Every year in sailing is different but follows much the same pattern. Winter academies, springs, March qualifiers, travellers, summer racing, October qualifiers, winter championships, academies. Rinse and repeat.
I wouldn’t want it any other way but this year, in amongst the normal events, I got to do something a little different.
My 2019 season was relatively more quiet than usual. I was trying to finish off my last year at school and get the grades I needed to go to university so I focussed more on events early in the year and usually only the ones that were at weekends.
It was also quieter because in the summer, instead of my usual two or sometimes three weeks of sailing, I skipped the UK national championships for three weeks in Canada to compete in the U19 Radial Youth World Championships instead.
Without a doubt, Canada was one of the best opportunities that sailing has been able to offer me.
My parents, my brother, one of my closest friends and I flew out to Toronto together. We spend a day there exploring the city before heading up to Kingston where the event was taking place.
There were 16 of us there who were representing Great Britain. For the week before the event started we took some time getting our boats sorted out after their long journey to Canada and getting used to the venue in a training situation.
The event itself was six days of perfect weather conditions, beautiful sunshine and decent wind which allowed us to get two races in every day with no hassle.
It was one of the best events I have ever competed in and hands down the best event of 2019. I can only hope that something even close to it might come up in 2020.
Team GBRn't 