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| Inlands prize giving |
The first event was the Inlands. This always seems to be a good event for me. The weekend was pretty bad weather wise though. Light and shifty. However after a while I worked out the pattern and was able to bag in some quality races. My results were 1,5,9,7,5. I was pretty happy with this score sheet as I was able to have consistent results which is quite hard in super shifty conditions. Overall I finished 5th however the points were really close after only managing to complete 5 races. My good friend William won it which was also quite cool.
After the Inlands there is a big gap until the next main event but thankfully every weekend there is either training or open events to do. I always do quite well in the open events and this year so far is not different.
The first open event was Parkstone Optimist Open. I had won this event last year so entering I felt a bit nervous. This was also my first time racing with/against Freya which was really cute. It was so funny seeing Freya out there beasting it. On the first day I managed to bang in some quality results in some windy weather which saw me top overnight by one point. However, Saturday wasn't completely perfect to say the least. Rain, Rain, Rain and yes - more rain. It was a pretty wet day. Also a bird pooped on my cap which wasn't the greatest because I didn't realise until Freya told me. Despite the yucky 1st day - Sunday was lovely. Rash vest weather with a gentle 8 knots of breeze. Perfect for Freya. The day started quite nicely with two solid races for me in some consistent wind but after that the day went a bit haywire. Big shifts led to a completely different course in which I couldn't quite get my head around. In the last two races I ended up getting a 4th and a 6th. However luckily I still won by 6 points in the end.
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| Lymington Prize giving |
The next open event was Lymington. The Lymington Optimist Open is a very prestigious event and is the best open event to win. It was also the Optimist Southern Area Championship event this year. Going into the event I was pretty nervous because there were some quality sailors competing so I really wanted to do well. The day before the event I was off school so I went and did some training with William in the 420, my next boat. The event started off pretty well for me but like Parkstone- I was only winning by one point so going into the next day I knew I needed to be at the top of my game. The Sunday wasn't exactly as I planned it to go. The races were fiercely competitive which was really fun. Luckily though I was still able to win overall by 12 points in all the drama. Also my good friend William came 2nd which was also very good.
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| The festival squad |
Then a few weeks break! I had the festival one weekend which was really fun and then I have recently being doing loads of sailing and coaching down at Gurnard which has also been quite cool.
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| Me and Dad posing with the famous model |
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| Warsash Prize giving |
My most recent event since then has been the Warsash Open. Not many people were doing this event so I won overall winning all 5 races. But I completed my main goal of the event in which was to help Freya. And finally we completed our goal!! Freya was on the start line!!!!!! It was such a nice feeling seeing Freya up their with the big boys and I can't wait until she starts winning things. But hopefully she never beats me. That would be embarrassing. I'd never hear the end of that.
Now though, the real sailing starts. On Wednesday I leave for the French nationals. As soon as I'm back from that - I'm off again to William's house for training and selling chickens. Don't worry. No time to explain. Then I'm up to Scotland for the Optimist nationals. Then back to William's for more training. Then up to Pwhelli for the 420 nationals. I'm out of breath.
