RYA South West Topper Zone Squad training camp at Mount Batten

So very windy in Plymouth, Saturdays training was blown off !

A 6am start saw us heading off just as the sun came up.  The skies were clear and there was no wind, however by the time we reached Plymouth Saturday’s forecast was turning into reality with gale force winds, white horses and gusts strong enough to blow you over.  Mum had a lucky escape on the outside staircase nearly coming down quicker than she had just walked up !  The winds were so strong parents took boats off of car roofs and transferred them to spare racks on other squaddies trailers and then tied everything down securely.


Our Squad spent Saturday in the classroom on theory and fitness sessions.  Saturday’s theory covered tidal sailing, course strategy, top tips before the start and protests.  No broken furniture this time!!!

Luckily we were staying on site at the Mount Batten Centre which meant we had sea views all weekend and not too far to go to breakfast and boat rigging on Sunday morning.Sunday provided 4 hours of mixed sailing conditions. 

We had sunshine, we had squally rain showers with winds ranging from 12 – 25 knots but best of all we were out on the water having fun in some challenging conditions. 

My coach persuaded me to go out on my 5.3 sail.  I improved a lot on my downwind sailing throughout the day and only capsized a couple of times which was great as this was the first time of using my 5.3 in these conditions.


After lunch, relaunch was interesting as the tide had gone out & our ribs were high and dry or rather stuck in the mud!  Coaches, parents and a few Plymouth Uni students to the rescue and eventually the ribs were water side again. 

A few bumps and bruises given the sailing conditions and we were all relieved that our team mate who went to A&E for a check-up was sent home to rest.  No long term injuries just a nasty knock on the head from someone else’s boom.

Thank you for everyone at Mountbatten and Duncan and Lynn for a great weekend

Read More

RYA South West Topper Zone Squad training camp at Castle Cove

a Weekend at "Wey-biza"

We only live an hour away from Castle Cove so I didn’t get any time off school for travelling :(  

Saturday got off to an interesting start, we arrived at Castle Cove and realised the trailer keys were still at home.  Dad and a lump hammer soon solved that problem!

Saturday’s weather conditions proved challenging with many of us using 4.2 sails in an attempt to stay upright in the 25 – 30 knots.  Launching was a team effort with a couple of parents in wet suits to help us launch and head in the right direction, boats smashing against the rocks would not have made a good start to training.  Swimming in the sea in January wasn’t quite what the dads  had in mind when they set out with their sailors that morning!

As it was so gusty we focused on upwind and downwind sailing in heavy winds and waves. We spent about 3 and a half hours on the water doing our best to stay upright and learning how to sail up & down the waves and make good progress with the conditions in hand.  I forgot my SeaBands which was a bad move.  Time on the water proved fast and fun but very tiring, with lots of effort required to hike out and keep our boats flat. 

The highlight of the Saturday’s theory session was when Duncan tried to demonstrate how to surf a wave by using a chair. Apologies to the sailing club for the chair that now needs mending. Photos made it straight onto FaceBook thanks to Lynn our other coach J

Sunday proved that weather conditions can offer a weekend of opposites, today the wind dropped right off to 5 – 11 knots and the sun was shining.  Sails were swapped to 5.3’s and the 4 hours on the water were spent learning a lot about light wind sailing.  My tacks and gybes improved as the day went on, reducing steering in my gybe being one of the aims for today.

Thank you to everyone at Castle Cove Sailing Club and Duncan and Lynn for a great weekend. 

Read More

Feva perspective from the Bloody Mary - the biggest UK pursuit race

I left home with my mum and dad on the Friday after I finished school to get to our hotel. When we got there I rang my helm (Dan) to check everything was ok for Saturday, then I watched the silent briefing and went to bed ready for a long day ahead.

On Saturday morning we got to the club just before the big rush of cars and boats arrive.!  Dan’s dad had booked a club Feva for us and after setting up the spinnaker, jib and had the mainsail ready to go we attached the boat to the pontoon ready to get to the start line. 

We were one of the first Fevas released so we sailed the first bit of the course and tested our spinnaker. Half an hour later, the Toppers had launched and it was time for us to get ready for our start.

After the first mark the Fevas spread out among the fleet and we were racing the biggest pursuit race in the UK. 

After 2 and a half hours of racing we came in 249th out of 320+ boats and Dan and I were very chuffed for finishing - and we came in ahead of the Moths. 

It was great to see so many of our friends do well and we finished one place behind Mike (Coco’s dad)  AND Coco had beaten him !!! After everyone had said their goodbyes and thankyou’s we went back to Coco’s house for a celebratory dinner.

On Sunday morning Rachel helped me with some extra kit before the long trip home and I was asleep in 5 minutes on the motorway.

Read More

Race Hard ! Have Fun :D

Read More

Grafham 4.2 residential training camp

Grafham is a long way from Somerset, so I was grateful that my school gave me the afternoon off so we could get to our hotel for dinner time. I was staying at the same hotel as James so we ate tea together and also had a healthy hotel breakfast in the morning - while our dad's had the full English.

When we arrived at the activity centre, lots of our friends were already rigging.  After getting the boat ready I went with Dan #880 for our motivational wake up (we played stuck in the mud) with Charlotte and Andy. Saturday was a long day on and off the water, we started at 9:00 am and finished at 9:00 pm. We got to practise the new skills we learned at our last training session and also spent time team racing in our training groups - which was great fun and we all want to do it again. We ended after team talks with hot chocolate, toast & jam.

Sunday started early as we packed up our rooms and had breakfast for 7:30 because we had a squad wake up session in the sports hall. It was another good day on the water before the parents came back the the centre in the afternoon as we packed up for the trip home at 4:15.

Read More

Zone Squad 1 at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club

As Chew is only an hour or so away from home we left early on the Saturday morning and got to the gate in a queue of Toppers keen to get onto the water.

On Saturday our main aim was boat handling and it was Sunny & Flat & Northerly & 3-7 Avg. & Gusting 7 for the 2 ½ hours we spent sailing.

By the end of the day I had really got the hang of Roll tacks and Stop tacks after coaching from Lynne.

On Sunday our main plan was light wind trim, as there was hardly any breeze so we spent extra time on fitness before we went out.

By the end of the day Lynn had showed me how to improve my trim and to keep speed up in light winds.

Read More

Zone Squad Land Day

My first day in the Squad -  I made sure to wear my VR Race Team jacket and all my friends were impressed  

We got to meet our coaches, Duncan & Lyn and Chris our  High Performance Manager who told us all about the squad and the RYA's World Class Pyramid Programme.

Afterwards our parents were sent off to their own briefing and we went to the gym and had our private coach to squad briefing to work out our squad contracts as a team. 

Because the weather was so harsh and waves were being blown over the top of the RIB pontoons we stayed inside and had lunch before we went into a boat setup session to improve our race performance.

New things today were lessons on physio from Isy who told us all about posture and from Chris all about Fitness, Nutrition and Hydration. 

We played a game about nutrition to end the day and the coaches all wished us good luck for the squad training and our first training at Chew Valley Lake.

Read More