the other competitors. It was then off to see what the house we had rented was like. It was awesome,  there was a really big  bedroom  for me and Freya and a chill out room in a huge loft. It also had a big pole in the middle of the living room which was interesting! Mum had done a top job on finding this one.

 

Sunday: We started off with a practise race in which I did quite well despite the really windy conditions! I sailed with the other fleet so that I could test myself against the top guys who were in the other fleet. I won the race but stopped before the finish because it is bad luck to win a practise race. Due to the fact that we had time spare we managed to do another two races but these were real!! I got a 4th and a 12th but they left me in 18th position which was not what I wanted :(

Monday: Monday brought some lighter conditions and I had two very good races, a 1st and a 2nd. In the 2nd race a Spaniard beat me so in the rolling rankings it meant that I got 2 1st places!!!

Tuesday: Once again it was a day of very windy conditions (20knts +) so I wasn't able to get the results I needed. In the end I got a 10th,16th and a 4th.

Wednesday: Wednesday brought some medium conditions but it was really shifty and I got caught out many times. The results were disappointing...a 5th, 24th and a 12th. 

Thursday; The next day brought the same conditions as yesterday however I  was able to improve my results: a 3rd, 12th and a 2nd! 

Going into the final day there was no way I could catch Alexandra Schonrock who was leading and had sailed a great regatta but I had a chance of overtaking William Heathcote to be the top British boy.
 

Team Isle of Wight -
Cameron Hook, Freddie Ellis, Me,
Freya, Lily Ellis, Toby Atherton,
Oliver Evans, Mathew Bamber

I was really up for Friday and couldn't wait to get going so when we got up in the morning and the sea was flat calm and no wind it wasn't looking good. We waited and waited but in the end the racing was abandoned at lunch time which was a disappointing way for the event to end but I still finished 7th overall and third British sailor so a good result.

Because we had such great conditions throughout the event, it meant that on a few days we got through the race programme and back ashore early. This meant I could see Freya coming in from being out with the mini racers which I really liked. She had a brilliant week too, came third in her racing and got a coaches sailor of week medal at the prize giving. Nice one Sis.

When we got back from the Nationals we had a couple of days on dry land before Freya did Cadet Week at our club. I wasn't sailing in this but was able to help out with coaching the Oppie fleets. I had such a brilliant week. I really like coaching and helping out other sailors and I got to do a bit of sailing when we had to do some rescues. It was really nice to see Freya out on the water too. Her sailing improved so much over the Nationals and Cadet week. I hope she starts racing soon. We put my GoPro camera on her boat on one day so she could see how well she's doing too.

After Cadet week we had a whole week of not sailing. Hmmmm. But then it was off with Team GBR (Sophie Holloway, Julia Mellers, Oliver Hill and me) to the European Team Racing Championshp in Lake Ledro, Italy. 

Mum, Dad and Freya came to this one too but only after dropping me off at the airport. While I flew over they went all the way by car. It was like some sort of Top Gear challenge ony they were only in the lead to Dover! And during the event while I was in a hotel they were camping at the other end of the Lake!!

Me in action at the
Euro Team Racing Champs, I'm the 2nd boat

Going in to this event we didn't really know what to expect. There were 16 teams in total and quite a lot of the countries have special team racing teams who do loads of training for the event. We had only team raced a couple of times before and had one training session against the GBR worlds team.

On our first day of racing we had three matches and one won against the Spanish.  We were all pretty pleased about this and it gave us a big boost and belief that we could win more. Over the next few days we saw massive leaps and gains in our team racing abilities, personally and as a team. It was really funny seeing the other teams getting told off by their coaches because they had been beaten by us. It just made us want to win even more!
 

Our Team base at the lake

We managed to get just over half wins which put us in Gold fleet which was very exciting! Last year the team didn't win a single race and came last so we were very excited about winning a race and then we made gold fleet. As the week carried on we were able to slowly carry on gaining. Going in to the last day we were 5th overall!! We had a bad day as a team however we were able to thankfully hold our position!

The last night was very memorable with fireworks and a 2:00am bedtime!!! A week of fun.



Gelato time

Lake Ledro was an incredible place to be with the views of the mountains. Our hotel was a bit interesting with electricity plug sockets hanging off the walls and sparking and meals every night that were pasta first course, followed by meat. But the local gelato made up for it.

It was really nice seeing Mum, Dad and Freya in between races for a bit each day and knowing they we're watching me and we all had a big team meal of the final night.



Launching

All in all it was a great event. It was really nice racing as a team and our coach Will and house parent Lizze did a great job in helping us with the racing and looking after us.

With the event over I then joined Mum, Dad and Freya and we stayed on for a few days holiday and some walks in the mountains, swimming in the Lake and lots more gelato. It was then a two day drive back to home but at least I got to watch four hours of the Volvo Race on DVD non stop.





Team GBR at the prize giving -
we got a t-shirt of tiny jar of honey,
Will got a belt and can of WD40!!

So all in all a full on, brilliant summer of sailing. I've had a few ups and downs in the racing,  learnt so much and had soooo much fun. Now the autumn looks like it will be just as good with loads more racing to come!! 

  

What a summer of sailing part 1. European Championships to Gurnard Dinghy Week

Since mid July I've had the most amazing and busy sailing summer spending more time on the water than off it. So sorry for the really long delay in telling you all about it.

First off, it started with the European Championships, which were held in Dun Laoghaire (Ireland) at the Royal St. George Yacht Club. It was a great event with a few ups and downs but I made lots of improvements, learnt a lot and had a great end to the regatta.

It was all very hectic at the start. Most of the team flew over from Southampton with Ella Bennetts mum. I had a bit of a problem as my luggage was a bit over weight so we had to unload some stuff. It all seemed to come down to all the Jaffa cakes Mum had packed in my bag but once we had shared these round the Team I was OK and we were off. When we arrived in Dun Laoghaire we had to wait for Sarah, our house praent to arrive, the rest of the team and our coach, Vagelis, so it turned out to be a no sailing day.

Team GBR at the European Championships

The next two days of training involved a lot of boat sorting out and only some short afternoon training sessions on the water working on rig set up and boat speed but the day after that was a full day sailing. All our training sessions were followed by really long de-brief sessions and talking about the weather much longer than anything I've ever had before. It was so much to take in and understand.

The next part seemed really stressful as our boats had to go through the long and painful measurement process. It was the first time I've seen this.  We had to completely strip our boats down so they could weigh them and every foils and everything was actually measured. Even though you have all the measurement   documents for the boats it's a bit worrying that something might not be right. After all that it was great to get back out on the water sailing. For the next couple of days we had very light winds for training so did some racing with other teams to familiarise ourselves with them. The evening before the event started we had the opening ceremony. I've never seen so many countries  flags all at once with so many sailors from so many nations taking part. It was then an early night to get good long sleep in preparation for race day.

Race day 1 - we started off with a windy day, a complete turn around to all the training days and not what I wanted. The boys fleet (the girls and boys race separately) was split in to 3 groups and I got a 22nd and 43rd which was ok.

Race day 2 - another windy and difficult day for me as one of the smallest and youngest sailors in the event with disappointing results of 41st and 37th which brought a few tears.

Race day 3 - windy again! But I got a 22nd which was ok in the conditions and a 49th. This left me in 121st out 150 and in the bronze fleet at the split. Not where I wanted to be but the standard of competition was so much higher than I had expected.

Race day 4 - a great day. First race in the bronze fleet and I got a 1st I felt good to be leading the fleet. I was very happy.

Race day 5 - another great day.  I got an 8th.

Race day 6- No sailing due to heavy fog :(

Our hotel

Overall it was an brilliant regatta, great experience and I learnt so much. Being with sailors from so many countries was great and we had a lot of fun in Team GBR. Although I would have liked to have done better in the results, my goal for the year was to just go to the European Championships which I did and hopefully I'll go again in the future and be much better with the things I have learnt.

Back home after the Euros I had to go back for the last couple of days of school - boo- before the summer holidays began and loads more sailing.

Me and Oli with our dinghy week trophies

In the first week of the holidays I did Gurnard Dinghy Week, at Gurnard Sailing Club with my friend Oliver Evans in a Pico. It was a great week of sailing , a lot of fun and nice be sailing two handed in between the Euros and British Optimist Nationals.

We were racing in the slow handicap with a fleet of twenty boats including, Fevas, Laser 4.7s and Mirrors. And we did really well. Six races in the series and six wins beating some over the line that gave us  time on handicap so should have been ahead of us. As well as winning the slow handicap, as we discarded a 1st as our worst result, we won  the trophy for the best result overall across all the classes and got a couple of really nice trophies. It was also a good confidence boost for going into the Opi Nationals which I'll talk about in part 2