Summer Pt1 - 420 World Championships

WOW! What a crazy summer its been. Its been so long I've had to split it into 3 parts so here is part 1.

My summer started on June 14th in Lymington when I headed down to my crews house for a week of boat work. He had just finished his final GCSE so it was a happy positive week. This was the final week our boat was in the UK until August so we made sure the boat was in perfect condition ready for a lot of high quality racing! After this we headed down to Weymouth for our final training session with the team. We felt fast and prepared so all positives so far! 

From here it was up to London to catch a flight to sunny Portugal. We headed out a few days before the majority of the team to give us some more time to familiarise ourselves with the racecourse and also Vilamoura itself as I find it important to feel comfortable  where I am. In preparation for the Youth Worlds we had switched to Zaoli Sails for the 420 Worlds to help us get used to tuning them. Below is a video our of first training session in Portugal using them. It was a gorgeous 15-20 knots blast in 25 degrees. I think that just about is the definition of champagne sailing. 

The next few days bought a whole range of wind strengths and directions which was perfect to help us acclimatise to the venue. We hired bikes as well to make the long commute to the sailing club more exciting and just quicker. Over the next few days we made huge gains on our boat tuning and making sure we were getting the most out of our new sails capability. A few days later the rest of Team GBR arrived. The GBR 420 class send 20 boats and 40 sailors out to the Worlds making it a great team event which really helps make the event more enjoyable and is a great way of helping each other out.

Wish it was always like this...

Before we knew it measurement and registration was upon us. Measurement in a 420 international event is the most unenjoyable experience ever. It requires the sailors to completely strip the boats of all ropes and to make the boat perfectly dry. The dry part is the easiest as the hot weather evaporates all possible traces of water meaning the boats inconveniently end up under weight requiring us to put lead in our boat to make it the required 80.00 kilos. After all of this we then have to put EVERYTHING back into our boats which takes ages. Especially for Will and I who seem to take a lot longer than everyone else. The only positive is this means the start of the event is near. 

Oh wait big wave inbound

Ahhh looks nice and calm

Day 1 was always going to be an interesting day for Will and I. This was our first 420 World   Championships so we didn't know what to expect. However, I often find this a positive as it means there is no result based pressure as such as we don't know what a 'good' result is. The first day brought a solid 13-16 knots, which we knew we were fast in with the new Zaoli's. All of the nerves reached their climax on the start and as we were lining up for a tasty start our trapeze rope pulled through! NOT IDEAL! Luckily Will my crew is great at keeping calm and calming me down and we managed to sail a superb race to pull back to 13th. With the positive points of race 1 we put our head down and sailed quick for race 2 bagging a solid 2nd. Overall a positive first day.

Sunny and windy = perfection

The next two days bought solid breeze of around 11-20 knots. We had some of the best races we've sailed and managed to get 3,4,2,8. We were shocked but absolutely stoked with this performance. At the gold, silver cut off after day 3 we were in 4th place overall. Not a bad place to be! But now the hard work started...

The 3 days of qualification bought light and difficult winds :( We seemed to struggle with getting off the start line as we would lose our lane soon after the start. This put us on the back foot. 2 jury penalties didn't help our progress either as it meant we had to retire from our only top 10 in gold fleet. Overall we finished 15th which we were still pleased with as 15th in the World is a pretty solid result!


We came out of the event with many training points to take into the rest of the year but didn't have too much time to reflect as 30 mins after we got in we were off to Poland for the Youth Worlds. See you in the next blog post :)

He really is tall!

Back to the Winter grind!

Since my last blog post, I have been crazily busy. Out of 7 weekends, I have been sailing for 6 of them! Oh, and I started 6th form was has been a blast but also lots and lots of work. 

I started with coaching at the Optimist End of Seasons in Weymouth which was a sunny weekend with some great individual successes for the West Kirby Race Team. I really enjoy the coaching weekends with the Optimist class as I get to pass on my knowledge from the class which I spent 7 years in to really enthusiastic sailors who are willing to learn and improve - a fantastic sight to see. Surprisingly, I actually learn a lot for my own sailing when I'm on a rib coaching as it is easier to see the 'big picture' - a well-needed skill for my personal sailing. 

I was back down in Weymouth again next weekend for a 470 Olympic Ranker! I was happily invited by Dan Burns to sail the event which turned out to be mega fun! On day 1 it was unfortunately too windy to sail so we went to the cinema to watch a movie with some good mates of mine who I hadn't seen for ages, which was good fun, and then went for a delicious curry. Thankfully day 2 brought slightly less wind (20 knots) which was quite windy for the first time in the 470! I learned so much which was awesome as I am interested in sailing the Olympic class when I am older. We even managed to get a 3rd! 

Tight committee boat end start 

It was then a week of hard school work before heading to Rutland for the 420 Inlands which was a re-run as it was initially called off due to poor weather earlier this year. We had a gusty weekend which was good fun when sailing on a triangle- sausage course, making the reach to reach gybe very interesting. Overall we had a good regatta in terms of racing/results however we felt like we had a bad weekend as we weren't sailing the boat very well- making too many mistakes. We came out of the event with a new goal- improving our downwind sailing in gusty conditions in terms of sailing towards the gusts more and deciding our angles that were needed better. 

The next weekend was back down in Weymouth for the first 420 Youth Squad Camp which we are very excited to be a part of. This was a crazy weekend as it was seriously windy both days. We were still able to keep it productive though and we learned a new skill called the 'Wild thing' where the crew is on the wire downwind which makes the boat more stable when sailing in a higher angle as we were going quicker than the waves. We also had a big group meal on Saturday night which is great as it helps the team to bond together forming many great friendships. Then it was a whole weekend off which was well needed as school work was seriously starting to build up!

Then it was back down to Weymouth (becoming a bit of a theme this Winter) for our first Multi-class Youth Squad A camp. Youth Squad A consists of the top 2-4 boats in each youth class who receive fully funded extra coaching which is awesome and we are very proud to be a part of it. We started the weekend with a whole squad meeting and then separate meetings with our individual class coaches. Jonny Mcgovern brought down lots of cool microphones which meant we could speak and hear each other without having to be next to each other, as well as a camera that told you every piece of data you ever needed to know. We then headed out in some fruity conditions. About halfway through the session,

we had a huge squall whilst in the bay which was recorded at a whopping 47 knots! We instantly capsized and then had to wait on the overturned boat whilst the squall died which was pretty scary as we were surrounded by ships. When we righted the boat we came up with a rip in the mainsail and spinnaker, a lost batten from the jib and a bent mast. NOT IDEAL! Then a long sail in before we assessed the damage which was a cost of about £2000. EEEK. We then had another meeting, this one about anti-doping in which we learned about what not to take and the consequences of doing the wrong thing. We also learned that at any point now we can be tested. The next day brought lighter winds so we went in the rib and swapped in and out with our training partner. It was then another long journey home and a hectic week during which I had lots of boat work to do including rigging a new mast!


We headed to Grafham for the 420 End of Seasons the weekend after. We had a hectic Saturday morning as we had no settings and the main halyard was tapered slightly wrong but we just about made it out on the water in the time for the first race. We had a good weekend in terms of sailing in some light conditions which we needed some practice in. However, once again we had some boat issues as we snapped the gooseneck and then broke the pole trying to fit a new one with a minute to go before a race start. Overall we finished 4th which was a remarkable result considering the 'boat situation'. 

Gorgeous reaching breeze

It was then a busy week at school catching up on missed work before heading down to Plymouth for a 420 Youth Squad residential camp. The very long drive was worth it as we had light winds at a cool, new and quirky venue. It's always nice to go to a new venue and some warm winter weather made it even nicer. The camp had a focus on starting which always results in long, tedious sessions but are then the most rewarding and productive. We came away with big improvements in our scoops and trigger pulls which is a nice little skill to have and should help us on those tough international start lines. It was then a proper pack up as the boat had to go over to Palamos. 

The next 2 weeks brought a lot of school work and 2 whole free weekends in a row. A very strange occurrence in my busy lifestyle! 

Next came Palamos which was a 7-day trip and I got to miss 5 days of college which was an added bonus. The Christmas regatta at Palamos is great as it's at the same time as the 470, Finn and laser events making it great to catch up with friends which I haven't seen in ages. We stayed in an apartment overlooking the apartment with my friend Drew Wright's dad which was great for postponements as we could see the flags from the balcony! We arrived at the event 4 days early which was great as it was a new venue for me. The first few days brought some light wind tuning which was good to get the boat set up and tuned correctly as we were using a new M7 mast. We then had 1 crazy day of training with huge waves which was epic. The training was short but intense much like our training in Lymington which I find is often the most effective. Before we knew it the event was upon us and day 1 was pending. We launched in a light breeze of 5 knots however the chop from the day before was still present making it very lumpy and hard to keep the flow over the sails. After postponements, the breeze gradually grew until we had a solid 15-18 knots with some large swell. We got 5,5,12 which we were pretty happy with considering Spain are the top nation at the moment in 420's. However, we were slightly disappointed with the 12th as we were coming 5th again however we lacked downwind speed when the wind dropped. Despite this, it was a successful day and we came out of it with another thing to work on. The next day incredibly dull with no wind, however, the winter sun made an appearance which was nice. Day 3 saw similar weather to day 1 with little breeze to start the day however it gradually built whilst we were doing our pre-start routines until we ended with 20+ knots and a huge swell which was awesome and one of the best days sailing ever! We scored a 7,12 and a 3rd. The 12th was quite annoying as we were 2nd in that race but capsized downwind and then in the last race we were leading around the whole course but we broached on the final downwind so we had to settle for a 3rd. Still a good result though. Our downwind definitely needs work! This put us in 10th place overall going into the last day which was good as our goal was to be top 10. That night we cooked a lovely fish dinner before having an early night ready for the final day racing. We woke up to a solid 0 knots with no chance of the breeze increasing so we packed the boats up and had a day chilling before catching a flight back home early the next morning. Overall the week was good fun and we did very well coming 10th overall as top British boat against a competitive fleet. We also came out of the event with many downwind training points to work on in the upcoming training season. 

For now its back to school before a long set of training weekends with a mixture of youth squad camps and independent training camps. Hopefully, I will also have some time to teach Freya some skills as well. 

RYA YOUTH NATIONALS 2018

Hiya all. Sorry about the late post. I've had this post waiting to be posted for ages I just have forgotten to press the send button. Silly me! Well, here it is anyway and expect another one very soon... 

Training hard

This was William and mine first RYA youths and our first 'important' event. The youths are the final of three 420 events that decide the GBR teams for the Euros and Worlds. The Euros is the harder event to get so is more prestigious (opposite to optimist). William and I had a performance goal of achieving our best performance yet in the UK 420 class and an outcome/result goal of getting at least Worlds team and hopefully Euros Team and therefore Youth Squad (optimist equivalent is National squad). 

The first of the three selection events was in crazy wavy Torbay. We had two days of windy wave sailing which is not ideal for a light, young pairing like me and William. The result was not ideal but we did enough to stay in contention as we managed to just about hold our own in the breeze. Unfortunately for us, the next event was cancelled due to poor weather putting the pressure on the final event- the RYA Youth Nationals 2018. 

A breezy WW mark rounding

The 2018 RYA Youth Nationals were held in sunny Scotland... which funnily enough happens to be very cold in Easter. The event was 5 days long and I arrived two days prior for some practice.  I stayed on a friends yacht which was moored in the yacht haven with no adults which was lots of fun and gave us the opportunity to be very independent. The beginning of the week did not go to plan. Firstly I had my fantastic Musto drysuit stolen which is not ideal in Scotland when the average temperature was in the minuses. And then we had not one but two days cancelled due to high winds and Antarctic-like temperatures. Finally, on the 3rd day, we managed to bag in two windy races where we got a solid 13th and a 7th - a nice start to our regatta in tough conditions. The next day brought glammer conditions. Sun and 10 knots of breeze. We were loving it. We also managed to get our first win in the 420 class in which we lead the whole way around.  We came out of that day with a solid 1,21,4,11 which we were very happy about. The final day brought more narly conditions with 20+knots of winds. We managed to just send it and got a 19th and an 11th meaning we finished 10th overall- a very credible result in which William and I were pleased about. In the end, we managed to achieve all the possible teams but we declined the Worlds team due to cost. This means that soon we will be off to the 420 Europeans in Sesimbra, Portugal which I'm super excited for! 

Winning a race with a beautiful background

Now back to the present day. I've just finished my GCSE's which went really well but meant I missed a lot of sailing which is pants. However, William and I are coming back with a bang and are ready to smash the Europeans which I leave for tomorrow. That lasts until the 11th of July and I get back to the UK at midnight in which I drive home and then have to get up early to catch a boat to France to do the 420 French Nationals with a good friend Alex Hughes as poor Will has to go back to school. So a busy July to look forward to but thanks to Musto I'm set for it. I'll catch up with you guys at the end of summer to inform you of my adventures! 

A bit of a catch up!

Long time no see! I'm late checking in as I have been doing lots and lots of 420 training and a few events. It started off in Helensburgh, Scotland (a week after the Optimist Nationals) with the Scottish Open and 420 National Championships which was a weird trip.

I thought Scottish weather was pretty much the same as English and that it was just a stereo type however I was proved wrong! The day we arrived was warm, sunny and pleasant. Then no word of a lie it rained for everyday from then on and by rain I mean it poured down. Miserable. However sailing wise it was awesome. A good 15knts everyday which was really good practise for William and I as we are quite a light pairing. Neil Marsden and Tim Rush (two top coaches were also up there) which was great for us. However mid way through the event we did encounter a problem... our boat leaked- like big time leaked. We would get back in and not be able to pull the boat up the slipway. In the first race of the day we would be bouncing along the waves but by the last race we would struggle to get over the waves and would just end up going through them! However overall it was a successful event.

Since then we have been doing loads of training so we can get up to a competitive level. We've had up and down results with a slightly disappointing Autumn champs however a great End of Seasons where we were up with the top guys and fighting to be top junior boat. Because the 420 is a new boat for us we've been focusing so much on boat handling (the likes of tacking and gybing) that we forgot skills like tactics, strategy and starting. The point at which you can focus on strategy etc is the point in which you become a world class 420 sailor. 

2018 is a big year for Will and I. Our goal is to make it into youth squad by the end of the year which is a big ask but we think it's possible. We've got a new boat which is going  really well. We've done a few training sessions already this year which have mostly been in heavy winds. We're getting much better at this. The number of capsizes is really down, we're doing well upwind and really starting to get the hang of using the kite in the breeze. There's lots of training still to be done but it's so much fun having new challenges and learning so much all the time. Our first big event is the Spring champs in March, so it will be interesting to see how we're getting on.

Outside of the 420 I've been doing some Oppie coaching helping out with the North Zone squad and later in the year I'm racing in one of the West Kirby Sailing Club teams in the Wilson Trophy team racing event which I'm really excited and honoured to compete in. Oh, I've also got my GCSEs this year so having to do lots of schoolwork and revision too!

Thankfully Musto has been hooking me up with the best kit so I'm ready for this busy year of sailing ahead of me. I recently ordered the foiling thermohot impact steamer which is other wordly! It's so warm but still flexible and usable which I love as it doesn't feel like I'm wearing loads of clothes. It's a good buy which I recommend for anyone. I also got a stacked toolbox for Christmas which is awesome!

Some of my new Musto buys for 2018

My mint toolbox

RYA South Zone Squad final weekend

Sadly, last weekend was my last RYA South Zone Squad training session of the season. 

The Zone Squad has been awesome. I have learnt loads from the weekends and I will definitely miss going. I would like to say a very big thank you to my two coaches, Clare Hall and Tom Haynes and to all of the coaches! I feel a much better sailor now; mentally and physically and my techniques are a lot better. I can't wait for the Selection Trials and Inland Championships which are coming up soon to see how much I've improved and if I'm any faster. 

The other great thing about the Zone Squad is all the new friends I've made, we've all had a really good laugh together. Here is a photo of the whole Squad. We had to line up in size order so I am first (or last) on the left as I'm the smallest!

RYA South Zone Squad 2013

We have had six weekends of sailing in the Squad over the winter, most of which have been in freezing cold and windy conditions, so last weekend it was really great to be sailing in light winds and warm sunshine for a change. On the Sunday, I was even out of my drysuit and back in to wetsuit, hikers and shorty gloves. Roll on summer.

I also got to use my brand new North Sail's D Zero 6 for the first time. I've never had a brand new sail before. It was so crisp and a great shape and I definitely felt like I was sailing faster with it.

Next up is the Selection Trials, Dad says there is no pressure on me and its a great opportunity to get some experience for the future. I know what he means but I'll still be going out there to win!