Bodrum International Optimist Regatta- Part 2 the non sailing bits

This is part 2 of my blog on Turkey and is about everything that happened on-shore as I couldn't fit everything on 1 post! From Mentos with coke to swimming this post has everything a child would do away  from their parents!

The Start

OK we didn't have the best ever start to our trip 1. we couldn't get seats altogether on the flight out as we hadn't pre-booked seat and it took ages to sort. 2) Hamish's (one of our team) luggage didn't make the flight to Turkey and turned up two days later. 3) there was a problem with our hotel booking when we arrived but Holly and Matt did an awesome job in sorting everything out as they did throughout the whole trip and it didn't seem to matter in the end.

The heat

WOW! It was so hot in Turkey. One day it started to rain in the evening however it was still 27 degrees!  We woke up at 7am  in the morning and it was 25 degrees. In the UK it's hardly ever 2 degrees let alone at 7am in the morning. However unfortunately I didn't come back with much of a tan. See Mum and Dad, I did use sun cream and wear long sleeves rashies and leggings!

The accommodation

Chillin by the Pool

The best accommodation ever! It had seven swimming pools which were all deluxe. All the girls stayed in one room and all the boys stayed in another. The rooms were fine however the supposedly balcony was 1cm off the ground! However the best bit for most of the team was the food! On the training days we got a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the sailing days we got the buffet for breakfast and dinner. Most of the food was lovely but there was lots of stuff that we weren't really sure on. However the highlight for the food was when all 4 boys accidentally set the toaster on fire!  Oops!

The opening and closing ceremonies 

The British Team at the Opening Ceremony

They were so busy!! As you may have seen from some of the pictures I was on my team mates shoulders most of the time. The view you got from up there was incredible!  I felt really proud waving the flag as we walked. I loved watching the closing ceremony seeing all the fellow sailors stood on the podium waving their flags. 

Team dinner

Some Great New Friends

Now at every event you do you meet some lovely friends and we met some fantastic sailors and played lots of international games of Uno to pass the time while we waited for the wind to blow or stop blowing really hard. Even though sometimes we couldn't speak each others languages it didn't seem to matter. We met people from so many countries and made some of the best friends ever, the Singaporeans in particular. They were so friendly and really funny and are the best sailors ever! We had such good time with them that we ended up exchanging emails and they invited us to go over and train in Singapore! 

I'm sure everybody in the team definitely enjoyed the week on and off the water with some memorable moments. I'm sure everybody's still wishing they were in Turkey because I sure am! It was an amazing experience being part of the British team and I definitely want to represent the British again! Below I will put the top 10 highlights of the trip in any order!

The windy day!

• The sailing
• The heat
• The wind conditions 
• Making such good friends
• Being away from your parents!
• Sharing a room with 4 boys!
• The food
• The accommodation
• Swimming
• Chillin!

Bodrum International Regatta - Racing post

Sorry that I haven't told you about my sailing trip to Turkey earlier. As you probably guessed I was very tired. But here it is.

In brief, it was the most awesome experience of my life - great fun, great racing,

amazing to be with so many sailors from so many countries. A great laugh with my GBR team mates and can't wait to do it all again one day. Overall I came 59th out of a fleet of about 300. I was the 5th ranked junior (aged under 12) so a good result as I was one of the youngest there and some of the national teams we were racing against are the teams going to the World Championships

Sailing in Turkey was an incredible experience.  Going to Turkey in itself was amazing never mind the fact that I was there to do the thing I love the most, sailing. It was so hot there. The hottest it reached was a epic 37 degrees however unfortunately I didn't get much of a tan! :( ! At least that meant Mum and Dad were happy as remembering to use sun cream was on the list of Do's I had to take!!!!

The sailing was really awesome, I loved it however I didn't get the best of luck with my charter boat! The charter boat I was given was 16 years old and had a massive hole in the bottom of it. (Thanks coach Matt for getting it sorted though). On the first two days of training we didn't sail due to the wind. On the first day it was 1knt and on the second day it was 40knts. Thankfully though on the third day (day of the practise race) we managed to get a bit of training in.The training was good fun for about an hour then the wind dropped so we had to go back in. After a while of waiting on-shore we eventually went back out on the water with all the other sailors to do a practise race. However the wind dropped to about 2knts so Matt (our Coach) took us out of the race and we headed off shore to find some wind for better training.

Day 1 of racing

Day 1 was a good day of racing for me. The wind was around 9knts which is ideal conditions for me. On the first race I had an amazing start on the pin end and tacked straight away onto the correct shift. After about 3 minutes everybody was on port tack and I was leading the pin end bunch. Unfortunately the people who started at the committee boat side and tacked straight away had more pressure than us. However I gained a bit on the last beat and managed to get a 14th which I was pleased with. However In the next race I had a bad start which resulted in a 36th.

Day 2 of racing

In the first race the average wind was around 6 knots again OK for me. Unfortunately I got a bad start at the committee boat end and had to sail all the way to the right hand side of the course (favoured end) and managed to round the top mark in about 35th. On the run I gained 5 places which I was pleased with. Then on the next beat I gained 7 places by staying on starboard tack for ages and then tacking across on a port shift. I finished in 23 place which I was pleased with. The next race was a much better thanks to my start. I started on the committee end of the start line again and went right leading the pack. After reaching the starboard layline the wind shifted onto starboard tack so I tacked and laid the mark. Unfortunately I lost a few places on the second beat so ended up finishing 12th instead of 9th. The next race was alright, however I started on the wrong end of the startline but gained loads of places on the run and managed to come 17th. So once again another good day for me.

Day 3 of racing

On the first race I sailed really well tacking on all the correct shifts and winning the correct side. After a bad second beat I ended up finishing 17th which I was disappointed with. The next race went a bit better however once again I lost places on the second beat. I ended up finishing 16th. After the end of that race the wind picked up dramatically from 7knts to 22knts in a few seconds! Unfortunately on the last race I didn't do too well as it wasn't my winds. I finished a disappointing 42nd which ended up being my discard.

Overall I came a 59th out of nearly 300 sailors. I was very pleased with that result. I would like to thank Matt and Holly and the rest of my team for making it one of best times of my life.

7th out of 210 at the 2013 Volvo Gill Optimist Inland Championships

Just had an awesome weekend! I was sailing in Grafham Water for the 2013 Volvo Gill Optimist Inland Championships. Last year I won this event in the Regatta fleet and since then I have done well in the Main fleet so I went in to the event with quite high expectations for myself. I definitely achieved what I set out to do with a fantastic 7th out of 210 boats. I was so impressed with myself! 

Day 1

The event had a great start as I got a really nice mention on the Volvo Cars Sailing website as one of the sailors to watch this year which you can see here: Volvo Driving British Sailing

I was very excited to be out on the race course. I love the big fleet starts where we have about 100 boats fighting it out on the line. My starts were good all weekend apart from one and it's a great feeling to be at the front of the fleet . The day started out with about 12 knots of breeze which is prefect for me but dropped off during the day. I sailed a 9th, 34th (which would turn out to be my discard) and an 5th. Overall after Saturday I was lying in 17th which I thought was pretty good! Also on Saturday I received my Team GBR jackets for the Development Team and the Irish Nationals Team. I also got two Development Team shirts for the trip to Turkey. We had team meetings and all that stuff, there was lots to take in so I'm glad Dad was with me to help remember it all. After sailing we had a nice chilled out dinner with the my friends Lily and Freddie Ellis and Oliver Evans and their parents.

Me and the Development Team
who decided to pick me up because I'm small!!

Day 2

I went into day 2 filled with excitement  WHY? Because it was light winds which massively favours me and because I had the chance to do really well. It was so warm on Sunday. probably the warmest sailing day of the year so far! Because it was very light we had a postponement of about an hour. 

On the first race I sailed really well and ended up with a 8th which I was really pleased with. The next race went even better and I got a 6th which made me very happy. After the second race finished the wind completely died so we had to head back ashore. I felt really happy with myself and believed I had sailed my way into a top 10 finish overall. My Mum was the first to get the final results online. When she phoned to tell me I jumped up and down in excitement when I heard that I was 7th. I was so happy. 

At the prize giving I got a great surprise because not only did I get a plate for being 6th boy but I also won two trophies including the first junior as the highest placed under 13 and another plate.  I finished the event with 28 points in total and you can  see the full results here: 2013 Volvo Gill Optimist Inland Championships Results

Me with my 2013 Optimist Inland Championships trophies

Now my main concentration is on the trip to Turkey next week! I'm so excited!

Selection Trials Day 4 - Turkey here we come!

The Optimist Selection Trials 2013 have been epic!

After a good third day I was really hoping to get a few more races in on the last day as the forecast was for light winds which meant I would stand a really good chance again.

When we woke up all we could here were fog horns. Despite the the fog we were still down at the Sailing Academy by 8.30am and ready to go so sailing by 9.45am only there was one problem - you couldn't see off the end of the slip way as the fog was so thick!


We had a postponement for ages. Eventually the sun came out at the Academy but the fog remained in Portland Harbour so the waiting continued. I chatted to the other sailors and kept on eating to pass the time but it seemed like forever. Eventually the fog cleared and we all got our boats ready at the waters edge. We still had to wait a bit for the wind to settle though and then just when we thought were about to go the fog started to come back.

At about 2.00pm in the afternoon they finally made the decision to abandon racing as the fog was still coming back. At first I was quite devastated because I thought I had just missed out on the team to go and race in Belgium.  My friends said that I might make it into Development Team but it was all a bit confusing and we didn't really know what was happening. They were announcing the sailors that the selectors wanted to see over the tannoy and my name wasn't read out which didn't help my mood. Because we weren't sure we waited anxiously listening to the speaker to see if I had been chosen. When they called out Development Team my name wasn't said. NOOO! I wasn't chosen. As we were just about to leave Dad got a phone call saying that the Selectors wanted to see me. I went up to the office with my Mum where they told us that they wanted me to be one of the eight sailors in the Development Team. YYEESS! 

Information about Development Team

• Its based in Bodrum, Turkey (so hot)
• We go on 27 May and come back on 3 June
• Its an International event( my first International event!)
• Its against some of the Worlds Teams from different countries!
• Its 15-20knots in 26-35 degrees! OMG!
• Water temperature is around 22 degrees! 
• The location is lovely!
• Our team are staying in a 5 star hotel!
• My parents aren't coming!

All I can say is: "I am SO EXCITED!"

On the awesometer this goes off the scale.

Me the rest of the Optimist Development Team
our coach and team leader

The Selections have been an amazing event. Really tough racing esepcially on Saturday. Really tough competition but I had some great results and a 2nd in one race so I know I can beat all the best sailors in the Country. I have learnt loads and had a great experience and now I get to go to Turkey which is going to be the best thing ever.