10th place at my first Nationals - very happy.
I arrived in Weymouth with my mum in the motorhome on Friday but everywhere was jam packed because the Teras were still onsite from their Worlds, so mum parked the motorhome in a corner until there was a space.
I arrived in Weymouth with my mum in the motorhome on Friday but everywhere was jam packed because the Teras were still onsite from their Worlds, so mum parked the motorhome in a corner until there was a space.
We camped next to Charlie and Shaun Tordoff all week (which the parents thought would end up badly because Charlie and I mess around a lot.) On Friday afternoon Vicky Cowan and her family came over and we ended playing with skateboards, roller-skates, bikes and rip-sticks. By the end of the afternoon Vicky could skateboard and Charlie was a Pro at roller-skating.
On Saturday, Vicky and I registered and I got my sail stamped. The Zone Squads were training for most of the day so the 4.2’s had fun by ourselves.
Sunday was our first day of racing and we only managed one complete race in heavy conditions. This was a good race for me as I got a 7th - this is the first Summer Champs I’ve attended so I was pretty happy with my first result.
On Monday it was a big day as we did five races. In the morning I had an accident in our practise session and missed two races, but in the afternoon I was pumped and ready to race. Unlucky Charlie twisted his ankle so badly that he had to sit out in the afternoon. My results in the afternoon were mixed, I got a 3rd which I was amazed about, a 16th which I wasn’t happy about but then worked my way back up to 6th in the last race. Because I had two good results on Monday I was really keen to get back on the water on Tuesday.
We did three races on Tuesday, which was great as we got our second discard and I got bumped back up to 9th because I wasn’t carrying my 2 D.N.Fs. All of my races were good on Tuesday with all top ten results.
On Wednesday it was our passage sail and picnic (A.K.A mess around and play pirates). We sailed out to the breakwater ruins in pairs and then went to a private beach on Castle Cove. All the way across the bay Harken and I were capsizing other boats! On the beach we did lots of activities like tug of war and beach football but the sand sculpture activity was the best - Tom Booth and I won by making a picture of Arthur with fuzzy hair! Charlie’s group had high hopes of winning but we just beat them.
On Thursday we got in three races. In the first race I came 10th which I was happy about, I really hurt my foot but kept sailing and in the next race I slipped to 26th and could only manage 14th in the last race of the day.
Finally, it was Friday - our final day, but everything could still change in the variable conditions. We got four races in and I got all top ten results, with a 4th in the final race.
The prize giving was delayed because something went wrong in the race office but they fixed everything and the prize giving went on for an hour and a half with lots of prizes and trophies. Then Tom wished everyone good travels and everyone said their goodbyes … until Pwllheli
