Qualifying for the Worlds
Phew! After sailing the worst two Qualifiers for many years: 6th at Stokes Bay (proving that you should not have two bad results in a two discard series) and 4th at Highcliffe (where I was just two point off second) I still managed to get my spot for the World Championships thanks to event wins at both Lowestoft and Torbay last year, but I guess I had better get my act together for the rest of the season!
The Radial Worlds in 2009 is being held in Karatsu, Japan. Co-incidentally my first ever World Championship was held in Japan (once again in the Laser Radial) in 1994… 15 years ago! I was still a Youth then, sailing the Laser standard rig (but as I did not qualify to go to the Standard Worlds that year I went to the Radial ones instead which at that time were open entry).
I initially sailed the Laser Standard rig (before realizing I was never going to be big enough and therefore I changed to the Radial). I was in the RYA Youth Squad in 1994, and 1995. I came second at the Youth Nationals in 1995 (held at Largs) and was therefore Ben Ainslie’s training partner (and reserve) for the IYRU (now ISAF) Youth World Championship (the only event other than the Olympics where it is just one sailor per country).
I was sponsored by Brut while campaigning the Laser for a spot at the 1996 Olympics (which Ben Ainslie took) and continued to sail Lasers after I finished Youth. However my plan for my 2012 campaign was to race the Tornado. However as it stands this has been taken out of the Olympics, which seems a great shame when the IOC (International Olympic Committee) is asking to make sailing more media friendly, and then ISAF (The International Sailing Federation) remove the fastest boat in the sport.
However there is a glimmer of hope as ISAF have their mid-year meeting next month. So hopefully this will come under discussion. The problem is, only issues which are classified as urgent will be discussed, but I can not really think of a more urgent issue! So I will continue to sail single handers for the time being but watch this space…
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