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!!.

Four weekends of great sailing

I've had a really busy time since my last blog post with four weekends in a row of sailing which has mostly been amazing. To summarise it's been:

• The RYA South Zone Championships - 15th
• Boys invitational training - one of the best training events ever
• Volvo Gill End of Season Championship - 28th
• Volvo Gill End of Season Championship - our team came 3rd

RYA South Zone Championships

These were in Poole and it seems like quite a long time ago now. There were quite a lot of the good sailors from our zone there and we had 80 boats in the fleet in total. As I wasn't going for the zone squads this year it meant I could use the event for practising techniques rather than having to worry about the result so much. Still once I'm racing I always want to do as well as possible and win. I had on OK event but not quite as good as I would have liked. I finished in 15th place overall which I was a bit disappointed with however in the same event last year I finished 21st so it's still an improvement

Boys invitational training

This was at Burghfield Sailng Club with the national squad coach, Alan Williams. He is awesome. It was some of the best coaching sessions I've ever had. For the whole weekend there was hardly any wind but it didn't really matter as we still got loads of sailing in and were able practice techniques loads and as it wasn't windy it was really easy to hear what the coaches were saying. I really learnt a lot more about my tacking and boat handling. During the training we did a series of races which I won and was given one of Alan's sailing belts as a prize, which as he said will fit me one day!!

End of Season Championships

This was the first time I've done the End of Seasons where the result counts towards the rankings and getting into the squads so I was a bit nervous and scared of mucking it up. 

Waiting to launch at the End Of Seasons

There were over 200 sailors taking part and we were in four flights with two flights to each race so over 100 boats on the start line. 

 On Saturday while we were rigging it was quite windy but as soon as we launched the wind disappeared and we had a long wait to start racing and had to completely change the set up of the boat on the water. Hanging around for ages isn't too bad as I like talking to my friends out on the water. We had two races on Saturday in really light shifty winds and I got a 9th and 23rd. 

On Sunday morning it was really windy but we went off early to get four races in. The first race was epic, loads of people capsizing and really fast reaching. I came 37th which was OK in the conditions. The wind was a bit up and down after that.  I had two good races and two with pretty bad starts. In the last race I was one of the last to cross the line but was able to sail though the fleet to finish 27th so I was pleased with my boat speed and tactics so just need to practice my starts over winter training. With a 9th and 10th in the other races overall I finished 28th.

National Squad

So what does this mean to the rolling rankings? I am now ranked 11th of all the optimist sailors and means I've been selected for the National Squad. The squad is made up of the top 6 girls top 6 boys, the next 10 sailors and two discretionary places. Being in the National squad is awesome and it was my aim for the year so I am very very happy.

RYA Eric Twiname Team Racing Championship

Me and Max

This was epic, 10/10 on the awesometer. I've never really done any team racing before apart from a little bit in Optimist training and this was in RS Fevas so sailing really competitively in a two handed boat as crew was quite new for me too. 

I was part of Team Heathcote (a Royal Lymington YC team) with Robbie and Alex King, Max Moyles, Vita and William Heathcote. I was crewing for Max who now sails a 420. He's a brilliant helm and really good at the rules and boat handling. I learnt loads from him over the weekend. 

The racing was over two days. On Saturday we won all our races but one which was brilliant. On Sunday it was quite windy which made it tricky for us as quite a light weight team. We lost the first couple of races but won the next four which put us into the gold fleet in third place. We then went into the quarter finals which we were winning but a massive storm came through and it became more of a team survival than team racing. The racing was abandoned for the day but the sailing in the Fevas when it was really windy was so much fun. I have never gone so fast in a dinghy on a reach before. It was all a bit chaotic trying to get back ashore though. 

Team Heathcote waiting to race

With racing abandoned we kept our third place and got presented with an engraved glass at prize giving so another one for my collection.

As I've been sailing on the mainland so much lately we having been staying at my grandparents lots, so a big shout out to them for looking after us and the lovely dinners.

Next up is the first National Squad training camp which is a four day residential in Weymouth. I can't wait.

Thank you Royal London Yacht Club Charitable Youth Trust

More great news for me this week. The Royal London Yacht Club Charitable Youth Trust have chosen to help me with my Optimist sailing. Having this support means I can do more training and more events particularly over the winter and keep on getting better. I would really like to make the European Team next year so have to do as much sailing as I can.

The Trust helps young people to experience character building maritime activities, and helps the education and training of young people up to the age of 25 years, from the Isle of Wight, in sailing, boat handling, seamanship and navigation.

The Trust has also supported Olympic hopefuls, one of whom is Chris Rashley from St Helens who is currently three times Moth European Champion and RYA coach to the potential Rio Olympic squad in the 49erFX women’s skiff class.

One day I hope to the win the  Olympics and I would love to sail a foiling moth!

As well as having their support it's really great knowing that the members of the Royal London Yacht Club have noticed my sailing and think I can do really well in the future. Now I just have to go out and do it!

Last weekend I raced at the Spinnaker Open to get some practice in for the End of Season Championships. We had about 40 people in the main fleet with a few squad sailors so it was good competition. It was very light winds and it's always really shifty at Spinnaker. I had my first ever black flag so had to sit out the third race which wasn't so good but if you are being aggressive on the start it's going to happen sometimes. In the other races, I had two 7th places and 1st in the last race of the day. I beat the National Champion, Milo Gill-Taylor, in that race which was epic. Overall I finished 5th which I was pleased with.

This weekend I'm racing at the RYA South Zone Championships in Poole. The forecast looks like it's going to be a windy one so it should be good fun.

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.