YOUTH NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!

What a busy few months its been! It's been a hectic balance of school and sailing since Christmas with many weekends away along with lots of homework in the evening as we ramp up to the exams time of the year. 

We've had a combination of training camps consisting of Youth Squads and individual sessions self led by William and I. When we combine these training camps together it gives the best results as we are able to focus on really small things such as maintaining max speed when bearing round a mark. This helps us to really define our skills and make sure they are automatic. Also, we get to do loads of Waszp sailing when we're on our own, which adds some foiling fun to the sailing along with a bit of wake boarding. From the Youth Squad camps we get more training on our rig set up and a a bit of starting practice and then of course all the strategic and tactical learning. 

After our training came to an end it was time for the selection series to start. In the 420 we have 3 selection events: the Spring Championships, the Inland Championships and then the RYA Youth National Championships.  All 3 event's scores are combined to create an overall ranking which determines whether you make it into the 420 World Championships Team and/or the 420 Junior Europeans Team. The RYA Youth National Championships is also the event that decides which boats go to the Youth Sailing World Championships which is the top boy boat and top girl boat from each class. This is the most prestigious event a youth sailor can do!

Some intense spinnaker staring downwind

So the first event: the Inland Championships. This event was held in Rutland Water and was cold and windy! The first day saw too much wind in fact and was blown off to the delight of the parents who could sit down and watch the rugby whilst we all pottered about with nothing to do. FUN! Day 2 came along with similar conditions in the morning however the lulls continued to drop throughout the day creating some crazily gusty and lully conditions which was not fun! We didn't have the best day getting a 5,11,7,4 which we feel was because we were struggling with our rig set up and felt we were either too overpowered in gusts or too underpowered in lulls. We came away with 6th overall, which was a disappointment. 

From then it was down to Lymington for two weekends in a row the first being a Youth Squad and then second being some individual training. The Youth Squad camp focused on racing strategy and rules. The next weekend on our own was the final weekend of training before the Spring Championships and the Youth Nationals so we decided to have a boat handling weekend where we went over our routines for each manourve making sure it was as automatic as possible. With a little bit of boat work we felt as prepared as possible. 

I then had a few days of revision followed by some Optimist coaching with West Kirby Race Team before I headed down to Weymouth to meet up with William for the 420 Spring Championships. This event saw perfect sailing conditions with no rain and 14 knots (well perfect for England!). Despite this we struggled with our strategy and tactics however we were feeling fast. This was demonstrated by our inconsistent overall results which were 1,9,3,13,12,1,8. These results placed us 6th overall (AGAIN!!). We came away with positives as we had no doubt in was our set up or speed and that we just had to make sure we were taking less risks and staying around the top 5 in every race. William then went home for a week for GCSE revison whilst I stayed in Weymouth and continued training (with other sailors) and doing boat work which ended up being a really productive week as I learnt a lot about how the sails work and the optimum settings and also made our boat more like a racing machine. 

Cheeky blast!

Then it was time for the RYA Youth Nationals!! 5 days of racing to decide who attends the Youth Worlds and the final event of the selection series to decide the 420 Worlds and Junior Europeans Teams. I registered 2 days earlier without William because we had to do a full boat measurement which takes a lot of time and effort. This meant once William arrived after his week of revision and some fitness testing we were able to go out training. 

Our final training session was in 30 knots out in Weymouth bay which was hairy to say the least but great fun to sail in and glad the boat didn't break. Day 1 saw no racing which was a shame due to all the build up but was a good test of patience. 

Happy times :)

We finally got out on day 2 in a light breeze of about 6 knots. We managed a 6 and a 2 and were winning the final race but due to some race committee issues the race was abandoned. This put us in 2nd place overall and 1st boys which put us under increased pressure. 

Day 3 saw no racing again due to fog but at least it was warm on shore and was a great time to bond and catch up with fellow optimist sailors who had separated into different classes. 

Day 4 of the event saw perfect sailing conditions so we were launched early expecting a long day on the water. We had 4 races out in Weymouth Bay followed by one sunset race in the harbour. This day may have been the best day we had ever sailed together as we managed to sail a 2,4,4,5,2 in our most pressurised event yet. Our strategy upwind fell right into place! These results boosted us up to 1st overall going into the last day. 

Day 5 saw light airs but still an early start with the potential for a few morning races. My heart was racing on the way out to the racecourse! The first race turned out to be very weird with us being 2nd round most of the course until the wind completely dropped and shifted massively to the right creating a very unfair race however despite this the race committee decided to let it stand meaning we had to discard a 12th. The wind we'd had completely left us and the race committee had to send us in. This meant we had retained our lead overall and were RYA 420 Youth National Champions!!! 

This was our first major victory in the 420 and we were over the moon. After lots of photos and interviews we were finally able to reflect and let it all sink in. What an amazing feeling! We'd just like to thank Musto, our parents and our coaches as well!

This means we're having the summer of our lives! We are away from 25 June until 30 July. First we're heading to Portugal for the 420 World Championships. Then we are off to Poland for the Youth World Championships and then to Spain for the 420 Junior Europeans. I am so excited! For now though, William is in full exam mode with his upcoming GCSE's. And as for me, I have my short Year 12 exam period which I'm currently doing before my fitness program starts in preparation for all our events and then I have to start some catch up work for the 5 weeks of school I'm missing for these summer events! 

The cheesy winning smiles coming out

What a summer of sailing part 2: British Nationals to European TeamRacing Champs

Hello, back again with part 2 of my solid summer of sailing. 

After the European Championship and Gurnard Dinghy Week it was straight onto the British Optimist Nationals down at the Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. I like sailing there because it's such a great racing area and because it's where the Olympic sailing was in 2012.

The nationals were awesome, probably the best one I've done so far with brilliant weather, a mix of wind strengths and tough competition with a lot of international sailors taking part. The year was my last in Junior main fleet and as a National Squad sailor and having just come back from being in Team GBR at the Euros, I felt under a bit of pressure to do well and quite nervous. Also the first six races count towards our rankings for the squad qualifications at the end of the year.

We went to Weymouth as a family as Freya was sailing too. When we eventually got there after an interesting trip I was straight onto the water for a bit of a warm up sail. It was really windy (not my favourite conditions) so it was really good to test myself out against all the other competitors. It was then off to see what the house we had rented was like. It was awesome,  there was a really big  bedroom  for me and Freya and a chill out room in a huge loft. It also had a big pole in the middle of the living room which was interesting! Mum had done a top job on finding this one.

 

Sunday: We started off with a practise race in which I did quite well despite the really windy conditions! I sailed with the other fleet so that I could test myself against the top guys who were in the other fleet. I won the race but stopped before the finish because it is bad luck to win a practise race. Due to the fact that we had time spare we managed to do another two races but these were real!! I got a 4th and a 12th but they left me in 18th position which was not what I wanted :(

Monday: Monday brought some lighter conditions and I had two very good races, a 1st and a 2nd. In the 2nd race a Spaniard beat me so in the rolling rankings it meant that I got 2 1st places!!!

Tuesday: Once again it was a day of very windy conditions (20knts +) so I wasn't able to get the results I needed. In the end I got a 10th,16th and a 4th.

Wednesday: Wednesday brought some medium conditions but it was really shifty and I got caught out many times. The results were disappointing...a 5th, 24th and a 12th. 

Thursday; The next day brought the same conditions as yesterday however I  was able to improve my results: a 3rd, 12th and a 2nd! 

Going into the final day there was no way I could catch Alexandra Schonrock who was leading and had sailed a great regatta but I had a chance of overtaking William Heathcote to be the top British boy.
 

Team Isle of Wight -
Cameron Hook, Freddie Ellis, Me,
Freya, Lily Ellis, Toby Atherton,
Oliver Evans, Mathew Bamber

I was really up for Friday and couldn't wait to get going so when we got up in the morning and the sea was flat calm and no wind it wasn't looking good. We waited and waited but in the end the racing was abandoned at lunch time which was a disappointing way for the event to end but I still finished 7th overall and third British sailor so a good result.

Because we had such great conditions throughout the event, it meant that on a few days we got through the race programme and back ashore early. This meant I could see Freya coming in from being out with the mini racers which I really liked. She had a brilliant week too, came third in her racing and got a coaches sailor of week medal at the prize giving. Nice one Sis.

When we got back from the Nationals we had a couple of days on dry land before Freya did Cadet Week at our club. I wasn't sailing in this but was able to help out with coaching the Oppie fleets. I had such a brilliant week. I really like coaching and helping out other sailors and I got to do a bit of sailing when we had to do some rescues. It was really nice to see Freya out on the water too. Her sailing improved so much over the Nationals and Cadet week. I hope she starts racing soon. We put my GoPro camera on her boat on one day so she could see how well she's doing too.

After Cadet week we had a whole week of not sailing. Hmmmm. But then it was off with Team GBR (Sophie Holloway, Julia Mellers, Oliver Hill and me) to the European Team Racing Championshp in Lake Ledro, Italy. 

Mum, Dad and Freya came to this one too but only after dropping me off at the airport. While I flew over they went all the way by car. It was like some sort of Top Gear challenge ony they were only in the lead to Dover! And during the event while I was in a hotel they were camping at the other end of the Lake!!

Me in action at the
Euro Team Racing Champs, I'm the 2nd boat

Going in to this event we didn't really know what to expect. There were 16 teams in total and quite a lot of the countries have special team racing teams who do loads of training for the event. We had only team raced a couple of times before and had one training session against the GBR worlds team.

On our first day of racing we had three matches and one won against the Spanish.  We were all pretty pleased about this and it gave us a big boost and belief that we could win more. Over the next few days we saw massive leaps and gains in our team racing abilities, personally and as a team. It was really funny seeing the other teams getting told off by their coaches because they had been beaten by us. It just made us want to win even more!
 

Our Team base at the lake

We managed to get just over half wins which put us in Gold fleet which was very exciting! Last year the team didn't win a single race and came last so we were very excited about winning a race and then we made gold fleet. As the week carried on we were able to slowly carry on gaining. Going in to the last day we were 5th overall!! We had a bad day as a team however we were able to thankfully hold our position!

The last night was very memorable with fireworks and a 2:00am bedtime!!! A week of fun.



Gelato time

Lake Ledro was an incredible place to be with the views of the mountains. Our hotel was a bit interesting with electricity plug sockets hanging off the walls and sparking and meals every night that were pasta first course, followed by meat. But the local gelato made up for it.

It was really nice seeing Mum, Dad and Freya in between races for a bit each day and knowing they we're watching me and we all had a big team meal of the final night.



Launching

All in all it was a great event. It was really nice racing as a team and our coach Will and house parent Lizze did a great job in helping us with the racing and looking after us.

With the event over I then joined Mum, Dad and Freya and we stayed on for a few days holiday and some walks in the mountains, swimming in the Lake and lots more gelato. It was then a two day drive back to home but at least I got to watch four hours of the Volvo Race on DVD non stop.





Team GBR at the prize giving -
we got a t-shirt of tiny jar of honey,
Will got a belt and can of WD40!!

So all in all a full on, brilliant summer of sailing. I've had a few ups and downs in the racing,  learnt so much and had soooo much fun. Now the autumn looks like it will be just as good with loads more racing to come!! 

  

Selection Trials Day 4 - Turkey here we come!

The Optimist Selection Trials 2013 have been epic!

After a good third day I was really hoping to get a few more races in on the last day as the forecast was for light winds which meant I would stand a really good chance again.

When we woke up all we could here were fog horns. Despite the the fog we were still down at the Sailing Academy by 8.30am and ready to go so sailing by 9.45am only there was one problem - you couldn't see off the end of the slip way as the fog was so thick!


We had a postponement for ages. Eventually the sun came out at the Academy but the fog remained in Portland Harbour so the waiting continued. I chatted to the other sailors and kept on eating to pass the time but it seemed like forever. Eventually the fog cleared and we all got our boats ready at the waters edge. We still had to wait a bit for the wind to settle though and then just when we thought were about to go the fog started to come back.

At about 2.00pm in the afternoon they finally made the decision to abandon racing as the fog was still coming back. At first I was quite devastated because I thought I had just missed out on the team to go and race in Belgium.  My friends said that I might make it into Development Team but it was all a bit confusing and we didn't really know what was happening. They were announcing the sailors that the selectors wanted to see over the tannoy and my name wasn't read out which didn't help my mood. Because we weren't sure we waited anxiously listening to the speaker to see if I had been chosen. When they called out Development Team my name wasn't said. NOOO! I wasn't chosen. As we were just about to leave Dad got a phone call saying that the Selectors wanted to see me. I went up to the office with my Mum where they told us that they wanted me to be one of the eight sailors in the Development Team. YYEESS! 

Information about Development Team

• Its based in Bodrum, Turkey (so hot)
• We go on 27 May and come back on 3 June
• Its an International event( my first International event!)
• Its against some of the Worlds Teams from different countries!
• Its 15-20knots in 26-35 degrees! OMG!
• Water temperature is around 22 degrees! 
• The location is lovely!
• Our team are staying in a 5 star hotel!
• My parents aren't coming!

All I can say is: "I am SO EXCITED!"

On the awesometer this goes off the scale.

Me the rest of the Optimist Development Team
our coach and team leader

The Selections have been an amazing event. Really tough racing esepcially on Saturday. Really tough competition but I had some great results and a 2nd in one race so I know I can beat all the best sailors in the Country. I have learnt loads and had a great experience and now I get to go to Turkey which is going to be the best thing ever.

Optimist Selection Trials Day 1

My first day sailing at an Optimist Selection Trials. Wow what a day.

Thursday night we stayed at my Grandparents house which is about and hour and a bit away from Weymouth. Great Roast beef dinner, the perfect perpartion for the big event. Friday morning it was a quick blast down to Weymouth and arrived in good time for measurement and registration.

We got on the water at about 1045 in time for the first raced scheduled for 1200. I was very excited and quite nervous. I'm in a fleet of 78 boats and everyone around me is mostly national, intermediate or development squad sailors. Also I'm one of the youngest sailors and probably the smallest.

We had a nice breeze 12-15knts, which means flat hiking for me but not for most of the others! The starts were quite intimidating but mine were OK. The big thing about today was the size of the courses. They were huge, much larger than anything I've ever done before. Each race lasted about 1 hour and the up wind legs went on for ever. Down wind was great though and I was able to pick up places.

Friday my results were 11, 21, 35, 14 and I'm 18th overall so a pretty good start. It was great racing and I really enjoyed it and great to be up there mixing it with the national squad sailors. In one race I covered and overtook one of the sailors who went to the Worlds last year, that made me smile a lot.


Saturday the wind is forecast to be stronger and we might be racing out in Weymouth Bay so could be a tough day and might need my sail and best sail and bail techniques.

On the awesometer today was an 8/10,