Summer Pt2- Youth Worlds and Junior Europeans

Part 2 of my summer started in an airport in the south of Portugal. After the great event that was the 420 World Championships we immediately hopped onto a taxi to the airport. The 420 Team GBR representatives, that were William and I along with Ellie Keers and Faye Chatterton and our coach Jonny Mcgovern were on our way to Poland for the Youth World Championships. We were excited to say the least as we travelled to what would be the most important and prestigious event we have all ever competed in. We flew to Stanstead Airport in the UK where we had an overnight wait in the nearby hotel to fly out early the next morning with the rest of Team GBR consisting of 2 laser sailors, 2 29er teams, 2 windsurfers and a Nacra pairing. 

The team 

After arriving, we had a team lunch before heading  down to the club. World sailing put a lot of effort into the boat park and it looked very cool. There were huge screens displaying results and live updates along with electronic tallies and free coffee, which I made full use of! Due to the strict regulations to make the event fair we had a limited amount of time to train before the event. 

On the Saturday we headed down early to the boat park to rig the boat up. The boat and sails etc are all provided to keep the event fair. We had just used the Zaoli Sails provided at the Worlds, so we felt confident with the setting, however the Nautivela hull took some getting used to. We had to rig as a 4 as there is only one 420 per nation, which proved more challenging than expected as we all had our different says on how things should be done. We were allowed 2 hours on the water between us so we split it in two and had a brief training session each. Launching was a challenge as the event had built a makeshift pontoon however this ended up almost sinking due to the amount of boats on it adding to the fun. Our first sail out was very important just to get a feel for the boat and the venue. After a few boat repairs that evening we felt happier with the boat. We stayed in a big hotel, which every single sailor stayed in making it a great event to meet new friends over dinner or the table tennis table. Dinner was a huge buffet with endless options which was delicious. Sunday was practise race day- a great opportunity to tune against the other sailors and work out the race committee. And also get used to the weird format with either sailing in the morning or the afternoon and having to swap with the girls. After a productive day we had an early night sleep ready for race day 1. Nervous was understatement that night.

Day 1 started off light with a postponement just adding to the tension in the boat park. After a delay we eventually got racing in a light breeze of around 5 knots. We were nervous as these aren't our favourite conditions but we just kept our head down and made sure we completed our pre start routine and did everything we usually do. We had a solid start and followed our plan and managed to grab a 7th which helped settle our nerves down. Race 2 saw us claim a 6th so a solid day 1 keeping us very well in contention. 

Day 2 bought a breezier 8-14 knots which helped us and we were able to grab another 6th
 and then a 1st! We led round the first windward mark after a great start and solid strategy and then had a intense battle with the Spanish (the 2019 World Champs!) catching us up the whole race. It all came down to the final two gybes. The spanish were soaking over the top of us and ended up infront of us about 10 boat lengths away from the reach mark to the finish. We had had this situation in a training race earlier this year and messed it up so Will just turned round to me and said remember that training race lets just pretend its like that again. And so we did and as they gybed we gybed on top of them and then managed to gybe round them at the bottom mark and just sneak infront of them at the finish grabbing us the first. A very proud moment. So far a solid event putting us in 3rd overall giving us the bronze bib. 


Day 3 was the windiest day of 14+ knots. Surprisingly this ended up being our worst day as we struggled with our decision making upwind. Day 4 was super light with a long postponment but we managed to squeeze in another two races pulling us back up to 5th and still in contention. 

The final day was a one race day meaning everything was on the line. We were sat in 5th but could go up to 2nd and go down to 8th as the points were so tight. On the sail out we made the team decision to play the risky race because we hadn't come all this way to play it safe. We ended up actually having quite a bad start with our rivals having good starts but we sailed the quickest we have ever sailed in 5 knots and managed to sail straight through the fleet rounding the windward mark in 1st. However a poor downwind let us slip to 5th in the race and we held that position till the end. It was all looking good up until the final reach to the finish when the Israelis managed to pull back one boat meaning they beat us overall by one point denying us of a medal. 

Scary looking behind and seeing the 2019 and 2018 World Champs

Despite finishing 4th overall by one point we were super happy with the result as it was the best we have ever sailed and is a great feeling being 4th Youth in the world. It's also a huge learning lesson as it just proves how much every point counts in a race. Overall a super successful event and was so much fun and a great experience. Next time a medal though! 

Before we knew it we were on a plane to Spain for the 420 Junior Europeans our 3rd and final event of the summer. The event was in a weird lake like place with super hot light winds. We started off well but after a few bad races it all went downhill resulting in a poor performance. This probably wasn't helped by how tired we were physically and mentally after nearly 40 days straight sailing. 


Despite this, It was the best summer to date and a once in a lifetime experience and we have definitely improved our 420 sailing! I'd like to thank all my coaches, Musto and Will my crew for making everything happen. Also huge thanks to my parents and my grandparents for making it all possible!  

Shiny looking foredeck

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!