Just back from a busy couple of weeks training for, and competing in the Youth National Championships in North Wales. The week prior was spent training with fellow Scottish sailors Clemmie Thompson and Anna Sturrock with coach Tim Ellis (photo credit to Tim!). We were lucky enough to use the new Garmin Virb GPS Cameras, the content was great to analyse after sailing. We were able to compare video evidence of techniques and see how it affected our speed. They were also helpful in gauging what side of the course was favoured as we could overlay each sailors GPS track along with their speed. Very technical but a great tool.
The Racing started on Monday and we sailed in some very light breeze that constrained us to only sailing one race. Coming 3rd in that race put me third overall, surprise surprise, and I went into day 2 with the red dot. The second day was a high scoring day for me unfortunately, with me picking up a large discard with another large result to count. I was happy to finish the last race in 4th to finish the day on a high. Day 3 saw no racing due to high winds. The breeze carried through from Wednesday into Thursday but only a shade lighter to allow racing to go ahead. I found the conditions difficult which led to me having an inconsistent day with a 10th, 2nd and 6th. Unfortunately I carried on my inconsistency into the final day picking up my second discard along with a 12th and a 3rd.
I was disappointed to finish 8th overall as I know myself I can sail a lot better given my results in the qualifiers. It has been a massive learning curve for me as the experience in these pressured events will help me cope with them in the future. However it isn’t all bad…
Finishing 8th has landed me a spot in the British Youth Sailing Team to compete at the Youth European Championships in Tallin, Estonia at the beginning of August! Not bad at all, very very happy and I can’t wait!
It’s now time to knuckle down for my exams. It is an important year for me in school with university conditions to meet so I have chosen to put the sailing aside from the end of the Youth Nationals up until my last exam. After my exams in June I will be travelling to Kiel in Germany for 2 international regattas, so I have that to look forward to!
Lewis
Full results here:
Be sure to select the “Radial Boys” tab;
Congratulations to fellow training partner Jamie for winning, well done mate!