Wow, what a month. After a very eventful July at the Worlds and Europeans it was nice to be back home in Swanage with lots of time to enjoy the British summer and get back into training.
Check out my story of the past month in the pictures below:
I resumed my training back down in Weymouth almost immediately with the Podium and Podium Potential squads. It was really great training against the double world champion and all the guys. Lots of learning took place!
Summer is great back home in Swanage with lots of activities going on. After years of clashes and being away I finally was able to be around during carnival week and had a great time. Here is a picture from one afternoon watching the Red Arrows perform, shame I couldn't be sailing at the same time!
I then was around for RNLI week and entered into the build-a-boat challenge. 4 hours, 1 sheet of plywood, 30 screws, 30 nails and a whole lot of duct tape later and I had a boat to race across the bay! Unfortunately I finished second but I hope to be back next year with a better design for more.
R.I.P Swifto. After being evicted from the family house Swifto unfortunately met the end at the local tip.
Anyway back to proper sailing! As well as my training in my Laser I organised a group of friends to sail the Waszp down in Weymouth. I was happy to find the Waszp fits perfectly on my corsa roof.
On the water rabbit run with Stu on the other Waszp in Weymouth. I did get rolled from here!
It was awesome to finally line up against another Waszp, race around Portland and then let the lads have a go at their first foiling experience.
Check out the video from the Waszp session above! Pretty happy to pull off a relatively slick foiling gybe on camera.
After my hard days training in Weymouth it was nice to go home, take a walk and reflect on the day gone by. When met with sunsets like this it really makes me appreciate where I live.
On Saturday 19th August I volunteered to help out at the Upton House Parkrun. It was awesome to be involved in this wonderful community activity and I was impressed with the enthusiasm and friendliness I encountered. I really would recommend everyone to go to one of these and see what its like, whether you want to get into running or just want to experience the lovely Upton Country Park. It's fun, free and I definitely will be back to run myself soon!
I've also recently got into 18 hole putting at the local Beach Gardens in the evenings after sailing and have enjoyed many a round with my brother Ben. We're not great (yet) but we are getting better! The Masters 2030?
After sailing the RS Aero only a handful of times I headed up to Reading on my holidays to compete in the Aero Youth Nationals. The 9 rig was very interesting to sail but at my 80kg I struggled keep the boat driving and felt quite over-powered in only 12 knots, leaving me thinking that a 7 might be better suited to me. Still it was a very, very fun event and although we didn't have any wind on the Sunday I had some epic battles over 6 races on Saturday with the likes of Ed Higson, Ben Rolfe and the rest of the fleet.
There was a slight bit of confusion over the final results but I am pleased to say I am RS Aero 9 Youth National Champion!
A couple of weeks later I headed to Hayling Island Sailing Club for the actual RS Aero National Championships where there was a huge 114 entries across the three rigs, with 73 in the 7 rig. Having been quite over-powered in the 9 at the Youth Nats I decided to enter in a 7 rig instead and after coaching the fleet the day before racing I watched with interest what the top guys were doing in the Challenge Cup, the practice race with a reward at the end of it! I was itching to sail but it was very fun and rewarding sharing tips with the rest of the fleet, I hope it made their racing better.
After 3 days of intense and close racing, especially with my brother Ben, I was very pleased and honoured to win the RS Aero 7 Nationals! We had a wide range of conditions, very light winds on day 1, light to medium winds on day 2 and finally some windy weather sailing on day 3.
Whatever the weather conditions I was loving sailing the Aero. It was so light, responsive and fun to sail. Always had a smile on my face!
Congratulations to my little bro Ben for coming second, Kristo for 3rd and having some insane downwind speed, Steve C for coming 4th with his super quick windy weather speed and Steve Norbury who was very consistent at being up there with an impressive last race.
Awesome to have won this great trophy!
So what next for me? Well tomorrow I fly out to the senior Laser World Championships, to be held next week in Split, Crotia. Really looking forward to sailing against some of the best sailors in the world and giving it my all.
For regular updates about next week follow my Twitter @samwhaleygbr and Instagram @samwhaley97
I'll let you know how I get on!
Thanks,
Sam
