From summer to sailing in a storm

OK it's been a while since I've done a post on here but I've being doing loads of sailing since the last one so this covers lots from summer through to November storms (which you can watch here). (Check out my sister's vid at the end too)

First off was the the new late summer championships held at Draycote. It was my my first big event after recovering from my broken collarbone, a new event in a venue I hadn't been to and a ranking event. So a bit of pressure. It was a tricky event because the winds were so light and from a rubbish direction for the reservoir. Each race was a case of pick your side and make sure you win your side to get a result. At the end of the weekend I was 9th or 6th depending on how you viewed the protested finale race. Enough said about that! Weeks later it was eventually a 6th!! Despite the hassle of the last race I had a really weekend catching up with my mates and getting back into some serious sailing even though Draycote just so happens to be the most shifty venue ever! 

Even though I was getting some good results in the conditions I did feel I was missing out on something and could be finishing higher up. Thinking about the event afterwards, I realised my problem was I was being reactive in my thinking rather than being proactive. Very annoying but at least I know what to work on this winter. 

One good thing about sailing at Draycote was that I was able to go see my Nan who we don't see so much as she lives in Coventry, so I sort of hope we have another event up there.


After Draycote we had a summer squad training weekend in Cardiff. Despite light winds the training was really useful and we did Bart's Bash on the Sunday. We stayed with Jamie Cook and his family, who had loads of people round on Saturday evening so the whole weekend was great fun.

Next was the RYA South and South West combined Zone Championships at Weymouth. It's a funny event because all the sailors who are moving up from the regatta fleet and trying for the zone squads compete. It means you get followed a lot and there's loads of separation in the fleet. I remember when I first did the event it was really scary being with the main fleet sailors so I know what it was like for them. Overall I came fourth which is always a tough place to finish. That weekend we stayed in the scariest B&B place in Weymouth - there was blood on our room door and fighting outside!!! And England got beaten by Wales in the rugby. At least the sailing was good!!

The End of Season Championships was next back in Weymouth. This was our third ranking event for the winter squads. With two good results already, it meant I could go out at really enjoying the racing without having to worry about the results so much. It was a pretty breezy weekend and I got off to a slow start with a 10,11,13 on the first day but the second day was much better with 5,4,2 so I finished 7th. The Sunday was one of those great days racing where everything just flows and works. 

It meant that I had two 6th places counting for the rankings so I am 6th overall and back in the National Squad.

We had the first national squad training camp from Saturday - Tuesday of half term and I had to use my old boat, which my sister Freya now sails as mine was on its way to Bordeaux! Then on the Wednesday I flew to Bordeaux with Mani (Heathcote) and his Mum to meet up with the rest of his family to compete in a regatta there.

It was great fun. As well as the opi's a load of the 420 sailors were racing too. The conditions were tricky as the event was on this massive lake and the winds were quite light but really gusty. Overall I came 11th which I was quite pleased with as the French national squad were there. I would have done better but I didn't get a result for the first race as all the Brits sailed in the wrong race! Well the French instructions were a bit confusing. As well as the sailing we had so much fun cycling, playing in the Atlantic surf and water fights with the French. Thank you so much to George and Kate for taking me and for everyone looking after me.

As well as all the opi sailing I also competed in the RYA Eric Twiname Team racing championship. Our team was Sophie Holloway, Rhys Lewis, Will Hall, Alex Schonrock, Oliver Hill and me. We competed in the youth event in fireflies against much older sailors which was really hard. We finished 2nd in the silver fleet but were one of the few teams to beat the overall winners. It was really good team racing. Not sure I'll rush out to buy a firefly though!

Along with all the events and national squad training I've also been training at Lymington. We've had a couple of really windy sessions sailing in the storms. I think its some of the fastest sailing I've ever done. Awesome! And last weekend I had my first proper go sailing a 420 with Mani. There is so much to learn and so much more to do than there is in the Opi. But its brilliant, so much faster. Thanks again to the Heathcote family for taking me and looking after me. I forgot to mention too about the  awesome four days I had at the end of the summer holidays staying with Mani and doing loads of Opi sailing.



It's not just me whose been sailing. My sister Freya has done loads too. She raced at Lymington, Hayling Island, Chichester, Zone Champs, End of Season and her results are getting better each time. She's also been training at Spinnaker and Lymington having lots of fun in the stormy weather as you can see.

A no sailing Nationals

I never realised that not sailing at the Nationals could be so fun! 

Because my collar bone was still repairing I wasn't able to compete at the Nationals this year so I thought before we went that I was going to have a bit of a sad week. However, luckily for me Alastair Beardsall came to my rescue and gave me the chance of helping him on the Measurer's Boat for Junior Fleet. 

The fleet of to racing 

Cool, this meant I could spend the week on the water on a rib which is the next best thing to sailing and better than being stuck onshore.  The measuring boat (well the Measurers on the measuring boat) randomly pick boats that have finished in the top 20 to make sure they are safe and not breaking any of the boat set up rules. So we were checking things from a praddle being tied in to a sail being in bands. 

My role on the boat was to be the scribe. I wrote down the sail numbers of the boats we measured along with their  sail button number and then any problems we found with the boat. To say the least it was a busy job however I thoroughly enjoyed it and I can't thank Alastair enough for letting me go  on his rib and help. 

Despite not being able to sail I learn't a lot from the week as well as being able to help out with the measuring, I was able to get a really good view on the racing and think about what I would do in the circumstances of the racing we were watching. I also helped out with giving some of the sailors some hints and tips. And Alastair spent a load of time teaching me how to drive a rib- it's so much fun! 

One of the day's was pretty light winds and I was able to jump in an Opi for a bit of a sail which all went well with no problems for my shoulder.

Despite me not being able to sail, Freya still sailed and had an awesome week. However it was a tough week for her and the rest of the Regatta fleet sailors due to high winds and a big waves! Despite all this Freya powered through and boosted her self confidence. She is so super smiley about sailing. In the racing she did OK, with her best race result being 12th. She won a medal for being the coaches Sailor of the Week in her group. Nice work Freya.

As well as me and Freya being on the water all week Mum spent the week on a boat too. She was on the Committee Boat for the Transition and Regatta fleet. I think the first two days were a bit scary because of the big waves but the rest was good. Mum learnt loads about racing too, it was funny hearing her talk about racing and the rules and stuff!
On another note my collar-bone is healing on track. Once back from the Nationals I did Gurnard Dinghy week in a Pico with Oliver Evans with me helming and all was fine with my shoulder. We were defending the slow handicap trophy we won last year.  Last year we won nearly every race, which we didn't manage to do again but we did well enough to to retain the trophy.

Mum getting to grips with being in Wales

Luxury launch service from Dad

This weekend I'm back in my Opi racing at Chichester and then hope to get some training in before a busy September that starts with the New Late Summers which is our new ranking event(instead of the first 6 races of the Nationals-PHEEW!!). Can't wait!

Thank you for 2014!

2014 was a brilliant year for me. I went to the European Championships, European team racing Championships, Braassermermeer, Bermuda and lots more! All of these events were a amazing experience for me and I'm very grateful that I could go. So I made a video saying thank you to you all. Here it it is:

It's been an awesome start to this year too. I've already been to Monaco for a team racing event and I'm off to Turkey again next week for the Bodrum International Optimist Regatta which I did in 2013 with the Development team. 

I wouldn't be able to do all this without the help from lots of people so thank you to:

• Crewsaver
• Royal London Yacht Club
• Sail Spy UK
• North Sails
• Nan Nan & G.D
• All my coaches
• My sailing friends
• My family

Thank you! 

From Rutland to Bermuda, oh and a lot of waiting

A quick blog update before I head off on my next amazing sailing experience.

This weekend we had the End of Season Championships at Rutland, which is the third event of the year the counts towards our end of year rankings.

I have to say it wasn't the best weekend ever of sailing but mostly because of the weather. It had been windy all weekend and forecast to be windy this week so guess what - no wind at the weekend!

The trip didn't start too well when our 6pm ferry didn't leave until 7.30pm - unhappy Dad! We didn't get to our hotel until late but as we were staying close by we didn't have to get up too early, which was good as we needed to sort out my new North V4 sail.

When we got to Rutland it was pretty obvious nothing was going to happen in a hurry as there was no wind.  We had loads of waiting around and then more waiting around. It was OK though as I got to spend time with my friends and have a chat with our National Coach about some stuff but what we really wanted to do was get racing.

We eventually got afloat for a slow sail down to the far end of the reservoir for some more waiting around while the race committee set a course and then enough wind to sail. After more waiting around our first race got underway. I had an OK start and was in about 7th place after the second mark when then race was abandoned because the wind had died. So we did some more waiting around until about 3.30pm when everything was abandoned for the day!

Over night in our hotel it was an evening of our usual unusual approach to dinner, Face timing Mum and Freya, a bit of James Bond and then getting to sleep. Why does Dad always get the big bed!?

Sunday morning we got to Rutland early so we would have plenty of time which turned out to be a bit pointless as we couldn't even see the water. Fog, lots of it. We did some more waiting. This was fast becoming the Waiting Season Championships.  By late morning the fog cleared and a little bit of breeze started which was the cue for a rapid launch. Luckily we had enough breeze to sail and got three races in the afternoon although this meant no discard!

Quick little selfie while
doing some waiting

I had a good first race with an amazing start and a nice lift to give me a 3rd (a 1st for my rankings)!  Due to a bad start the next race gave me an 18th however I did recover a lot! I got my emojo back in the next race being just nicked off 1st which was quite annoying however I was happy to settle for 2nd. Overall I came 5th which was alright...! 

Racing over I wanted to wait for the prize giving so we waited and waited, yes more waiting. The jury were doing some jury stuff which meant it was ages before the results came out.   In the end we had to go to make our 9pm ferry so I never did make it to the prize giving.

The drive back was rubbish with really slow traffic which meant we just missed our ferry.  The next one wasn't until 11.59pm.  So you guessed it - we did some more waiting.

My overall ranking for the year is 6th which means I made National Squad again which I'm pleased about!

On Monday I fly to Bermuda for the RenaissanceRe Gold  Cup. I'm really excited and can't wait to go for so many reasons:

• Sailing against the local sailors and a bunch of international entries
• Sailing warm waters in summer kit
• Mixing it up with the sailors from the Gold Cup
• Staying with my host family 
• Just going to Bermuda
• Not being at school (although Mum said I had to take homework!)

I was supposed to be flying tomorrow Saturday but because of hurricane Gonzalo the flight was cancelled so I'm just hoping everything is OK for all the people in Bermuda and for the event.

It's going to be awesome and I'm really glad my school Christ the King let me go, and for my Grandparent's help. 

While we were waiting at Rutland I was talking to Matilda Nicholls and her Dad who have just moved from Bermuda who were telling me all the country, the event and they also know the family I'm staying with. 

I CAN'T WAIT!!

I'll try and put some stuff on my Facebook page while I'm there and will tell you all about it when I'm back.

Something different : TEAM RACING!

Last weekend I was at Bowmoor Sailing Club for the new IOCA Random Pairs Team Racing Championships. It was the second time I had ever team raced.  The first time I was in a Feva for the RYA Team Racing Championships so this was the first time I had ever properly team raced in my Optimist.  I was really excited but also quite nervous. To add to my nerves, I wasn't very well over the weekend with a cold and a bad cough. 

It was a two day event and on Saturday the wind conditions were 8-12 knots gusting 14, so perfect for team racing. The weekend was based on random pairs. This is how it worked: 

There were 24 sailors in total. 12 more experienced sailors had a number and 12 less experienced had a letter. In each race a random number and letter were put together to race as a team and in each race we had a different pairing.  All sailors had 22 races and the winner was the sailor who won the most number of team races. 

On Saturday I lost my first race, then won two and lost the fourth. By this time though I really felt like I was started to get to grips with how to race as a team and help my less experienced sailors. I then won 5 races in a row, lost one to Julia Mellers (who was sailing really well) and another to be on 7 wins and 4 losses. But I won all of my next races to end the first day in joint second place with 11 wins and 4 losses. 

My favourite race was round 11. In this race I was with Freya Black versus Ellen Main and James Hall. The more experienced sailor was Ellen Main on the other team so I was targeting her. On the start line I managed to force Ellen to the pin which was my plan however Freya was over so she had to go back which mean't she was 4th.  The team with the sailor who finished 4th lost the race so I had to do something.  I forced Ellen out on starboard from the start almost to the edge of the lake so that she couldn't tack whilst Freya beat James and rounded the the first windward mark in 1st place. I rounded it in 3rd with Ellen snapping on my heels. I managed to pull away from Ellen on the next three legs however James was waiting to try and block me for the final upwind leg. The second I rounded the last mark James tacked on top of me so we got into a tacking duel and Ellen got past me and I was now in last place. I decided I had to out tack James to get back in to 3rd place. I did five really quick tack, a short pause, two quick tacks and a fake tack and I had gained half a boat length. However, me and James were coming in on port and Ellen was coming in on starboard and Freya was above us all waiting nervously. I got as close as I could to Ellen then said tack and tacked before James knew what was happening and I gained a half a boat length finished second with Freya finishing 1st. What a great victory. 

Over Saturday night my cold got a lot worse and I felt really rubbish on Sunday but at least I had my new Crewsaver Phase2 drysuit keeping me warm and dry. It was really windy averaging about 20 knots with loads of huge gusts. I was really struggling to just sail and keep the boat upright and felt like I had no energy so concentrating on the team racing tactics was really hard. I only won one more race on Sunday and had a capsize and a couple of nose dives. In the end I missed the last race as I couldn't keep going and didn't feel like it was very safe.  

In the end I finished in 7th place overall just missing out on a top six prize.  The day finished early at 12:30pm.  Although I was annoyed at not doing so well on Sunday I still had a brilliant time and learnt a lot from the weekend which was good and very useful but now I don't know which I prefer Team Racing or Fleet Racing!

Crewsaver Phase2 kit photo shoot!

Two weeks ago, despite the very windy weather, I was down at Warsash Sailing Club for a photo shoot for the awesome new Crewsaver Phase2 kit. The kit is the best I have ever had! It was really warm but also really easy to move in. 

At the shoot there were also two lads in a 420, two Enterprise sailors, an RS800 team and a couple in their RS200 and me in my Optimist. As well as the sailors there were the Crewsaver marketing team,  Greg and Hannah, looking after us and the professional photographer Paul. 

It was really windy in the morning so we couldn't go sailing so me and another man did some pretend coaching shots together onshore while we waited and hoped the wind would die down. After a long wait we were eventually given the go ahead and we rigged and got ready to launch. However just as we were about to launch the wind came through really strongly again and even with my rig on the floor and me standing on the mast it was still trying to take off so it was de-rig and time to wait again. 

We knew it was going to be a long wait so the manager ordered baguettes for everyone and we had lunch. We then took a team photo and got ready to launch. 

I was first to launch and it was still really windy. I have to admit I was a bit anxious going out at first. Just getting offshore into the wind was pretty tricky. They told me to reach up and down really fast. It was so fun and I put in some really solid runs! The wind was averaging 30 knots so I was planing really fast. As well as dealing with the wind and staying upright I also had to try and remember to smile which was a bit difficult with so much spray going everywhere. As you'll see in the photos I didn't manage it for all of them! The sailors on shore were really impressed with my sailing because I was the first one to go out was going really fast and didn't capsize. 

The photographer was brilliant and got some amazing shots. Overall it was an awesome day. Dad said I looked really scary on some of the pictures and that I should make the same face on the startline!  You can find also the pictures on my Haydn Sewell Sailing Facebook page and on the Crewsaver Facebook page

Below are some of the pictures from the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for an awesome 2013 sailing year

Sorry this post is a bit late but we had a catastrophic failure of our PC at home (now sorted).

2013 was a brilliant year for sailing for me. I started the year in the South Zone Squad. I went to Turkey with the British Development Team for the Bodrum International Regatta. I was in Team GBR for the Irish Nationals, competed in all the the major British events and finished the year ranked 11th in the British rolling ranking. Over the winter I have been training in the National Squad. I've raced and trained loads and had so much fun.

I couldn't have done this with out a lot of support and help from so many people. So I would like to say a very big thank you to (in no special order)

• The Royal London Yacht Club Youth Trust
• Crewsaver
• Wightlink
• SailSpyUK
• North Sails
• My Grandparents - Nan Nan & GD and Nanny
• All the coaches who have helped me especially Clare, Tom and Alan
• Parents of my friends who have helped me especially Cordelia and Richard Ellis and Chris Evans
• All my sailing friends (some of who are in the video)
• IOCA UK
• Royal Victoria Yacht Club
• RYA
• My family in Dublin
• and last but not least Mum, Dad and Freya

Thank you everyone. I can't wait for this year's racing to start!

I hope you enjoy the video.

Great end to the Sailing Season

I've been a bit slow to get this post out but I've had a couple of busy weekends recently to finish off this year's sailing with the Optimist Winter Championships and National Squad Training.

The Winter Championships were at Datchet making two weekends in a row there (I had been at a Boys invitational training the week before). 151 sailors took part so we were split into four flights with two groups racing at once in a race.

Check out the Crewsaver winter gloves

The Saturday was the first cold sailing day I've had this winter so it was full on with my Crewsaver thermals and dry suit. I also had some new boots and Crewsaver winter gloves. The gloves are awesome and definitely the warmest I ever had.

We had three races on Saturday all in very light winds which were very shifty. That's OK as long as you are in the right part of the course and getting the shifts right. The only problem was I didn't seem to be and think I spent to much time tacking to try and stay with the shifts. At the end of Saturday I had a 11th, 14th and 18th which are OK results but meant I was in 33rd place overall which I was really unhappy about. It still meant that I was in the gold fleet for the Sunday. 

After Saturday night in the Holiday Inn in Slough, fish and chips from a very strange Indian/pizza/burger/kebab/fish & chip take away and watching the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who (which I didn't get as I've never watched it before) I was ready to go out and do much better.

Top Optimist GoPro accessory
ready for action

Sunday was light winds again but I had a much better day of getting them right. In the first race I cleared all the negative thoughts out of my head and managed to get a second however I was a bit angry at myself because I let 1st place slip at the Windward mark. However in the second race I had a shocker- a 21st!! But I managed to regain confidence and get a 5th in the next race.

Overall I finished 9th which was a great result and my second best this year so I was happy with that.

The following weekend we had a three day National Squad training camp at Farmoor Reservoir. We had a real mix of wind conditions from gusting over 20kts to no wind at all so got some brilliant training done. I had my new GoPro pole on my tiller that SailSpy UK gave me (thank you) so was able to get some great video from behind me which you can watch here.

During the training we did some Team racing which I really enjoyed and some fleet racing which I came second overall in.

So that's sailing done for this year. I wonder if Santa will bring me any sailing presents for Christmas?!

National Squad 2013/14

Training, training and blindfolded sailing

Since my last event, the End of Seasons Championships, my sailing has been all training. 

To start with it was my first ever National Squad training camp. This was four days at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. I was so excited. Getting into the National Squad was my aim for the season so it was brilliant to be part of it. 

The first day was a land day for sailors and parents. There were sailors there from the Optimist, Laser, Techno and Toppers squads.   So there were quite a lot of us and a real mix of ages. I was one of the youngest with the others up to age 15. For most of the day we were having fitness tests. I thought I did quite well  especially against the older ones but I still ended up being told I needed to be fitter!

I'm not to sure what the parents did all day. I think they were told about what we would be doing and how they could be 'Performance Parents' to support us! Once we get to the National Squad it also seems that parents lose their own names as the name badges they were given to wear at the start of the day just said 'Parent of.... Haydn'

For the Camp we were staying at a PGL place just outside Weymouth which was OK. Sharing a room with four others was really fun. 

Unfortunately, the Camp was at the same time as the big storm that came through. I think it was the windiest weather I've ever been in. We had to store our Optimist in doors to stop them blowing away and when we went up onto Chessil Beach I could barely stand up.

Because of the weather we had to do two shore based days working on goal setting, boat set up, tactics and strategy. While I would rather have been sailing this was all really helpful stuff. 

On Tuesday, the last day of the Camp we did go sailing and it was still pretty windy with big waves. Even the older sailors were hiking so for me it was really full on. I learnt loads about windy weather techniques that are best for someone my size and our coaches, Alan Williams, Tom Haynes, Vagelis Atzemian and Kate Williams are awesome.

Alan made a video of the Camp which you can see here.http://vimeo.com/78775120

Last weekend I was at the IOCA Boys Invitational training at Queen Mary Reservoir In Datchet. This was another very light wind training session but really useful.  As we have the Winter Championships there this weekend it was good to get used to the distraction of the planes from Heathrow airport which are so amazingly close. We did loads of tacking practice, worked on our starting, boat handling techniques and fell for the boat

One of the exercises we had to do was sailing blind folded (or for me wearing a large hat over my eyes) to see how much feel we had for the boat. I had my SailSpy GoPro camera on at the time so you can see how I got on here. 

This weekend it's the Winter Championships, which is the last event of the year. The results from this and the End of Seasons are used to decided who gets selected for Team GBR for the Irish Nationals so it's important to have a good one.

The forecast is looking good at the moment but does look like its going to be cold so all my Crewsaver thermals and dry suit will get a real testing. Then the weekend after that it's a three day National Squad Training Camp at Farmoor Reservoir in Oxford. So not only do I get three days sailing with my friends but I get a day off school for sailing to. Result!!.

Optimist Nationals 2013 in LARGS!

It's been a very busy sailing time recently with the Volvo Gill British National Championships in Largs then only a week inbetween before we set off to Dun Laoghaire for the Irish Nationals.

It was the first time I've been to Scotland and sailed in Largs. It was an amazing location and a great place to sail and we had a real mix of weather over the week.

Over the first couple of days we had light winds, which suited me especially as the first six races of the Nationals count towards the IOCA rolling rankings. I had some great races including a 3rd, 5th and 11th. We had 117 boats racing in the Junior Main fleet so the starts were pretty hectic and important to get right. Most of mine were good and I seemed to have great upwind speed. 

I had a bit of a problem on the second day in one of the races when I got penalised by the jury on the start line for sculling and had to do a 720 turn just before the start. It meant I started almost last but I managed to fight my way through to finish 41st. It was a result that I could have done without having to carry at the end of the week, but I asked the jury to explain what I had done wrong so learnt something from it and won't be doing it again - at least not when the jury is watching!!

On the third day we had medium winds and great racing and I was lying inside the top 10. Then the weather decided to change. Thursday and Friday got really windy with big choppy waves and I really had a struggle. In the first race on Thursday I thought I had done really badly and got a bit upset. In the end I had finished mid fleet so it wasn't so bad.  I got a 35th in one of the windy races which I was pretty pleased with. Going up wind was quite a struggle and I seemed to be taking on board water faster than I could bail it out. Going down wind was so fast, fun and a bit scary all at the same time. 

I had a couple of races which I didn't get a result in because of the strong winds so in the end slipped down to finish 22nd. Out of 117 boats and my first time in the main fleet in the Nationals it was a good result but I had hoped to do better so was a bit disappointed but learnt loads.

My results in the first six races also mean I am ranked 8th in the country in the rolling rankings which is amazing.

The mix of weather we had meant I got to use all of my new Crewsaver kit. It's fantastic especially the thermal leggings and top and I have a bouyancy aid and hikers that really fit me properly. Yay.

My sister Freya also took part in the Nationals for the first time in the mini racers. It was great to see her out sailing and she had a great time. She was very proud of her medal and Optimist Grade 1 badge that she got.

Largs was a long way away but as we were helping by taking the Volvo cars trailer we got to use one of their XC60s which was awesome and made the journey much more comfy. We still seemed to be surrounded by stuff though!

Although Largs is a fair distance away it was a lovely place to sail in.  Amazing views of the mountains in the background and it had hundreds of jelly fish. Actually millions of jelly fish. We also saw some dolphins but while we in the car and not by our boats sadly. Largs also has the most epic ice cream shop. So I definitely don't mind going back there to sail.

Next event is the Irish Nationals which starts tomorrow. Busy training with the British Team at the moment so more on this event soon.

Crewsaver Sponsorship

Awesome news in fact well over 10 out of 10 on the awesometer. 

I have been selected by Crewsaver to be one of seven new sailors for their sponsorship programme. Thank you, thank you, thank you.The other day a huge box arrived with a load of brand new kit for me including:

Spray topHikersBootsThermal topsLeggingsGlovesBuoyancy aid
And loads more and a big kit bag to put it all in.

The kit is really great and I can't wait to start using it. Being so little it's sometimes hard getting stuff small enough to fit me but everything seems just the right size which I'm really pleased about. The Bouyancy Aid is so much  better than my old ones. It's  not too long on me whereas the old ones always seemed to get in the way and now I need the weather to be colder again as I have been given some epic thermal gear.

Me in my new Crewsaver kit

This sponsorship all came about because we saw an article about Crewsaver looking for sailors to sponsor on the Yachts and Yachting Website, so we emailed them a load of stuff about me and my sailing and I got picked. It's brilliant being given loads of new kit but what's really nice is that one of the really well known sailing companies are impressed with my sailing and think I have the potential to do well. 

Crewsaver have written a press release about all the sailors they are sponsoring and they asked us to send them some pictures of me in the kit. Here are some of the photos Dad took. I think he thinks he's some kind of fashion photographer or something as he was making me walk down the pontoon and he was lying and rolling around on the floor taking photos!! LOL.

Crewsaver have got loads of great kit which you can see in their website www.crewsaver.co.uk and here is a link to the press release so please have a look www.marineadagency.com/pdfs/pressreleases/Crewsaver_Sponsored_Sailors_Annoucement.pdf