KIELER WOCHE 2018

It’s been a tough old week to say the least... A seriously high quality fleet combined with strong winds everyday made for an extremely fun week of racing, but jeez was it hard!

The regatta entailed 4 days of racing with a medal race on day 5.  The first two days were the qualifying series  to decide gold and silver fleet with the following two days being battled out in the respective fleets.

Day 1

Kiel is an incredible regatta, with a brilliant setup and atmosphere, but one downside is the commute to the race course.  Day 1 saw us sail an hour out to the race course and an hour and a half back, but it was well worth it.

Once we rounded the headland we were greeted by some big waves and big wind.  My qualifying races weren’t my best; and that definitely showed in the first two races, with my poorest starts of the regatta.  However, I felt relatively fast and managed to gain a lot of places back throughout the races.

Day 2

The second day was a bit of a waiting game.  It was a stormy looking day with large, black clouds dominating the sky and a strong breeze across the race course.  The committee held the lasers ashore and rotated most of the classes around on the inshore course that was more sheltered.  It wasn’t until 6.45pm that the race committee launched our fleet.  The late start made it pretty hard to get into race mode; but some dinner before racing and a coffee sorted me right out!

The two races weren’t my best results, but I was chuffed with my starts.  Although they were good, and a big improvement on the previous days, I wasn’t able to convert them in the end.  But it’s all learning!  After the late start and 2 races, we didn’t get ashore until 10pm, which is the latest I’ve been racing by a long shot.

Day 3

The first day of silver fleet racing was a bit of a mixed bag.  We had 1 race on Charlie course, around the headland in some BIG waves and 1 race on Juliet course, further inland with small chop and some mega shifts.

Race 1 was super fun and I was mixing it up with the front runners which was brilliant, even though it’s only silver fleet!  The big waves and big wind made it one of the more physical races, the legs were definitely feeling the burn.

The wind picked up a touch so the race committee decide to move us inshore to Juliet course.  It was incredibly shifty and felt a bit like snakes and ladders.  I got one of my best starts at a senior level regatta which was great, but again I struggled to convert it into a good result.

Day 4

Shattered is an understatement, but day 4 was a good day, my best of the regatta!  The day started off with 15-20 knots of breeze which lighted off during the second race to about 10-15 knots, a bit of a relief on the legs.  I finished 6th and 8th in the two races; a nice way to finish what was a very tough week of racing.  

Although I didn’t make the Gold fleet and my performance wasn’t my best, I am super happy with how I’ve performed against my process goals. This regatta is all about getting sharp and refining small things in preparation for the Under 21 World Championships next week in Poland.

Today we were lapping up the sun in Kiel before we travel across to Gydina tomorrow.  I’m feeling good for next week; roll on the Worlds, racing starts on the 3rd!

Lewis

Standard Results: 

 http://manage2sail.com/en-US/event/kiwo18#!/results?classId=StdM

UK YOUTH SQUAD CAMP

It's not all sunshine and fair winds after all, last weekend was a bit of an odd one at North Berwick.  We had some pretty one track racing, which was very tough and not as exciting as usual, but happy to take the win nonetheless.

After the North Berwick weekend I travelled down south with my mate Jamie for some training at Stokes Bay and a training camp with the Youth Squad in Weymouth.  

The weather at Stokes was a bit hit and miss, but we definitely got the best of the day on Thursday with a few hours of quality training on the water.  The forecast for Friday wasn't looking so great so we made the decision to go for a bike ride instead.  I was staying with my friend Jordan so it was great to have the local knowledge on the ride.

We then all travelled through to Weymouth on the Saturday morning for the squad camp.  It was great to be in the team environment again, it makes such a difference when you are with a good group of sailors all with a similar mind set.  We did a 4 and a half hour session each day with a pretty comprehensive debrief after each session.  I'll be honest, I wasn't sailing my best over the weekend but it's good to get the mistakes ironed out before the big summer events.  I've got lots of learning points to take forward and work on for the summer, so super excited to get started.  

I'm currently out in Kiel, Germany for Kieler Woche; and I think i'm right in saying that it's the biggest dinghy event in the world!  Racing starts on Wednesday, so I've got a few days to get prepped and ready to go.  

Follow the results here:  http://manage2sail.com/de-DE/event/kiwo18#!/results?classId=StdM

Lewis

SCOTTISH SERIES 2018

After a quick trip down south to Stokes Bay for some Laser training I travelled through to Tarbert on the West coast of Scotland for my first time racing at Scottish Series.  What a weekend it was.

The weather was incredible, it was almost perfect sailing conditions everyday. The racing was super tight all weekend and had everybody on their toes.  I was sailing in the 707 fleet, on More T Vicar, with Carl Allen, Andrew Allen, Eddie Batchelor, and Brendan Lynch.  

The racing was pretty wacky to say the least; 180 degree wind shifts were the norm.  The race committee did a sterling job to get a full series of races in.  After 4 days of close racing we finished the event in 3rd overall.  The win was in our grasps going into the last day, but it just didn’t piece together for us unfortunately.  However, a 3rd was great considering the quality of the racing and the toughness of the conditions.  

Big thanks to the guys for having me onboard, I am sailing on More T Vicar again for the 707 Nationals in Burnham in September.  So keep an eye out for that.

Lewis

YOUTH NATIONALS LARGS

(That’s Joe, not me, I’m just behind him with the water in my eyes!)

In hindsight it was an amazing week, but it did have its up and downs.  Not just my performance, but the weather too.  It was a typical Scottish Youths, similar to my first Youth Nationals in Largs back in 2013, mostly cold, wet, and windy.

This year was my second Youth Nationals in the Laser Standard rig and my final ever Youth Nationals!  It was really nice to finish my last Youth Nationals in Largs, where it all kicked off 5 years ago!

Day 1 + 2

The five day regatta got off to a roaring start with the first 2 days being un-sailable because of the bitterly cold easterly winds that were funnelling down the valleys of Largs.  This meant that every race really did count for the rest of the week, and the chance of a second discard in the series was slim.

Day 3

Day three was forecast to be another windy one.  The race committee were toing and froing with whether to send us out or not all morning.  After a long wait we heard a message over the radio – “Laser Standard fleet launching in 10 minutes”.

We were the only fleet to launch, the ginea pigs if you like.  As we launched, the keen eyes of parents and the younger sailors were watching to see how we would cope.  Much to everyones surprise, and my own, it wasn’t actually that windy.  16-20 knots from the North East, but very, very shifty.  We got 2 races in, but it didn’t exactly go to plan, I scored a 7th and a 6th.  I felt fast, which was good, but I was struggling with my strategy.  We sailed very close to the shore of Cumbrae (an island just off the coast of Largs) which made the strategy slightly more complicated than I expected.  Areas to improve!

Day 4

The second day of racing was a great day, and I was on form!  Bar a hail storm on the sail out it was a very pleasant day on the water, the sun even appeared for a short while.  We managed to fit in 4 races at the North end of Cumbrae; I scored a 3rd, 8th, 2nd, 1st.  Super happy!  Again, I felt I had great speed, and some really good starts that were conservative, yet punchy enough to ensure a top position.  After Day 4 I went from 6th overall to 4th overall, and 1 point away from a podium place.  At this point I should probably say that I’ve never physically stepped on the podium at a UK Youth event, so this felt good.  I was so close!

Day 5

I would love to say that the final day went well, but I can’t.  Things didn’t go the way I wanted them to.  We sailed 2 races in the Largs channel, those being the windiest and shiftiest 2 races we had over the series.  I scored a 9th in the first race, which was predominantly down to two capsizes.  I was annoyed to say the least but I tried my best to keep it out of my head for the final race of the series. I channeled the little anger that was left into my work rate for the next race and I went for it.  I launched off the line and punched out nicely to begin with but soon had to tack out and find a new lane.  I sailed the shifts as best as I could but I couldn’t string together a successful first beat.  I rounded the first windward mark in about 8th but couldn’t find a way to gain back any significant places.  I finished that race in 7th.

My performance on the final day dropped me to 5th overall.  Not the result I wanted, but I walked away from Largs having had an a brilliant week (well 3 days).  The racing was tight and I had a great laugh with the lads in my fleet.  Kudos to Joe Mullen for stringing together a solid series and taking the win!

Fortunately my result at the Youth Nationals granted me a place in the British Youth Sailing Team this summer!  Damn it feels good!  After narrowly missing out on the team last year it feels extra special this time around, super chuffed!

Lewis

2018 Youth National Laser Standard results:
http://www.rya.org.uk/racing-events/2018-youth-nationals/Documents/Laser%20Standard%20Results.htm

DELTA LLOYD REGATTA

After a busy period of exams at University during May I was itching to get away and race again.  Fortunately Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Netherlands fell at just the right time for me to be able to do so!  I flew down to Southampton on the 21st and hitched a ride with 2 Boys in a Skiff over to Medemblik.

On Day 1 we were greeted with 15 knots of breeze which brought some choppy waves.  I was relatively cautious with my starts to begin with and struggled with the waves upwind which made the racing a lot harder for myself.  I did however, feel fast Downwind and took places on the downwind legs.

The second day brought much the same conditions than the first and I was able to increase the pressure of my starts (starting further towards the favoured end) without having many other variables change around me.  I managed to nail a pin end start in race 4 which I was super happy about!  The waves were offset to the wind direction slightly more than day 1,  this resulted in me matching my speed with the top guys when the waves were side on but yet again struggling with the waves on the nose on the other tack.

Day 3 started with a pleasant 7 – 11 knots of wind with some small choppy waves  –  a lovely rest for the legs after the first 2 days.  Similar to the previous day I was increasing the pressure of my starts trying to hold my position on the line for longer.  I made some good progress in my holding technique, especially given that the seniors do this very differently to what I am used to, it was great to get the experience at such a high level!

The penultimate day was very different with 5-8 knots from the North East.  Very much a risk versus reward kind of day, which I took advantage of but I also lost out on too!  The wind died as the day progressed and tacks and gybes played more and more of a part in the racing, definitely something to work on for the future.

The 5th and final days racing consisted of 15+ knots from the South West and some big steep choppy waves.  I executed my best start of the regatta and probably my best at a senior regatta, so super happy!  Managed to hold with good flow, and punch out at the favoured end of the line which let me tack onto the first shift and execute my strategy as planned.  So all in all a good day!

The atmosphere of the event was brilliant and the racing was super super competitive (we had 8 Olympians in our fleet!).  The schedule of the event was thought out very well and allowed us to watch some of the medal races for the other classes which was great fun.  An amazing regatta and an event I definitely want to do again, hopefully my exams will fall at a good time next year – fingers crossed!

It has been purely a process regatta for me this year so just the learning points to take from the event and work on in the coming weeks.  Next up is a busy training phase back in Scotland in the build up to the Under 21 European and World Championships .  Thank you for reading!

Lewis

RYA SCOTLAND SPRING CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a week of unwinding after the Youth Nationals it was time for the first UKLA Scottish Grand Prix event.  This was coupled with the RYA Scotland Spring Championships, all held on Loch Venachar over the weekend.

It was a brilliant weekend with some amazing sailing, superb winds and old friends.  We had full 40 min races (which is often unusual for a Scottish Grand Prix) and some great race management, which made the weekend all that more enjoyable.

This event was also my first time trying out the new Carbon Composite mast.  In the past I have been using aluminium masts, but the class rules have changed and the Laser have introduced the new composite top section, exciting times!  It felt much the same as the old one, but the plan is to do some extensive testing against the old one in the coming months.

It was nice to top the weekend off with a Gold medal after an almost perfect scoreline.  Big thanks to all the volunteers and RYA for organising the event,  and nice to see so may boats out on the water!

Lewis

Laser Standard Results:

http://enter.sailracer.org/ResultsEntry/ResultViewer/125935

YOUTH NATIONALS HAYLING ISLAND

It really didn’t feel like a year had past since the last youth nationals, its getting harder to keep track of the time!  Nevertheless I arrived to a very sunny and warm Hayling Island for my first U21 event in the Laser Standard class.  I was feeling good going into the regatta, lots of time on the water over the winter and some really high quality training.

Before the racing started on Monday I had a few days training on the water along with a few bike rides to spin the legs out after the light wind sessions.  It was also the first event with me sporting the new Engine 710 decals on the new hull and the trailer, big shout out to Ben for sorting my trailer out at his new workshop!

We had a mix of conditions throughout the week, from light to heavy winds and shifty to steady winds; it was great to get a spread of conditions over the regatta!  I found the racing and the changing conditions pretty tough to say the least and didn’t quite feel at my best.  I struggled with my race strategy and always seemed to be on the back foot.  However, it was brilliant experience in a popular racing venue – especially with the added pressure of selections.

In the end it wasn’t quite the outcome I was hoping for.  I finished 12th overall, very disappointing considering that I am more than capable of a top 5 finish.  Unfortunately I haven’t been re-selected for the British Youth Sailing Team this summer, which is hard to take. But that only means it’s onwards and upwards from here!

Lewis

2017 Youth Nationals Laser:

http://events.sailracer.org/eventsites/results-rya.asp?eventid=208951&class=Laser

SCOTTISH KEELBOAT ACADEMY

After a busy week toing and froing from Edinburgh to Glasgow for a few workshops it was time to get back on the water.  What a weekend it was!  We had two full days of sailing in glamour conditions, the sun was shinning and we had a moderate breeze that was perfect for working on what I wanted.

On the Saturday I was focusing on my role as bowman on the Sonar, I was working on my communication and the timing of the processes involved.  Bow is the role I am least familiar with and it’s great to see some progress from when I started with the Keelboat academy.

Sunday, again with amazing conditions, brought a day with me helming the Sonar – a role that I am much more comfortable with.  Similar to the Bow role I was working on my ability to communicate with the rest of the crew, this is something I’m not used to in a single hander!  I didn’t sail my best, but there was still lots of positive takeaways in terms of my goals I was working on.

Next up is the Youth National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club!

Lewis

UK WORLD + EUROPEAN SPRING QUALIFIERS

After a busy week at uni with graded presentations it was nice to get out racing again for the second qualifier of the year.  I travelled down a little earlier this time around and flew on Thursday evening – this meant myself and some of the other laser guys could get some training in on Friday.  Racing began on Saturday and we were sent out into Weymouth Bay where we completed 1 race.   After race 1 the visibility became very poor and racing was abandoned for the day unfortunately, but thats the game we play!

Sunday was slow to start with poor visibility again and very little wind, we were held ashore until some breeze filled in from the West.  The fleet eventually got 3 great races sailed inside Weymouth harbour, but me being I me I managed to disqualify myself from the second race for being to punchy on the start line.  Not ideal.

Nevertheless I was very happy with how I sailed over the weekend – especially with my starts (bar the black flag disqualification).  My starts are what I wanted to work on so its great to be able to feel them going well, particularly under some pressure of a very high quality fleet.  Very happy to have finished up 13th overall and 4th Under 21, even with a black flag!

The week following the Weymouth qualifier was testing week in the gym which all went to plan!  The testing led nicely into a breezy qualifier at Stokes Bay, definitely some heavy feeling legs!  Saturday brought 3 races in great conditions with 15 – 20 knots of wind and the infamous solent tides.  I struggled in the breezy conditions to say the least.  My boat handling on the start line felt pretty rusty and that didn’t set me up very well for the rest of the races.  Disappointing to be so far down the results with a  26th, 23rd and 17th but I’m happy its exposed some weaknesses to work on in time for summer!

I arrived at the club on Sunday, rigged up ready to go and tried my hardest to ignore the 30+ knots that was whistling around.  That 30 knots didn’t ease off, and we were left in the hands of a vote – to go sailing or to call it a day.  The vote swayed in favour of staying ashore, and soon after the official flags were hoisted and everyone was sent on their way.  With such an early call off, it left my mum and I with a bunch of time before our flight later that evening, so we decided to spend the day in Portsmouth!

The weekend following was spent back at home, with the next spent in the West coast for a Scottish Keelboat Academy Weekend just before travelling back down South for the Youth Nationals.

Lewis

Weymouth Qualifier:
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=94&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/wpnsa2std.2017nh.html

Stokes Bay Qualifier
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=95&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stbaystd.17nh.html

Standard Ladder 2017:
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=95&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stdlad3.2017nh.html

A WEEK IN WEYMOUTH

It’s been a while, time for a wee catch up…

After my training with Alexi at the Royal Forth Yacht Club it was time for my second semester at Edinburgh University to kick off. With Uni ongoing with assignments and deadlines dotted around I spent two of my weekends at home and sailed out of Royal Forth. I had one weekend spent sailing with the university at a team racing event which was a change to the usual laser! Another weekend was spent coaching the current Scottish Laser Development Team and training with the Scottish Keelboat Academy. It was great to get a wide variety of experience on the water in different boats and different disciplines.

After that busy block it was very quickly the middle of February and I was faced with a weeks trip down to Weymouth for the first World and European Qualifier of 2017 and the second Under 21 UK Youth Squad camp for this winter.

After a short wait for wind on Saturday the committee held 2 races in Weymouth Bay, The racing on Sunday was held in the harbour with a nice westerly breeze instead of the southerly breeze like the day prior. Over the weekend we completed 5 out of the 6 scheduled races in nice mild weather! I sailed a relatively consistent series with a 15th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 19th which put me 16th overall and 7th Under 21.

Monday through to Wednesday was a solid block of training with some nice big sessions in Weymouth Bay.  Thursday was blown off due to storm Doris but we had some beneficial land sessions and the time allowed me to get on with some boat prep!

With the week over I was back in the books with two presentations counting towards my grade during the week following the qualifier.

Lewis

Weymouth Qualifier:
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=93&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stdwpnsa1.2017nh.html

PALAMOS CHRISTMAS REGATTA

On the 15th of January I flew to Barcelona for a very slightly sunnier alternative to my winter training.  I met the rest of the U21 Youth Squad in Barcelona airport and we traveled to our apartment together.  Unfortunately I drew 1 of 2 short straws and was left with a single bed for the week.  However, the apartment was in a great location, only a 5 minute walk from the beach, and we had a supermarket underneath us which made life a lot easier!

Our boats did not arrive until the evening of the 16th which left us 2 days to explore the area and get to know our surroundings.  It’s fair to say that Palamos is a lovely place and there is some great coast line to walk along.  I took a few snaps of when we explored the area…

The day before racing commenced, myself and the team took to the water to get a feel for the conditions and warm ourselves up for what was to be a breezy few days!  The sailing felt odd and quite dissimilar to any venue I have sailed at before – this meant there was scope to learn a lot from the unfamiliar conditions.  The conditions for the training day were big breeze and BIG offset swell; these conditions were present for the duration of the regatta. It was a tough week to say the least, this is how it looked…

Day 1:    3 Races sailed in big breeze and big waves!

Day 2:    2 Races, only 1 sailed due to injury

Day 3:    No sailing, 10 metre waves recorded by the committee!

Day 4:    Postponed due to adverse sea state, 1 Race eventually sailed in great conditions

Day 5:    We watched the medal race from the comfort of the rib

There were only 6 races held out of the scheduled 10, this was due to high winds and adverse sea state.  Unfortunately I only sailed 5 of the 6 races due to an inflammation of the ligament in my knee; this was an injury I picked up at the end of my summer competitions.  That aside, there was a lot to be learned from the competitors, just like there is at any international senior regatta.  Although it is hard to take a positive from my final result alone, the event was a great learning curve for me.  The racing gave me a good kick up the backside to step my game up 2 or so notches and really solidify my jump from the radial rig into the standard rig.

After a hard week week both physically and emotionally I flew back home on the 23rd, just in time for a quiet Christmas at home with my family.  I quickly got back to training in the gym on the 28th, 29th and 30th before taking a few days off over new year.

And so my winter training continues…

Thanks for reading,

Lewis

SCOTTISH ELITE SQUAD TRAINING

On the weekend of the 10th and 11th I was sailing out of my home club, the Royal Forth Yacht Club, in Edinburgh.  I was fortunate enough to have Hugh Styles coach me for the two days.  Hugh helped Alison Young to the London Olympics, Rio Olympics and her 2016 World Title; it’s fair to say he’s a great coach and I can only echo this after my weekend spent with him on the water.  This opportunity was made possible with thanks to Tim Ellis and the funding made available to me through the RYA Scotland Elite Programme.

For the majority of the two days we focused primarily on hiking posture and turning the boat efficiently downwind.  Here is a short clip of me sailing upwind:

I made some great progress over the weekend but there is still heaps to work on as ever, exciting times!  Next up, I’ll be traveling to Palamos in Spain for a regatta just before Christmas.

Thank you for reading,

Lewis

ROYAL FORTH YACHT CLUB PRIZE GIVING

After a great days training through on the West coast I travelled swiftly back to my home club, the Royal Forth Yacht Club, for the annual prize giving.  Due to a very comprehensive debrief from the training session and the rugby traffic that greeted me when I got back to Edinburgh, I arrived just in time.  There were a number of awards given out on the evening, with three tables full of trophies!  I am very happy to say that I was presented with the Forth Yacht Clubs Association (FYCA) Cup for FYCA Yachtsman of the Year!  It was a great surprise that I am very thankful for.  I would like to thank Kevan Gibb for the nomination, and the Royal Forth Yacht Club and it’s members for their support over the years.

A special well done to Richard Leask and his daughter (pictured 2nd and 3rd from the left, back row) and to Willie Adams for their awards.  I have crewed for Richard on a number of occasions sailing out of Royal Forth and learned a great deal from him and his crew!  Another well done to Peter Cooke (pictured 2nd from the right, back row) on his awards.  I was given the opportunity by Peter to crew for him on his very well kept Dragon, definite jealousy there!

I have 2 weekends of training coming up and a trip to Spain for the Palamos Christmas regatta!

Lewis

SCOTTISH KEELBOAT ACADEMY

On the 19th November I drove through to the Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club (RNCYC) for the Introduction weekend to the Scottish Keelboat Academy (SKA).  Unfortunately I could not attend the Sunday due to university commitments, but the Saturday was great fun; I learned loads and met some really nice people!

The morning started off with some paper work and a complicated team building exercise which was a good laugh! We spent the rest of the morning in the classroom working on some goal setting; I broke my long term goal down and I now have a great focus on what I want to get out of the SKA weekends.

After a bite to eat we headed out to the boats.  Unfortunately there was not enough wind to sail at first so we did some stationary drills whilst tied to the pontoon.  We were working on spinnaker hoists and drops, both leeward and windward.  I was focusing my attention on the bow position; their individual roles in the manoeuvre and how the other positions work with the bow man.  The picture below is of me in the bow position during a windward hoist, a big thanks to Patrick Condy for all the media posts and photos of the weekend – make sure and check them out on the SKA Facebook page!

After a lot of run throughs on the pontoon some breeze finally filled in and we managed to have a short sail at the end of the session.  We had two boats on the water and had a race downwind, with my team managing to execute a windward hoist in a race scenario, albeit a little haphazardly.  It was a great day on the water and there was lots to be learned!

A big thanks to the coaches for running the training very well and to Patrick for the media updates.  The SKA training would not happen without the support from RYA Scotland, RNCYC and Silvers Marine, so a thank you goes to them too!

On the Saturday evening I attended the Royal Forth Yacht Club annual prize giving back in Edinburgh, check back soon for another post with some exciting news!

Lewis

UK LASER STANDARD U21 YOUTH SQUAD

A few weeks ago was my first U21 Standard Youth Squad camp!  It was a great four days to kick off the start of my winter training.  The camp was a prime opportunity to chat with the coaches and the rest of the team about the 3 qualifiers that have just past to see where we could all improve (see my other post).  It was also a really good chance to discuss next summer and my target events for the year ahead, exciting times!  The week was pretty tough for me as I had a lot of uni work to catch up on in the evenings; I had a report to hand in on the Friday of the camp and I had to catch up on the four days I had missed, I had a few late nights but it’s all done now!  All in all a great week with good improvements and lots of takeaways to work on.

I flew down from Edinburgh to Southampton on Monday night and hopped on a train to Weymouth.  The camp started on Tuesday and after an introduction to the team we quickly got on the water.  The main focuses of the camp were downwind turning, downwind tactics and match racing tactics.  We headed downwind into Weymouth bay on one of the days; here’s a short clip of the downwind turning I’ve been working on…

Thanks to Alex Mills Barton for the filming.

The match racing was very hard!  We were fortunate to be joined by a few of the sailors from the British Sailing Team who taught us a thing or two… or three… or four… about match racing tactics.  Loads of fun and heaps to learn which is super exciting!  We rounded the camp off with some short races in Weymouth Bay; a perfect chance to piece together the points discussed and consolidate them as much as possible.

We finished early on the final day of the camp which allowed me an hour or two to get some boat preparation done before my flight back home; it’s pretty hard to find the time to work on my boat when its kept 460 miles away! The boat is now all ready for a trip abroad this Christmas!  The rest of the team and I are heading out to Palamos, Spain for the Christmas regatta on the 15th.  I’ve not been away from home at that time of year before so that might be a challenge ,but I will be home just in time for Christmas Day.

I have a busy block of training at the moment including some training as part of the Scottish Elite Squad and the Scottish Keelboat Academy, looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading,

Lewis

UK WORLD + EUROPEAN AUTUMN QUALIFIERS

Another trio of Qualifiers has come to an end.  It has to be said that the competition is a lot harder now that I have moved into the Standard class – the racing is very tight!  The first weekend loomed just as I was starting to settle into my new flat at university.  Mum and I left on Friday evening and shared the drive, albeit a short one, to South Shields Sailing Club in Newcastle – it was nice to have a weekend a little further North than usual.

We arrived at the sailing club on the Saturday morning, the conditions were light with large offset swell from the night before.  These unusual conditions made the racing a little more interesting than normal.  Although very ironic; the large swell, combined with the light winds, didn’t get on very well with my stomach and I ended up being pretty ill on the water.  However, I was determined to finish the days racing and get on with it.  I finished the day in a disappointing 23rd overall and 9th Under 19.  Sadly the conditions were not in our favour and the racing was cancelled on Sunday.

The next qualifier followed 3 weeks later in Hayling Island.  It was great racing across the weekend with good wind – even the sun popped out for a while.  It was a brilliant turn out with 45 Standards competing!

Saturday brought 10-15 knots of breeze that decreased to 6-8 by the end of the day.  The racing was made very strategic because of large pressure differences across the course, the tide played a big part nearing the end of the day’s racing.  I was very happy to finish day one in 8th overall and 2nd under 19.  Day 2 brought similar conditions with slightly more breeze than the previous day.  I finished day 2 with a 13th, 16th and 17th which dropped me down the results a bit to 13th overall and 3rd under 19.  Although it would have been nice to stick 8th overall I’m pretty pleased with 13th!

The 6th and final qualifier of the year was held in Pwllheli, North Wales with a far smaller fleet than the qualifier before.  The conditions on Saturday were big waves along with 14 knots of wind coming from the South.  Being underweight for the boat didn’t help me in my efforts to put in good results on day one; I scored a 12, 12 and 22.  I feel as though I could have sailed a lot better strategically and tactically and looking back on it I know where I went wrong!  The event was cut short and no races were sailed on Sunday due to too much wind.  I finished the event in 15th overall and 4th under 19.

Having sailed 4 out of the 6 qualifiers in a Standard this year it has allowed me to be ranked on the ladder without having to discard a race that I didn’t compete (DNC) in.  I am currently 14th in the UK and 2nd under 19 in the UK!

I am extremely happy to say that my results from these qualifiers along with my summer results have got me selected onto the Under 21 UK Youth Squad!  This means lots of training down South alongside the Olympic Podium Potential Team, super exciting!

Thanks for reading!

Lewis

Standard Ladder 2016:

http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=89&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stdlad6.2016nh.html

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH

I am now officially a student at the University of Edinburgh, a lot of exciting stuff has happened since I started uni life in September!  I’m studying Sport and Recreation Management which is a 4 year degree, it’s been super interesting so far and right up my street.

The first big step was moving into my new flat.  I was offered accommodation through the University’s Individual Performance Sport programme, this means that I share a flat with 4 other athletes with the same kind of lifestyle as myself.  The accommodation is fantastic; I’m a 10 min walk from all my lectures, a minutes walk away from 2 gyms, and we have 3 fridge-freezers for the mountains of food we all eat – couldn’t ask for any better.  Shoutout to Josh, India, Lauren and Alex for being amazing flatmates!

My course has been great so far and I am looking forward, albeit a little nervously, to whats in store.  My course looks into a lot more than just managing all things sporty; so far, in this short space of time, we have covered lots of topics and concepts including, nationalism, rationalisation, supply and demand, and the National Lottery funding.  I have also taken an optional business course where we have looked into operations management and the internal and external environments of business.

I am very proud to be a part of the Performance Sport Programme at Edinburgh University, it has opened up a lot of opportunities for me here in my first year and I am very grateful for that.  It is great to see 3 sailors out of the 17 individuals on the programme, a well done goes to both Iain Mclaughlan and Gilles Munro for being a part of the programme and specifically, their results in the past year!

I am now currently competing at the UK Laser World and European Qualifiers, check back soon for an update of how they’ve been going!

Lewis

Check out the Edinburgh University Performance Sport Website:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/sport-exercise/performance

YOUTH EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

My last ever Laser Radial event has come to a close and it was great to end on a high.  The Championship was held in Tallin, Estonia.  A fantastic venue that was used to hold the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games.

This was an exciting event for me as it was the first major championship that I have traveled with the British Youth Sailing Team instead of doing it with my family, a great experience!  It was also a very important few weeks for me as the next 4 years was going to be determined by my exam results and my placing at the end of the regatta.  A top 8 result would secure me a place in the Laser Standard full time P3 programme, and achieving my conditions would land me a place in Edinburgh University to study Sport & Recreation Management.  This was all to become clear by the end of the championship.

The week of racing was predominantly windy with a range of 15-20 knots everyday, not counting the last day which was called off due to no wind.

Day one was very up and down emotionally.  The racing was abandoned and us sailors were forced to wait around for the wind to drop.  It didn’t, so no races were sailed.  On top of the frustration of no sailing I was also waiting for my exam results on the same day.  In a way it was fortunate, I had a clear head and was able to sit down and sort out the relative details.  After that anxious wait, I’m happy to say that I met my conditions and that I have my place at Edinburgh University secured!

Day two saw the first two races of the regatta.  I smashed the first race to finish in 3rd place and was super happy to get the initial race nerves out of the way.  The second race I finished in 20th which wasn’t as good but still okay.

The third day was the last day of qualifying where we sailed another two races.  I was very happy with the day as a whole finishing 9th and 5th.  This placed me 8th overall going into the gold/silver split!

Day number four was gold fleet racing, where the real gains and losses can happen.  Unfortunately in the first race of gold fleet I picked up a black flag disqualification (BFD) which scored me a 70th place, this was because of me being over the start line at the ‘go’ gun, this became my discard of the regatta.  After a long and painful wait the gold fleet started their second race of the day.  I scored a 15th in that race, which I was happy with.

Day five was very disappointing for me as I picked up another large result, I was 48th due to a number of small mistakes that added up and took their toll on my placing.  The consequences of this result were made worse by me being unable to discard it.  In the race following this mishap I was very happy with my performance.  I was able to switch my focus away from the poor result and focus entirely on the race in hand, this allowed me to sail with a fresh mind and finish in 4th position!  Super pleased to finish the day on a high!

We spent day six waiting for wind with no resulting races.  I finished the championship just outside the top ten in 12th position.  It would have been nice to finish in the top ten and pick up a prize but I am chuffed none the less.  A great week spent with a great group of guys!

Congrats to Dan and Milo, my team mates, for picking up the U19 and U17 silver medals respectively.

I now look forward to a well deserved 2 weeks off!  I have 1 week at home to plan and sort out some of the details for transitioning to University, then 5 days in Paris with my Girlfriend to get away and chill out for a while.  Well needed after a very busy start to the summer!

I have now finished sailing my Laser Radial and have transitioned fully into the Laser Standard (male olympic class) watch the space for more updates regarding my move into the standard class!

Lewis

Full results here:

http://www.euroradialyouth2016.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/boys_gold.htm