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!

A bad day sailing is better than no (broken) sailing!

Ouch - no sailing :(

Over the last few weeks some of my racing has been a bit up and down for some reason. I've had some great results, good results and not so good ones. But even a bad days sailing is better than no sailing which is what I now have for the next 3 to 4 weeks or so as I've broken my collarbone!

More about that later but here's the sailing I've been doing. 

In my boat my Dad writes me messages. It started off when I was first learning to sail to remind me of stuff I had to do. Now for regattas we draw on the course and tide information etc. And then he also puts in comments about family jokes and song lyrics. 

When the Selection’s weren't going so well Dad went on about how when you fall off a bike or a horse you have to get straight back on and ride again to build up your confidence. So in my boat he wrote ‘It’s a horse. Giddy up’ 

This is all a bit weird but a couple of weeks after the Selection trials we had the Inland Championships, our first ranking event of the year, so I needed to do well. So Dad’s message made sense to me and the Inland Championships went really well. 

It was another windy event but flat water compared to the Selection Trials so the racing was great. We did six races in total, three on Saturday and three on Sunday and all my results were inside the top 10. Overall I came 6^th so was very happy with that and to be back sailing how I should be. It’s good to have bagged a solid ranking result too.

My prize picture

After the Inlands next up was some training at my home club, Gurnard SC, and then an open regatta at the Royal Victoria YC on the Isle of Wight. It made a nice change sailing at home and not have to get up early and catch ferries to get to an event. The open event was one day with a mixed fleet of non squad sailors up to national squad. It was a perfect sailing day with moderate breeze and sunshine. I won the event which was good as the prizes were excellent – trophy, limited edition print picture of the needles and a SailSpy UK Go-Pro t-shirt. We also all got a free garlic which was a bit random but makes sense if you live on the Isle of Wight!

The Royal Lymington YC open regatta came next. The first day was an epic windy Solent day. Winds up to 30kts and choppy seas. I had a blast and one of the days when my heavy wind technique felt really good and I got a 4, 14, 6 for the day’s three races. We stayed at my grandparents for the night which meant roast lamb, loads to eat and pancakes for breakfast.

On Sunday the conditions couldn't have been more opposite with almost no wind until mid afternoon. We had a couple of races in the super light stuff which were a bit of a lottery and saw some very dodgy tiller wagging and body pumping from some sailors. The first race I got the tides all wrong and came 19^th and then a 13^th. The third race of the day was in a sea breeze so really nice sailing and I came 7^th so finished up 10^th overall.

My sister Freya was also racing in the regatta fleet at Lymington and they used the same course as us. It was the first time ever that we've been sailing together at the same time. It was nice seeing her racing and when we finished we sailed back together which was awesome. Freya came 29^th in her fleet.

After Lymington we had a weekend off sailing to go the Isle of Wight Festival which was brilliant. Then last weekend it was back to sailing this time at the Hayling Island Open regatta. Over the two days my results were a bit mixed and not the best as I couldn't seem to get my strategy quite right. Saturday we had quite a gentle breeze and with the strong tides made things pretty tricky. There were crazy gains and losses being made by everyone. Sunday was pretty breezy again, we seem to be having a lot of windy events this year. I had a better day on the Sunday but a start line capsize didn't help in the first race. With a couple of shocker results and the rest OKish I finished 16^th overall so not my best regatta. Freya raced in the regatta fleet at 

Hayling too. She had her best result yet coming 23^rd with her best race being a 13. Unlike me she didn't capsize!

So it’s been a funny time results wise and all a bit up and down. I like the ups but not the downs so need to make sure I have more of the ups and understand what causes the downs.

Next up I was supposed to be going Nieuwpoortweek in Belgium from 4 – 8 July. I was one of the Team GBR sailors with 5 other boys. But on Friday I had an accident playing football at school which ended up with one of my friends falling on me a breaking my collarbone. Now I can't sail for 3 - 4 weeks. I think the pain of not going to Flanders and not sailing is worse than the break. I've got to take it easy and hope I'm better enough to race at the Nationals at the end of July. 

I've had loads of get well messages from so many people, Which means a lot so thank you everyone.

Monaco Team Racing!

Hi all, sorry I haven't been able to post anything regularly but I will be soon uploading a thank you for the 2014 video so stay tuned for that. I've been doing some national squad training over the winter and was very lucky last weekend to be able to go to the team racing event at Monaco, so here's more about it.

Day 1

Day 1 and we got to see a Ferrari and the Formula 1 track which resulted in a lot of photos and posing! Eventually we found our way down to the yacht club which was a massive glass looking boat which was apparently worth 120 million euros and was donated by the Prince. After a bit of shock from the yacht club we all sorted out our supplied brand new boats! We then headed out to breakfast after once again taking in the sights of Rolls Royce's and super yachts!   Breakfast was very posh and we ate the best croissants in the history of croissants! We then headed back to yacht club for the opening ceremony and briefing before launching.  We had a great first day for the team.  We had a lovely sunny day with a fresh 15knts at midday but the wind unfortunately dropped towards the end of the day. We pretty well dominated the first race scoring a 1,2,3,7 with not much team racing. However we got slightly over confident and we were all over in the next race giving us maximum points. Yet we came back from it and won the next 3 races with some good team racing moves being put into practise. The next race however didn't go our way and we received some unfortunate penalties. But with our great team spirit we were able to pull back another race which resulted in an opponent crying! We were all very pleased with the day and we had a nice evening to top it off, having dinner at a restaurant. We had a quiet and relaxing evening as we were all very tired.

Day 2
The second wasn't the best as there was no wind which unfortunately resulted in 0 races for us today. We were all a bit annoyed in the morning as well as we woke up early! However once we knew that sailing was cancelled for the day we were able to do something with our day. We went ice skating which was a bit different from sailing to say the least and I think the team should stick to sailing! Due to no sailing we were in no rush to do anything so we all had an early night which was shown in our results the next day!

Day 3
Day 3 was an incredible day for the team as we ended up scoring 7 wins out of 8!! We had a sleep in (we had learnt from yesterday!) so we were all very awake and ready for a decent day. We had breakfast at the club which once again provided some amazing croissants! The wind was quite decent (about 12knts) however it was quite gusty as we were sailing in the harbour amongst all the super yachts! It was quite a solid day of racing so we didn't have much time in the evening. However our evening was entertained because dinner was held at the club and there was lots of activities to do included real - life table football! 

Day 4
Heading into the last day we were 3rd overall so we were in with a chance. However we weren't at our best and we lost to Russia in the quarter-finals which meant we were knocked out. Due to this we came 5th overall so we were all very disappointed. What made it even more disappointing as well was the fact that we beat Russia the day before 1,2,3,4 so we felt like we let each other down massively.  To add to our disappointment the team that won overall we beat in the round-robin :( It was still a great event despite the disappointment on the last day. We then had the prize giving before heading off to the airport.

I would like to thank everyone who participated in the event and who helped our team.Id also like to specially thank John Holloway and Simon Cook who made the event possible. It was a great event, a good experience and I would love to go back next year!

 

The Yacht Club

My brand new Charter Boat!

 

The row of super-yachts we passed everyday!

 

Rolls Royce