Olivia concentrates as the winds prove difficult to master

To qualify for a grant to the worlds, my helm Becky and I had to take part in two weekends of racing in different parts of the country. The first weekend was at Brightlingsea, in Essex. The weather was excellent; it was sunny and there was a reasonable amount of wind which made it perfect for racing in. We sailed well in most of the races and received pretty good results on the first day, except for a mid-afternoon race where the wind moved round one hundred and eighty degrees which shifted us from second place into sixth. Overall, for that weekend we came sixth, so were quite confident about the weekend to come. This next weekend took place at Ullswater, in the Lake District. This lake was very difficult to sail on as the wind channelled through the hills which made the lake gusty and the wind shifted a lot. On the first day we weren’t sailing too badly, but on the second day we didn’t do as well and our overall result for both weekends dropped down to twelfth. I am very pleased with this result, and recently, we have been offered a grant to the worlds! The worlds will take place in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and it promises warm weather, good winds and waves. I’m very excited as this is a great opportunity for us and an experience that I’ll never forget. Fingers crossed!

Olivia and her helm Becky with their cups