The 12 and 13th of March, a weekend on the south coast. Meeting all the youth sailors, and coaches and a chance to sail on a Sunfast 3300.

I was super nervous so reached out to one of the other sailors on Instagram. We arrived in the morning at 9am at Swanwick marina. I arrived early but waited in the car until I could see other sailors. Once other people arrived I instantly found Freya Skingley, not only did we share our first and middle names (Freya Rose) but she also had a small boat and was planning on a sailing solo around Britain. And although she was 16 so a few years younger, we connected instantly and stuck together. We walked around introducing ourselves as Freya and Freya, it was a bit of lighthearted fun. There were 20 sailors in total, 10 boys and 10 girls, from all different backgrounds. Some were exceptional dinghy racers, some already had miles of offshore experience, some worked onshore teams preparing boats and some as instructors. Whatever their backgrounds everyone shared an enthusiasm for the sea and wanted to progress into offshore racing,

We had a briefing from James Harayda and Dee Caffari, everyone introduced themselves including a professional photographer. The team kit was then handed out before heading down to the boats.

We were split into 3 groups of 5-6 sailors and a coach. I climbed onboard Surf, we had a safety briefing then started rigging up. I had been onboard nice cruising boats before but they were nothing like this, it was clearly a fast racing boat. On the water, I got to helm (steer) us out the river Hamble. The wind was about strong to medium but dropping thought the day, the sun was shining and we couldn’t have asked for better. I had never sailed on the south coast before and seeing the sheer number and variety of boats within such a small area was incredible. Once out of the river, we pulled the sails up and started simply just getting used to the boats, how they moved through the water and where the controls were. I felt completely out of my depth, these boats were more complicated and the other sailors were far more experienced. But the coaches really helped explain everything step by step, in a way that I didn’t feel stupid for not knowing it. We got to have a go at every position onboard; helming, trimming, mast and bow.

The boats were quite crowded with 6 people, but it was hard to see how you would be able to sail it double-handed, especially during manoeuvres. I guess they must just be great sailors. By the end of the day, I was tired but felt I just about understood what was going on. My favourite place to be was at the helm or on the bow. I loved being in control of the helm, and the adrenaline of climbing to the bow to fly the spinnaker. You could feel the speed of the boat improve when you got something right. But the same was definitely true of mistakes, if I lost concentration on the helm and headed up too much you could feel it slowing down. It was like the boat was constantly pushing you to go faster and try harder. After an amazing day whizzing around the Solent we headed back for shore and de-rigged the boats.

On the second day the breeze picked up a little, so I was excited to get out there. As we had all gotten used to these boats, the plan was to do some more training in the morning and then a few races in the afternoon. This time I was on Fastrak with Nigel Connelly. We motored out the river before pulling up the sails. We got some good training in the morning, I was beginning to feel confident on these boats, understanding the systems and who needed to be where doing what. I got to spend some time up on the bow, with Jasmine showing me the ropes.

In the afternoon we got some racing in. In the first race, we had a cracking start and managed to keep our lead. I was on the bow so rigging the spinnaker and helping to fly it. It was an amazing feeling to finish first, though I’m well aware it was very little to do with me! In the second race, our start was okay and we had a good upwind leg, we were maintaining our speed and keeping a good angle to the wind. We rounded the windward mark in a close first place, we were quick to get the spinnaker up and drop the jib. It was a tight finish though we were just in front, if only by cms.