Simon Foskett - 420 sailing in the National Youth Squad
I started sailing competitively at the age of 8, and currently campaign a 420 dinghy. This is a two-man symmetrical spinnaker trapeze boat. I crew and my helm Matt lives on the south coast.
Last October we were invited to join the National Youth squad and have consequently trained most weekends over the winter months. The first major event of the season was the Youth Championships, when we felt as a team we did not perform to our maximum potential but still enjoyed the event.
This was closely followed by the most competitive and challenging events of the year. Two separate events took place, the top placed boats would be offered a position on the GBR Worlds and the GBR European teams.
The first weekend was held in Bala, Wales that was absolutely freezing as the water we sailed on was mainly from the melted snow on the mountaintops. Having never competed at this event before the nerves started kicking in slightly as we arrived, but the reassurance from Matt was most pleasing. Looking back at the weekend, our starts were the strongest they have ever been; port tacking the fleet in all but 1 of the 6 races. Finishing 4th overall and hence in a strong position for the next event, but by no means secure.
The second 3 day event was held at Highcliffe on the south coast, the forecasted light winds were less in our favour as 5th position was being held by a pair 30kg lighter than us. The first day was abandoned due to lack of wind. The second day we consistently were in the top 4 boats. The final day arrived, and the first thing I noticed in the boat park was the fact no one was talking, and you could feel the tension. After each race we were trying to calculate the results we needed to remain in the squad, having only a 5-point cushion lying only just in the euros team, the second to last race took place, managing to increase the gap to 8 points but still not secure.
The pressure started to make me sweat, but then they abandoned the last race!!! This instantly took every little bit of pressure off of us and put a smile on our faces, as we had secured our place in both GBR Worlds and GBR Euros teams. At the end of the Selectors events we were fourth overall. But this didn’t mean we could relax as we had a very intense meeting to attend, to organise the logistics for the World championships in Athens, Greece and the European championships in Zadar, Croatia this summer.
We shall update you on these two events when I get back.