News
Very excited to announce Sailing Chandlery as a new sponsor to my Olympic sailing campaign! 😃
Sailing Chandlery are an online chandlery with great prices, fast delivery and are now even an authorised Laser dealer! Check out their website: www.sailingchandlery.com
Upon finishing my successful first ever world cup I then made my way straight to La Rochelle in the team van, ready to prepare for the upcoming Laser Europeans, one of the biggest events of the year.
Getting straight back into training once we arrived we were greeted with some of the craziest on the water conditions I have ever sailed in. Massive pressure differences, 60 degree shifts and variable tides meant it really was an exciting build up to the event!
Racing was like a game of snakes and ladders.
Exiting a tack in training. Really need to work on my facial expressions!
A busy start line in training.
After 4 days on the water training I finally felt ready to go out and give it everything.
But first a rest day! And what better way than to go and explore the beautiful city of La Rochelle celebrating Nick Thompson's birthday.
La Rochelle City
La Rochelle City
Finally race day was here! We had some awesome conditions...
... and I got some awesome starts!....
.... a trend which continued throughout the week.
Despite my good starts I didn't sail to my full potential as I struggled to really understand the conditions. I qualified for gold fleet and set myself the task of moving up through the fleet. Whist my starting wasn't quite as good I still had some great moments and finished in 48th overall and 34th European.
So the Europeans finished and luckily this year it didn't require a trip to hospital! It was very nice to have had some great starts but disappointing to just miss my target of top 30 European. I know, however, that this will sort me out very well for the rest of the season and am looking forward to putting the hammer down.
Lovely sunset over the Isle of Wight viewed from the ferry on the way home.
128 Likes, 3 Comments - Sam 🐳 (@samwhaley97) on Instagram: "First Waszp sail in a while 😎 #foilinggybe #waszp #sailing #chill #easy #swanage #sunset..."
It's great to finally be home after being away for almost 2 months and even better that the weather is now completely different - it's actually summer! As you can see from the video above I've been enjoying sailing the Waszp a bit as well as really putting a lot of effort in at the gym and on the bike exploring the beautiful Purbeck countryside.
Next up for me is Medemblik Regatta, in Holland, on Sunday where I will be away for a week. Really looking forward to getting back at it!
Thanks for reading,
Sam
After flying home from Palma, going straight up to one of the Noble Marine Qualifiers in sunny Pwllheli (where I finished 2nd overall) and then coming home for a quick 12 hour pitstop it was time for me to head off back to Europe once again; this time for my first ever sailing world cup, held in Hyeres from the 24th-30th April. Read about my journey from leaving Palma below:
A lovely sunrise greeted me in Palma as my plane was about to take off.
I flew home and got straight back into my car, driving up to Pwllheli in North Wales for one of the World and European Noble Marine qualifiers. We had a wide range of conditions from light stuff on Saturday to a bit more breeze on Sunday leading to some very tight and exciting racing. In the end I finished 2nd overall.
Returning back to Swanage a day of perfect winds tempted my coach and I to head down Weymouth for some WASZP sailing. Unfortunately whilst he suffered minor 'technical' issues I still managed to find someone to race against, Sam Ross on his foil windsurfer! It was fair to say in those light conditions he definitely had the edge!
The very next day I was off on my way to the Hyeres world cup, flying from Southampton with a quick stopover at Geneva before my final destination of Nice and a short car journey to Hyeres.
It was very hot when I arrived in Hyeres and I quickly realised how well run and organised the World Cup program is. It really did seem like the perfect event!
Meanwhile on the accommodation front we managed to bag ourselves an amazing villa in the hills for a ridiculously low price. It was amazing been ale to go for a morning swim everyday ready for sailing!
The media coverage out at the World Cup was insane and it was amazing to see all the hard work going into the event. I got more photos taken than ever before!
Racing started in some lovely 7-13 knot winds with sizeable sea state.
After day one I was lying in 8th overall - not bad for my first ever world cup!
The week progressed with some very light and tricky winds.
I had some great moments...
... and some big learnings along the way.
At the end of the 5 day competition I finished in a respectable 42nd overall and 27th European sailor. Not bad for my first world cup but I knew I had potential to be many, many places higher.
Checking out of our accommodation on the final morning before leaving to drive to La Rochelle for Laser Europeans preparation.
Overall I had a great time at the Hyeres World Cup and it really did massively help me in my preparation for the Laser Euros. Read about how that went in my next post!
Sam
Hi all,
Long time no post! Been incredibly busy over the past two months going from competition to competition in one big European tour. Now I'm finally back home in England for more than 12 hours I've got some time to write up about my progress over the last few months starting off with Princess Sofia Regatta, held in Palma de Mallorca. Read all about it below:
Just before leaving to go to Palma the UK experienced some pretty weird and wacky weather conditions, with freezing snow and ice descending to the usually warm south coast. Unfortunately this meant no sailing (again) but at least we could still get outside and do some form of fitness pushing giant snowballs up hill!
Swanage covered in snow.
On my final few days in the UK the weather cleared and normal life resumed. I had great fun one Saturday doing a Parkrun at Upton house with the family.
The sailing club with the snow clear.
All the bad weather meant I had a bit more spare time and I was able to create this custom carbon fibre compass mount for my Laser, thanks to Neaves Rowing Services Limited who helped me make this.
Finally I was off to Palma!
Arriving there I was greeted with the classic Mallorca sun and some great wind. A couple of days training and I felt ready for racing.
Unfortunately after a promising start I had one bad day which put me back into silver fleet, a real disappointment.
At least we had some stunning backdrops to our racing!
I sailed well on the windy day of racing.
Difficult racing in Palma. Whilst I didn't finish the regatta as well as I hoped I knew what I had to do to improve and the fire inside was definitely burning!
Reflecting on the week on the last night before the P3 training camp started the following day.
No time to rest as we went straight into a group P3 training regatta. We had some fantastic conditions in a wide range of weather, here is an example of some of the nicer stuff!
Classic Palma light winds & chop.
Our last day of training was MASSIVE. 20-25 knots of wind, sometimes more, with huge swell rolling into the bay. Check out this short clip below of one big wave I encountered on this day!
293 Likes, 9 Comments - Sam 🐳 (@samwhaley97) on Instagram: "BIG day in the boat ⛵️😮😂 @britishsailing #lasersailing #waves #windy #huge #trainhardfighteasy"
Unfortunately when our planned ferry was cancelled our coach was forced to leave a day early with our boats meaning we had a day free to explore the island.
A small group of us decided to climb the highest open peak on Mallorca, a very scenic and wonderful 5 hour trek with some spectacular views.
So overall a very informative trip full of many learnings and experiences. There were highs and lows but overall I had a great time and there is nothing more satisfying than progress. Onto the next one!
Sam
Got back from Mallorca yesterday morning and went down to Weymouth to help my coach set up his new boat - a Waszp! We had great conditions to learn all about the boat and some epic moments of foiling. Here are 30 seconds of highlights:
Full report on my training coming up soon!
Sam
