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.