Aimee Qualifies for World Championship 

Well, what a week!! One of the worst and best weeks of my life. The worst because one of my closest friend's mum suddenly lost her fight against cancer at the age of 40. 

One of the best because The Welsh National Radial Squad consisting of 10 sailors all got into the Gold fleet of 55 of the top Youths in the country. There where 110 competitors.Our eleventh squad member Freddie was abroad skiing. The sun was shining and the first two days were windy and gusty. We had to sail 3 miles to get to the race course and more importantly 3 miles back after 3 hard races in about 20-24 knots gusting over 30. It was a team effort with Bleddyn Mon leading the competition until the final days racing when light shifty winds pushed his position to 4th.

Another 6 members of the Welsh Squad who normaly sail 4.7 lasers did extremely well in their first Radial competition especially in the heavy winds.

David Pain was first in the Silver fleet .

Personally I was very pleased with my position although I came 54th in Gold, I was 10th girl overall and managed in individual races to beat older sailors in the Gold fleet that I have always aspired to sail against. In one race I was first girl. Another satisfying result was that I succeeded to beat my 3 friends who had been chosen ahead of me for GBR Transitional Squad at Christmas. All 3 of them were in Silver fleet.

Each Gold fleet sailor had GPS trackers on their boats that transmitted the races live to large screens  at the club and on the internet. You can still view the races on the RYA sites event website under tracking.

Siwan and I had a great time socialising with our sailing friends. We look forward to seeing them again next week at Hayling Island for the Radial European Qualifier. 

Love Aimee