Whilst I was still learning to sail a Cadet class boat, Karen, the sailing school principal at my sailing club in Pevensey Bay (PBSC) mentioned the Youth Regional Championships, being held at Datchet sailing club. However, only a few classes of boats were eligible to take part in this event, RS Feva being one of them. I partnered up with a Chris, with the aim of taking part. We had never sailed a Feva before but decided to give this challenge a go. Fortunately, there was a PBSC club Feva that our club generously loaned to us, we pimped the boat up and sailed it once before going to the event. This was the first time sailing at an event for both of us, so this and some very high winds made us a bit nervous. However, we ignored our nerves and tried our very best, ending up with a result of 7th. We were amazed by this result, especially as we just took part for the experience. Throughout these 2 long days of racing a rib approached us and asked us to apply for the RYA British Sailing Team youth zone squads, we had never heard of this but soon realised that most the people at this event were racing to get a place in this squad. Applying involved listing our event results to date, but we had only taken part in one race, so it was a shock we got an email a few days later saying we had been accepted into the squad.
The zone squads really improved our sailing skills, we realised how tactical and fine-tuned sailing was. This was also our first experience of proper training. We travelled around the country with our Feva to train at lots of different sailing clubs, we really enjoyed this as we had only ever sailed on the South East coast before. We sailed every weekend practising the skills we had learnt during training events. Unfortunately, both the Youth Zone training and our practice stopped due to Covid-19, which was really disappointing for us, but we knew we had learnt lots already. The zone squads help me to this day, I use the sailing skills I learnt every time I sail. I also use lots of the coaching exercises and skills I experienced when I am coaching myself.
Towards the end of last summer my parents surprised me by buying a 29er (called Brenda). A 29er is the dinghy I had always dreamt of sailing. At first, my crew (Madie) and I found this boat very difficult to sail as it is one of the most tippy and fast boats out there. We had never sailed a boat like it, so didn’t know where to start. Our sailing club is a very friendly place and there are always members that are keen to help others, being a member of my club is like having another family. Our Pevensey Bay sailing family was on hand and recruited two sailors who had spent their childhoods sailing at PSBC. Ex-29er sailor (Jonathan White) and British Sailing Team member and Nacra 17 sailor, Nikki Boniface, helped us to start to control our boat and find our feet. We jumped in at the deep end and when we had only sailed our 29er a handful of times decided to go to our first 29er Grand-Prix, held at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. This was another nerve-racking experience as it was our first time sailing in a fleet of 80+ Boats. On the first day we really struggled due to very high winds and came in early, reassuringly this was alongside other boats that were finding the conditions challenging. However, on the second day , there were lighter winds and we were able to gain our confidence, managing to complete every race that day. Although we didn’t do very well in the races this was a great experience for us as we learnt lots about 29ers and were able to meet fellow 29er sailors. We have now towed our boat to Bewl Water, a reservoir, as the shore dump makes it very difficult to launch safely on the sea throughout winter. At Bewl, we have been sailing with a small fleet of 29ers and getting a bit of coaching, which has improved our sailing dramatically. We are looking forward to getting back on the sea and sailing with our PBSC family again in the spring.
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