There seems to be a rhythm to my sailing year and there is always one big event that focuses my training for the year. In 2024 it was the RS Aero world championships in August at Hayling Island, a five-day event.
I’d trained hard and was in pretty good shape going into the event, and went with the 7m rig which is my natural rig size. The wind turned out to be light for most of the days, so I could probably have stepped up to the 9m rig.
Continue reading “RS Aero Worlds 2024”https://www.yachtingworld.com/events-2/how-to-watch-paris-2024-olympic-sailing-competition-152194
Some pics of the RS Aero 6/9 Nationals at Felpham SC, nearly all are by Jonathon Bailey @jonathan.2442. Read the full event report.
Sailors and boats are gathering on the beach and starting to launch.
There were around 60 boats in all, the day one starts were tricky in the very light winds with a short start line. This contributed to a good number of general recalls.
Continue reading “Felpham May 2024”I’ve been joining the Poole Yacht Club ILCA / Aero fleet on Saturdays so far this year as my local club does no racing over the Winter. The Saturday format is a micro regatta of five short back-to-back races which is great for practising starts.
I’m enjoying sailing in Poole Harbour again and it’s been fun to have different tides to play in.
This was a great start to the year and I finished just under halfway down the fleet which was an open event personal best. There’s a separate Starcross Steamer post.
Last Sunday saw the first race and first open event of 2023, the Starcross Steamer, a handicap pursuit race on the Exe estuary in the UK.
Pursuit races are a great fun race format. All boat classes have a handicap, the race has a fixed length (e.g. 150 mins), slower boats start first, faster boats later with the idea being everyone is trying to catch up to and overtake everyone else. After the fixed race time, the race is stopped, and positions are taken by the safety boats.
It was an early start to the day, and we were rewarded with some lovely views.
Continue reading “Starcross Steamer Jan 2023”Looking back, 2022 was a great year on the water. My main sailing goal for the year was to compete in the RS Aero Championships, a five day event. The months of training were a success and I managed all five days.
I took part in the RS Aero Europeans this Summer, a five-day event held at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA), the venue for sailing during the 2012 Olympics. This event was part of the epic RS Games.
I was training up to this one all year, and it was an amazing week with five days of fantastic racing. I learned so much, not just from the racing but from the chats off the water, and fellow sailors offering advice and tips.
There’s a good write-up in Yachts and Yachting and some footage on Youtube (RS Games days 12-16). Here are some of my pictures.
The 7s coming back on day four.
There’s something special about sailing in Weymouth and seeing those rings. The whole place had the most amazing atmosphere.
2012 Laser Radial Gold medalist Xu Lijia sailed an RS Aero 5 and gave a Q & A session one day on downwind sailing, you could hear a pin drop as she talked.
Days one to three, were pretty windy (F5-6). This was day two, racing started at 11am.
Sail World write up. This was my first open of the year, three back to back races in the Solent at Lymington Town Sailing Club.
I was in a small Aero 9 fleet and happy with how things went. There wasn’t too much fleet separation and the last one was quite tight racing.
Klaus Harris 