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

Europeans, here we come!

Over the next month and a bit I have the most exciting sailing of my life coming up with two European Championships and the British Nationals.Next Wednesday (9 July) I'm off to the European Championships in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. on a really early 0650 flight from Southampton. We have a few days training before the event starts on 13 July. It's going to be awesome with over over 250 sailors from 44 nations taking part. 

Making the Europeans Team was my big goal for this year so I can wait to get racing. I'm so excited but quite nervous too. I've sailed in Dublin Bay a couple of times before;  last year at the Irish Nationals and in a training week we had at the end of May, so at least I know a little bit about what the conditions can be like. I can't wait to race against so many new really good sailors from around the world and see how I get on but the racing at the Championships is a bit different than what I normally do as the girls and boys are in separate fleets. You can follow the results to see how I'm doing on the Championship website and there is a facebook page for the event too Optimist European Championship 2014 facebook .

When I'm back from the Euorpeans there is only a short time before the British Nationals in Weymouth (with a bit of Gurnard Sailing Dinghy Week in a Pico in between) and then after that a week and a bit before I'm off to the European Team Racing Championships in Lake Ledro, Italy. 

We have a team of four of us going to the Team Racing Championships, two boys and two girls who are all in the Euros Team too. I really like Team racing and sailing in the Italian mountains is going to be brilliant.

Last weekend we had a two day training session in Lymington for the Worlds and European Team racing teams which was great fun but really hard work. I learnt loads as I haven't done that much team racing before.


As well as working hard on our skills we did have a lot of fun and after training on Saturday we took our Oppies surfing on a bit of water in the Solent called Fiddlers Race where wind against tide makes these really big waves. I've never gone so fast in my Oppie and our coach Alan Williams had to go really quickly in the rib to keep up with us but did get some great photos of me.

 








I'm really lucky that I'm about to have such an amazing summer of sailing coming up so thank you to everyone who helps me: Royal London Yacht Club Youth Trust, Crewsaver, Isle of Wight Council talented athlete scheme,  SailSpy UK, North Sails, IOCA UK, my coaches, my grand parents (Nan Nan and GD) and all my family and friends.

Here's a video clip from my SailSpy UK GoPro camera from the team racing training. I hope you like it!

European Championship Team GBR training in Ireland

A few weekends ago I was off to Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, for 5 days over half term for some European Championship Team GBR training. The week was really worth it as we had one coach to 7 sailors and we were on the water everyday.

I was very excited about the week as it was only my second time sailing without my parents with me! We arrived at the airport very early on Monday morning leaving to catch the plane at 9am so it was a tiring, sleepy, start for the team. I haven't flown many times and was amazed by the sight of London as we took off and when you go through the clouds at the bottom it looks fake! 

When we arrived in Dublin it was raining heavily (as expected). After picking up our bags we hurried to a taxi that would drive us to our hotel and once at the hotel dropped off our bags we went straight down to the sailing club to get on with the important stuff - checking out our charter boats and going sailing. Luckily these boats were better than the ones we had when I went to Turkey last year. These ones were almost brand new. That afternoon we went out for a quick sail to make sure everything was working in the boats before heading back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and then our first team dinner. It was a bit of a posh one in their restaurant so I had a big bowl of Prawn Linguine!

Me, Sophie and the Nandos chicken

The next morning we were allowed to sleep in before meeting for a delicious cooked breakfast at 8:00am. It was then down to the sailing club for a morning session in light winds. We were practising on our boat feel and body positioning and working hard so it was very exhausting. After coming in for lunch we decided to have a short afternoon session due to everyone being so tired. Once again we worked on our body positions in the boat. That evening it was dinner at Nandos, very nice, before going to bed early due to a very early start on the next morning.

Wednesday morning and breakfast at 7:00am. Luckily though I was woken up by Oliver Hill (my roommate). He wakes up very early and starts watching videos. Out on the water we again practised our feel in the boat as well as boat speed. At the end of the day we did some team racing boys vs girls. First to 3 wins. And the winners get free ice creams.  And guess who won, the boys. Solid result boys! That evening we went to a burger restaurant but I had a starter due to the massive portions! I nearly cried over my starter due to the intense heat of the chicken wings! It was another night where we were hurried off to bed to be ready for another early start the next morning. 

Thursday brought much nicer winds about 15knts so we had some great sailing with some races and upwind speed work and got in some good training in the conditions we are more likely to get in the Championships. That night we stayed up as it was the last night and had a load of laughs.

  

On Friday morning after a quick bit of bag packing we headed out for a final quick sailing session before setting off for home home and a lot of fun at the airport!!

Overall it was an awesome week. Good sailing and we learnt lots about the venue and had great fun as a team. So the perfect way to spend half term!! Now I can't wait to go back for the Championships in July.

For a bit of look and what we got up to during the week check out our coaches video which includes a bit airport trolley racing with Milo!

Click here to watch the Team GBR Euros training video

My new weapon!

Also more brilliant news. You might have noticed the GBR number on my blog has changed. This is because I bought a new boat which I am very excited about after the Inlands. The number is 6288 so one of the newest boat and it's a McLaughlin Pro racer which Pippa Cropley had.  So far I've only sailed it for a short time last Friday night and it felt amazing and very fast. I can't wait to do a regatta in it. 

So much sailing - Braassemermeer Easter Regatta, Selection Trials & Inland Championships

Since Easter, which seem like ages ago really, I've had a really busy time with my sailing, which has been a solid 10/10 on the awesometer - with a Team GBR International event, winning a spot at the European Championships and 6th at the Inland Championship. So it's time for a bit of an update.

Team GBR

Optimist Easter Regatta - Braassemermeer 
Over the Easter holidays, because I'm part of part of the National Squad, I was selected to compete in the International Braassemermeer Optimist regatta in the Netherlands. It was really good because it was my third ever international regatta and I got to go with my family. 

Overall I was very pleased with my result as I made the gold fleet and got a mid-fleet final result all after having two races in 3 really windy days! So it seems like my new North V4 sail has done me good and it was some of the best windy weather sailing I've done.

Before the regatta started we had  2 days of training and we also had a really great family day out in Amsterdam. It's definitely a different city but I'm not sure about all the cheese shops (I don't like cheese).

Chillin' and drying -
Crewsaver Phase2 kit

The regatta started on Good Friday afternoon with a solid breeze of 18knts gusting 20knts and I had two good results and a bad one. Overall I was placed 89th out of 200+ however I needed to gain 19 places to make gold fleet which was decided after Saturdays racing. I had a very good Saturday with a 2nd, a 12th and a 24th which moved me up into the 50's. The Sunday wasn't so good scoring two 30's and a 60th. It was very windy but I still thought I could have done better. However, I ended the regatta on a high scoring a 5th, a 30th and a 40th in very windy conditions. Overall I was pleased with my result finishing 46th especially as much of it had been windy days. I was very proud of myself as a year ago as I would have struggled to get round the course in those sorts of conditions. And on top of that Team GBR won the trophy for the being the best performing team.

As it was a family holiday we stayed an extra night so we could all go swimming but this ended up not being so good. Mum lost her wedding rings and she didn't realise until we were over an hour into our journey home. We had to turn around a go back to where we were  staying and amazingly someone had found the rings and had returned them to reception! It then meant we had another high speed drive to catch a ferry - but nothing unusual there. I must have one of the fastest Opi's in the world when it's on top of the car!!

We had to stop and look at a lot of tulips!

Planking with Freya and a mermaid!!

Selections
The selection trials are perhaps the most important event of the sailing year which decides the teams for the World and European Championships, the Development team (which I got last year) and the Flanders team. 

Coming into the event I had mixed feelings both nervous and excited as since last year my goal had been to get in to the Euros team. The first day was a real disappointment as I got a 16th and a 12th but then unfortunately I picked up my first ever black flag which I was really upset about. However despite my disappointment on Friday I managed to pull back and get a 11th and an 18th but then unfortunately picked up a 42nd. I was doing OK in the overall positions but off where I wanted to be for a Euros place. 

GBR Euros Team - being carried again!!

Sunday once again was a light and shifty day and we had to wait ages before even going out, then I had an OK day scoring a 9th and a 24th, which helped me climb up the leader board to be just on the edge of the Euros places. On Monday though I bombed it, having the best sailing day ever scoring a 8th, 7th, 13th, 3rd and another 13th. I was so happy when I found out that I finished 8th overall and had qualified for the British Team to go to the European Championship in Dun Laoghaire in July.  It was a really good regatta for me with some up and down results but it proved to me that when I need to, I can stay calm and focussed and get the results!

Inland Championships
The Inland Championships was the first ranking event of the year so I it was a very important event for everyone. It was yet again another light wind event which was very strange because the weekend before it was 35knts. Saturday brought tricky conditions: very light and shifty. In the first race I scored a 23rd due to heading too far to the right side of the course on a port tack lift but then the wind never shifted back.  But thankfully I managed to score two better results, a 13th and a 5th.

Sunday brought more shifty winds but with a bit more speed, 10-15knts - my favourite conditions. I had a great day scoring and 3rd, 7th and a 2nd. However, I was a bit annoyed about the 2nd because I was winning all the way up to the last short beat to the finish but I overlayed the finish and the person who was in 2nd was able to tack to leebow me and get the 1st. Overall though it was a good regatta finishing 6th and banging in some solid results for the rankings.

Optimist Spring Championships

Two weekends ago we had the the first major event of the year, the Optimist Spring Championships in Torquay/Torbay. 

We all went down as a family for this one so it was all of us in a Premier Inn. Friday night was OK. Not too much snoring from Mum and Dad and after a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning we drove down to the Royal Torbay Yacht Club and got rigged and ready for the day. Mum and Freya were on tally board duty so it was quite funny seeing them run around like maniacs trying to hand out 165 tallies to different people!

My results from the first day were a 5th, 23rd and a 6th. The first race went well because I had a good start at the pin and then tacked across the fleet on Port tack. I rounded the winward mark in 10th position. I then gained one place on the reach and another two on the downwind. After a good playing of tactics on the second beat I managed to get to 5th position and then hold my position until the finish line to come 5th. 

However, in the next race due to poor tactics I got a 23rd which ended up being my discard. With a 6th in the third race of the day I was in 12th position overall overnight  which was good and meant I was in Gold fleet for the next day. 

It was a really tricky first day as the waves were massive. When we were at the bottom of a wave there wasn't much wind and I couldn't see the boats around and then you would go to the top and get the breeze and view. At the start of the second race one of the waves broke right on top of me at the start filling up my boat which didn't help. At least I wasn't affected by the swell unlike a lot of sailors who ended up being sick. Yuck!

Saturday night we had a a really nice dinner with the Ellis's and the Atherton's before an earlyish night to conserve our energy for the next day. After another Premier Inn breakfast we headed  down to the Sailing club for the the second day of racing racing. The wind on Sunday was quite light but still with a decent swell from Saturday which was very annoying. As it was mothers day,  Mum had a treat which was a day on the Mothership which is basically a toilet boat! But it did turn out to be a lush yacht!  Quote from Mum ..."yes, but I did help about 50 children go to the toilet!"

My results on Sunday were 5th, 13th and 19th and I finished 14th overall which was a good result but I was a bit disappointed as I came 9th in the Springs last year. The overall winner was my friend from the National Squad, William Heathcote and sailed really well.

Last weekend we had a joint National, Intermediate and Development Squad weekend at Weymouth. It was really windy so quite tough. The racing we did definitely favoured the older bigger sailor but I didn't capsize and could keep pace with the fleet and got some mid fleet results. I was really pleased with this as a year ago in the same sort of conditions at Weymouth just staying upright and getting round a course was tricky so I've made some great progress.

Next up in is the Easter Regatta at Braassermeer. It's a really big international event so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll also be using my new North Sails V4 which I tested out this weekend and it seems to be really fast and point high.

My new North Sails V4

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!