Not so much wind today. And we are again sat in the yacht club waiting for our fleet to be launched. we are racing in the 3rd and 4th flights today. The overall positions at the moment are slightly misleading because not all fleets have done the same amount of races. keep checking for more updates.
After a long wait ashore we finally made it to the water. A strong wind meant that we were forced to reef the mainsail, this made setting the boat up slightly different. A great start and solid boat speed saw us round the first mark second and convert the position to a 1st by the end of the race. In the second race a similar strategy put us in 3rd place but unfortunately we later learned that we had been OCS at the start. After 2 races there was a change in fleets so we had some new competitors to race against. Taking advantage of what we had learned in the previous races we managed to sail ourselves into another 1st place. The final race of the day was a tricky one, an average start meant we were in the bunch at the first mark. After trying to lee bow the bunch we unfortunately hit the windward mark, after sorting our selves out and taking a penalty we were right at the back. A great performance from the team and some solid boat handling boosted us back up to 3rd position and nearly getting 2nd! So a great day on the water for team plymouth finishing with 1,1,3,OCS. Hoping for the same tomorrow without the letters!
Just arrived at the club, it is still very windy but the forecast is for the wind to moderate. No word from the race committee yet as to there intentions but im sure they are very keen to get us out racing. its going to be a big day out, so keep checking for the latest...
So no racing today unfortunately, the wind remained very strong and the race committee had no option in the end. The team took the opportunity to explore the area and catch up on some relaxation time. We are all planning an early night because im sure the race committee will get the races going quickly tomorrow. keep checking for updates!
We have arrived safley, currently we are sitting in the yacht club waiting for racing. After attending the opening ceremony last night we have been allocted Group C and boats 6 and 12. We have had a look at them and are happy with both. 32 teams are competing this year spead across 16 boats. The forecast today is brezze between 25 and 30 Kts. So we are waiting for the wind to drop. Sorry for any spelling mistakes im having to wrestle with a french key board, will keep you updated.
Next week i am off down to Cherbourg in France, to represent Plymouth in the student European Championships, it is raced in j80's which I am fairly familiar with now. At this event last year between myself and the team we sail Plymouth to 1st place. So naturally I would love to defend the title. This year the we know that the French will have been putting alot of time in after the shock last time. So we will have to be at the top of our game to repeat last years performance. I will try and keep this up to date during the Event so be sure to keep checking and find out how I'm getting on!
I was back on the Island last weekend for another training session with the BKA. I had an awesome weekend still getting to know the other sailors and finding out who works well where. I had a few keelboat firsts, notabley running aground and needing to get towed off! (so embarrassing) But I still blame Kelv the local who didnt mention it was about to get very shallow! On the sunday Luke Mccarthy set us up an exercise which involved som serious presure on hoist and drops. This was great as it allowed us to see easily where we can improve and speed things up. We have a few weeks off before the next training now, And in the meantime I am planning to get out on the water as much as possible with the Uni. Our Nationals Teams have now been selected and I will be Helming the Plymouth A boat. We finished 2nd last year so i am desperate to go one better this year! Keep checking for updates!
Last weekend I was on the island based at UKSA training with the BKA. The weekend was great to get to know the rest of the team and start to build up an idea of who i might like to start sailing with. We had two days of sailing where we all swaped around teams and roles, which lead to some comedy moments where i was on the bow! (not my forte!) We are back up there training again in 2 weeks time and after that i should have a pretty good idea of who i will be teamed up with. In the mean time i will be on the water as much as i can with the university, we have the student Europeans in just over a month. We won the event last year so hopefully i will back over there defending the title! Watch this space because selections are this weekend coming!
This thursday i will be attending the London Boat SShow to represent the British Keelboat Academy during its launch, I will be around for most of the weekend talking to people about my plans for the following year. so let me know if your gona be around, I might see you there!
Great News! After attending a selection weekend and coming off the back of my success last year, i have been ask to be part of the British Keelboat Academy (BKA). This is a new Partnership between the RYA and UKSA. It is to promote and develop young keelboat sailors. Through the BKA i will be able to experience lots of opportunities i wouldn't have before. The BKA has access to J80's which i am quite familiar with now and own a TP52. This is a very high performance 52ft racer and i will hopefully be spending some of my time on this beast too! Along side this shore based and fitness sessions will happen as well. It is a great opotunity so keep checking to see what im up to!
http://www.rya.org.uk/programmes/bka/Pages/BritishKeelboatAcademy.aspx
Well summer holidays are over now, had an amazing time campaigning the J80 with the boys. Learned more than i ever thought i would. For more info on our J80 expeditions see http://gbrj80.squarespace.com/. Since there was no movement on the tornado front i have chosen to continue my studies here at Plymouth in Marine/Composites Technology. I will hopefully be heavily involved in the university's keel boat programme again, but am looking to also re launch an attack at the F18 fleet. I am trying to build up some funding at the moment to help me do this. I have been out the loop for a year now, and this has provided me with more motivation to get back into it and do well.
Thanks for your support through this tricky time in my sailing carrier, if you feel you can help in anyway please get in touch.
Thanks all!
Big News! after the success i have had keel boating this year, i have been able to put together a J80 campaign to get upto date on the progress of our campain visit. www.gbrj80.squarespace.com
Last week I was selected and raced a J80 during the university European championships. The event was held down in Cherbourg, France. We left on Tuesday night and caught the over night ferry from Portsmouth to Caen. Arriving at Cherbourg early on Wednesday morning gave us time to get through registration and find our accommodation for the week. Later that day a training session was planned so that we could go out and get a feel for the boats we would be racing on. It was nice to get out on the water have the first look at what the competition had to offer. We came in from the session knowing that we had pretty good speed and were happy with our boat handling manoeuvres. That evening we attended the opening ceremony and were put into the C Flight. Then it was back to the accommodation the hit the sack for the next days racing.
Thursday morning brought sunshine but very little wind, luckily we were in the 2nd flight of the day so were able to chill out over the morning and hit the water just after lunch. As we were motoring out to the boats the wind picked up a lot an as we rolled into the first start a huge front came through meaning the race officer postponed the first race, and we were told to reef the mainsail. In the next start we had an awesome start and powered out to the left side of the course, rounding the windward mark in 3rd we had a few issues on the downwind leg and lost loads of places, but we able to make some back up on the next lap and eventually finished in 5th. The Second race went much more to plan and with no issues we managed to cruise across the line in 2nd, only to find out that the boat in front of us was OCS, boosting us up to 1st. Coming out of the final day with a 1st and 5th we were put into second overall but because there were 2 flights the points were so tight!
Day 2 of racing and I was feeling stoked after the success we had the day before, again, we were in the second flight onto the water, and had a good breeze for our racing, We started the day with a great race with the other Plymouth boat finishing neck and neck, but they managed to just pop out in front putting us in 4th, We were happy as the plan was to keep it consistent in the top 5. The second race we had a smoking start off the line and sailed a near on perfect race giving us another convincing bullet. Taking this into the next race we managed to pull of another 1st again. The team was beginning to really believe that we could do this! In our final race of the day we had an awesome battle with the other boats all the way around and eventually crossed to line in 3rd. This strong day consolidated our position at the top of the leader board. And we were still in 2nd at the end of the day.
On Saturday morning they made the cut between gold and silver fleets, we were safely in the gold fleet. Also the draw for boats was made and we got boat 8 which we were all very happy with. We knew it was going to be a hard day now all the good teams were together. The silver fleet raced first and then we were out later, the plan was to get 3 races in and then a long distance race. In the first race we struggled after making a poor call on the first beat after fighting back all the way through the race we managed to get 7th. I the next race things were looking really good until we had an incident with one of the French boats upwind. I don’t think we were in the wrong but he managed to get a French witness so we were forced to take 720° penalty turn. Again fighting back through the fleet we finished 5th. I was now very motivated to have a good race we had been cheated out of 2 already. With and absolute blinding start we lead the next race from the beginning and brought the boat home in 1st place. The Long distance race we had next was hard, we were part of the leading 3 all the way around the long course, chopping and changing for position as we went. But finally ending up in 3rd across the line. When we got back ashore we discovered that we were still in second but the boats in 1st and 3rd were being protested. Both boats were disqualified from their protests which then boosted us up into 1st overall, we were leading into the final day.
The final day brought a lot of wind, again with an increasing breeze the silver fleet was sent 1st so we waited on the shore. When got out to the boats the wind was very strong and we had an amazing downwind sail to the start line! In the first race our plan was to try and stick close to second which we were doing well until he managed to just squeeze a boat in between us. He managed to pull away a bit and won the race with us in 4th. He was now leading by 0.2 of a point! There was only one thing we could do, we had to sail him back down the fleet because he had a worse discard than us we would win overall. We managed to get him on the start line and two of use crossed the line very late, we sat on him all the way upwind and everything was going to plan. On the down wind leg we controlled him and sailed him passed the lay line, but as we heated up out of the gybe the block on the end of our spinnaker pole exploded! We were forced to drop the kite and at that point had to retire, racing a 3 lap race without a spinnaker was not going to work. We sailed in very annoyed but ready to go and ask for redress and average points. The Jury took a very long time discussing the matter as the European championship was on the line. But finally the made the decision to award us redress! We had done it European Champions!
Helm – Tom Phipps
Main – James Hopson
Trim – Mark Yeabsley
Pit – Amy Patch
Bow – Patrick Adams
I am off to represent Plymouth Uni at the up and coming J80 Match Racing Qualifier this weekend, I have the position of Mainsheet on the boat but also play a big part in the tactical decisions prestart. I am sailing with a great team and hopefully we can make it through this qualifier to get to the finals later in the year. Before i came to uni i had not really done much match racing at all so its really good to be doing some new sailing! Check back soon to see how the weekend at Queen Mary Reservoir goes!
Over the weekend of the 6th, 7th and 8th of september, Tom and Jon made the trip up to Mumbles, South Wales for the Tornado National Champs. after 3 Days of Glamour Racing the team created a very impressive score board of, 1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,1,1. Discarding a 1st and 2nd the boys convincingly brought home the chocolates!
See the Picture from the nationals in the Images Section
Jon and I have once again team up to race in the 2008 Tornado Nationals. The event is 3 days over the 6th,7th and 8th of September in Mumbles south Wales. Stay tuned for results!
So this is the new site now that i am "Free Lance"
Keep Checking for Updates!