Another winter season approaches and so it is time for new plans and a new training programme. Samantha had interviews at The UK Sailing Academy last week and has secured a place on the tri-watersports Internship Programme. She will be starting work there in November and after completing her training will have instructor qualifications in canoeing, windsurfing and hopefully scuba diving and of course, high performance dinghy sailing. She hopes to spend next summer working in somewhat warmer climes.
After returning from the Topper Worlds with a solid performance placing in the Gold Fleet with a consistent race series across all wind conditions it is finally time for Joanne to say farewell to Junior racing and move formally into a Youth Class. Having not grown a great deal since last year she has decided the Laser Radial is just not a realistic option yet so the summer has been a time of re-evaluation and contemplation with the focus moving from 29er to 420 and back.
Ultimately it is the all round nature and technical challenge of the 420 which has proved more attractive than the high adrenaline point and shoot nature of the 29er. The 9er has been great fun and a real challenge particularly in the challenging, shifting winds of Loch Tummel and is very much the "cool" way to go but ultimately the strength in depth and quality of competition across Europe, (the French, Dutch, Germans and Belgians seem to have hundreds of them!) the availability of coaches (and parents) who also sail the boat at the highest level and also the example of Luke Patience in the 470 at the Olympics has swayed Jo towards the 420 and we will be collecting her new "blueblue" shortly after the UK Inlands at the end of September. We plan to keep the 29er too and will be sailing both classes but will focus on the 420 for National and International Competition.
The 420 is a two person boat and not generally one which favours mixed crews so if there are any dedicated 15 years old girls out there born in 1997 or later who would like to sign up for winter training and a full international race programme, please get in touch.
