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.

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! 

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

Irish Nationals Championships 2013

The Irish Nationals were amazing! Lovely winds and sunny mostly. It was great seeing all my family and having days to spare. It was one of the best events of the year so far because ( if you don't want  to read the whole post which might be quite long!)

• Good wind conditions
• Good Racing - I came 19th 
• I coped well in the strong winds 
• Good seeing all my family especially our Irish Relatives
• Having two days spare was fun and interesting
• I learnt some new skills
• I felt proud being part of Team GBR at an overseas event
• Guess who the main event sponsor was? The Jelly Bean Factory!
• The house we stayed in was lovely

Now I'm going to explain those points in more detail. This is going to take a long time!

The wind conditions

The wind conditions in Ireland were perfect for a fair Nationals! We had one light wind day, one heavy wind day, one light to medium and a medium to heavy wind day. Perfect. Every day it was quite choppy and tidal. You could make big gains or losses from the tide. It was very annoying when you got a big lull and heavy winds because in the really choppy conditions it was hard to  have the boat speed to get over the waves! 

The Racing

The racing in Ireland was very competive and confusing! For the first day they had both the junior and senior main fleets (I was in the junior fleet) racing the same course. The junior fleet set off first but the people at the back of our fleet got mixed up with the people at the front of the senior fleet! In one race the winner of the senior fleet did so well that not only did he win his race but overtook so many of the junior fleet ahead of him that he came 15th in our fleet too! LOL! After that the race committee gave us separated courses so it was lot better. Most of the racing was really close with lots of the British team up at the front and lots of fun. Overall I came 19th out 90 which was really good. 

The strong winds

I thought it had been windy enough in Largs but in turned out be even windier in Dublin Bay. On the Saturday (third day of racing) we were held ashore with a postponement until lunchtime while they waited for the winds to die down a bit. When we did go out it was well over 20kts gusting in the 30s. On the Friday it was windy again but squally too so would go from being light to big 30kt gusts very quickly. Between one of the races we thought the wind had died down and reset our rigs for lighter conditions only for the strong winds to come back again while we were in the start sequence so had to do the race really powered up! I coped much better this time in the wind and did a better job of keeping the boat going and sailing to avoid filling up with water. I had one capsize in the wind and got a high scoring result (which I discarded) but got some results in the teens in the wind which was brilliant.

Seeing my family

Some of my Irish family cheering me on -
Great Uncle Matt, Matthew, Michael, Tessa, Michael,
Saemus, Nanny, Dympna, Louise, Sandie, Micheal plus Mum
and Freya

My Nan was born and grew up in Dublin so we have lots of family like second / third cousins, great uncles who we got to see. I've only met them once before when I was 1 year old so it was like meeting them for the first time. They were awesome and such a laugh. We went to their family dinner on Friday night which was a bit mad and there was so much food. On Sunday they all came to see me in Dun Laoghaire and were standing on the pier as I sailed back in from racing. As I sailed in they were all waving and cheering me. It was so funny and really nice, like I had won an Olympic medal and then they all stayed for the prize giving too. Next year the Optimist Europeans are in Dublin. I really want to get in the team so I can see them all again.

Two spare days

We went over to Dublin a couple of days before our Team GBR training started so we had a bit of time as tourists, so we went round the Guinness Factory, went on an open top bus tour of the City, had a look round Dublin and had lunch in a pub in Temple Bar, which seemed to involve more Guinness for Mum and Dad. Infact Guinness seemed to be a bit a theme for the week for Mum and Dad!

Leant some new skills

As I was sailing as part of Team GBR we had two coaches Matt and Claire, they are great or I should say 'solid' and 'fresh'! They really helped me out with my starting technique and heavy wind sailing and helped to make it a brilliant event. Matt who was the coach in Turkey, helped me improve my outhaul adjustments. Claire was working on boat speed with us mostly whilst Matt worked on the strategies and tactics with us. Together they worked really well which showed in our 'solid' results! Fresh!!

Being part of Team GBR

I was really proud to be part Team GBR. We all kept our boats together at the National Yacht Club, wore our team kit and helped each other out on the water. We had an opening ceremony that we took part in which was very interesting. Me and my friend wrapped a Union Jack over our heads and ran around lots so that everyone could see our Team Flag!

The Jelly Bean Factory 

The Irish Nationals was sponsored by The Jelly Bean Factory. What a cool sponsor. I have never seen so many Jelly Beans. We seemed to be able to have as many Jelly Beans as we wanted and the parents seemed to like them too. They also had someone taking photos of the event which they post for free download on their facebook site.

Our holiday home

We had an amazing holiday home to stay in. It had one big open plan room and was really modern with a massive chalk board that we could draw on. It was about 20 minutes from where we were sailing in Dun Laoghaire and 20 minutes from Dublin city centre. Where we stayed was surprisingly quiet despite the fact that we weren't too far from the city centre.

So loads of reasons why it was such a brilliant event and I really hope to go back again.

Warsash Optimist Open and teaching Freya to sail

Well the Warsash Optimist Regatta was hot and slow. It was great to be sailing barefoot, in shorts and a rash vest but it also meant there wasn't very much wind. There were 40 sailors in the main fleet and even in the light winds it was the older and bigger National and Intermediate squad sailors who were at the top of the fleet so it was tough competition.

On the first day we had three races. Two were good for me with an 8th and a 5th. Getting the starts right and finding the best breeze upwind was really important as it was hard to over take once we were reaching or going down wind. In the other race of the day I got a 12th which I was annoyed with myself for at as I should have made better advantage of my light weight in the conditions. 

On Sunday we only managed one race and there was a lot of hanging around. We had two other races which we started but were abandoned mid race. One was abandoned just as we were coming up to the windward mark for the second time when we thought they were going to shorten the course. No one at the front of the fleet was very pleased with that.

Overall I came 8th which was good but I did feel like I could have done better but I did get a plate at the prize giving to add to my collection!

Me teaching Freya to sail

Dad was out on the mark laying rib on Sunday with our friends Richard Ellis and Nigel Smith. They kept having to move the marks because of the light shifty winds only for us not to race. It looked like hard work in the hot sun. Still, it kept them out of trouble or something like that that grown ups say!

I had my GoPro camera from Sailspy on board so got some great footage of my light winds tacking which I have been watching loads since to see where I can make things better.

Last weekend I took Freya out sailing for a bit of practice before she does mini racers at the Nationals. Dad said that Freya looks a more natural sailor than me at the same stage. Hmmmmm. As it was another  hot sunny day me and Dad both helped her to do some capsize practice too. We got Dad to bail out a completely full Opi and he did admit at the end that he hadn't realised it was such hard work!! I think all Opi sailors should get their parents to do this out on the water so they know what it's like.

Freya learning to bail - essential optimist skill

This weekend I'm racing at the Gurnard Sailing Club junior regatta in a Pico with my friend Oliver Evans which will be awesome fun and a great way to spend my 11th birthday.