Not so good to great

Lets start with the Selections. Not the best of events once again! Sadly, I cracked under the pressure and I ended up finishing 17th. Despite lots of preparation I still wasn't able to perform. I think this is down to my head analysing everything too much, so Alan Williams, the head optimist coach, is trying to help me. I'm very grateful though that the selectors gave me a place in the GBR Development team to compete in the French nationals - thank you. The other good news is that since then; everything has been good!

Inlands prize giving

The first event was the Inlands. This always seems to be a good event for me. The weekend was pretty bad weather wise though. Light and shifty. However after a while I worked out the pattern and was able to bag in some quality races. My results were 1,5,9,7,5. I was pretty happy with this score sheet as I was able to have consistent results which is quite hard in super shifty conditions. Overall I finished 5th however the points were really close after only managing to complete 5 races. My good friend William won it which was also quite cool. 

After the Inlands there is a big gap until the next main event but thankfully every weekend there is either training or open events to do. I always do quite well in the open events and this year so far is not different. 

The first open event was Parkstone Optimist Open. I had won this event last year so entering I felt a bit nervous. This was also my first time racing with/against Freya which was really cute. It was so funny seeing Freya out there beasting it. On the first day I managed to bang in some quality results in some windy weather which saw me top overnight by one point. However, Saturday wasn't completely perfect to say the least. Rain, Rain, Rain and yes - more rain. It was a pretty wet day. Also a bird pooped on my cap which wasn't the greatest because I didn't realise until Freya told me. Despite the yucky 1st day - Sunday was lovely. Rash vest weather with a gentle 8 knots of breeze. Perfect for Freya. The day started quite nicely with two solid races for me in some consistent wind but after that the day went a bit haywire. Big shifts led to a completely different course in which I couldn't quite get my head around. In the last two races I ended up getting a 4th and a 6th. However luckily I still won by 6 points in the end. 

Lymington Prize giving

The next open event was Lymington. The Lymington Optimist Open is a very prestigious event and is the best open event to win. It was also the Optimist Southern Area Championship event this year. Going into the event I was pretty nervous because there were some quality sailors competing so I really wanted to do well. The day before the event I was off school so I went and did some training with William in the 420, my next boat. The event started off pretty well for me but like Parkstone- I was only winning by one point so going into the next day I knew I needed to be at the top of my game. The Sunday wasn't exactly as I planned it to go. The races were fiercely competitive which was really fun. Luckily though I was still able to win overall by 12 points in all the drama. Also my good friend William came 2nd which was also very good. 

The festival squad 

Then a few weeks break! I had the festival one weekend which was really fun and then I have recently being doing loads of sailing and coaching down at Gurnard which has also been quite cool.

Me and Dad posing with the famous model

Warsash Prize giving

My most recent event since then has been the Warsash Open. Not many people were doing this event so I won overall winning all 5 races. But I completed my main goal of the event in which was to help Freya. And finally we completed our goal!! Freya was on the start line!!!!!! It was such a nice feeling seeing Freya up their with the big boys and I can't wait until she starts winning things. But hopefully she never beats me. That would be embarrassing. I'd never hear the end of that.

Now though, the real sailing starts. On Wednesday I leave for the French nationals. As soon as I'm back from that - I'm off again to William's house for training and selling chickens. Don't worry. No time to explain. Then I'm up to Scotland for the Optimist nationals. Then back to William's for more training. Then up to Pwhelli for the 420 nationals. I'm out of breath. 

Winning the Salterns Optimist Trophy and Twitter Chatting with Extreme 40 sailors

Hello everyone. Here is a bit of an update on what I've been doing since coming back from Turkey. 

Firstly Mum and Dad made me have a bit of time off from sailing to recover. It meant I didn't go to the Hayling Island open which was not so good. But the Saturday it was on I didn't wake up until 1030 so they were probably right. Which isn't so good either!! :-) 

A couple of weekends ago I took part in the Royal Lymington Optimist Open Regatta. It was on the same weekend as the Isle of Wight Festival which was really bad timing. We've been to the Festival as a family for the last few years and it is awesome but so is the Lymington Regatta and as it was being used as a training event for the British Team for the Irish Nationals I really wanted to go. It made the weekend quite complicated though. I stayed over at my friend Oliver's house on Friday night so Mum, Dad and Freya could go to the Festival. Dad picked me up early on Saturday morning to take me to Lymington. He looked like he should have had more sleep and less festivaling (ha ha). Then it was blowing well over 20kts and racing was cancelled. There was a time trial instead but before I got to my go that was called off too as it was even windier.

I spent the night with my Grandparents with fish and chips from the chip shop as a treat for tea which was very nice but not as nice as their roast dinners.

Sunday was the complete opposite and hardly any wind. We did get three races in though. It was tough going in the conditions and tide but I was really pleased with the way I sailed. On the first race I didn't manage to work with the tides so well and I got a disappointing 25th. In the next race I had an amazing start and managed to defend my position for the whole race giving me a well-earned 2nd place which I was really pleased at. In the next race I didn't have such a good start but I worked the shifts and managed to finish 9th.

Me with the Salterns Optimist Trophy

Overall I finished 8th out of 94 and as always at Lymington it was a very competitive fleet and at the end of the day I got a bonus as I had won the Salterns Optimist Trophy as the highest place sailor age 10 or under. There's some good names on this cup including Milo- Gill Taylor, Matthew Whitfield, Richard Mason and Vita Heathcote.

As well as Lymington I've been sailing on Friday's cadet night at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club and I've joined Gurnard Sailing Club and been sailing there on Thursday nights in Picos and Fevas. It's been good fun sailing in two handed boats.

As well as having fun on the water I joined in with a @SAPSponsors twitter chat with Jes Gram-Hansen and Rasmus Kostner who sail on the SAP Extreme 40. I asked quite a few questions but my best one was 'Would you like to swap, you can have a go in my Optimist if I can have a go on your Ex40!' I got a reply from Jes & Rasmus '@Haydn_Sewell come to Cardiff you might get lucky!' which is epic. So just got to get dad to take me to Cardiff now!

I got another new North Sails DZero6 this week so I have a new sail for the Nationals and a good spare. Thank you North Sails for your help. It's great getting new sailing stuff.

My next event is the the Warsash Open this weekend which is looking like another light wind one so good for us light weights :-))