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