Sam Goodchild Sailing

After a long weeks work on the Class 40 we were finally measured and the boat was ready for the owner to take it back to Germany. I learnt a lot of useful information about the measurements that are taken and how they are done which, was very interesting and useful. Now, my plan is to complete the work that needs doing on the Match Racing boats at Farmoor. Then there is lots of training to do, both for our team and also some practise for the Abingdon school team in preparation for there schools nationals next month.

In the next couple weeks I am flying out to Antigua to complete a delivery back to the UK on a different Class 40. I’m looking forward to going offshore again in a relatively new and competitive boat.  Final plans have not been made yet but, we will leave at the end of the month and it will talk a few weeks.

Once I get back, we are going to carry on doing some more Match racing events, if we can get funding we will do some more events in mainland Europe but otherwise, we will do the British Qualifiers, leading up to The Governers Cup in July and then Hopefully the Nationals in October.

Sam

Over the weekend, I went to the Solo Sailing Festival at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club which proved to be very useful. There were presentations and talks from most of the leading designers and sailors from the offshore racing classes including the Mini Transat, Figaro, Class 40 and the Imoca 60’s.

I also got a chance to speak to some of the top sailors in these classes and get some advice about running a successful campaign. Which will help with my Mini Transat Campaign.

At the moment, I am planning the events that I am aiming to do for this season, with a variety of racing, mostly offshore and Match Racing. Also, I am helping the members of my Match racing team to prepare for the NSSA Match Racing Championships next month so that they can hopefully win. 

At the same time as trying to find a title Sponsor for my campaign, I am also looking for donations that can help with the initial cost of the Boat, to get me on the water and racing.

Sam

After two days travelling we have finally arrived back in the UK. Thank You very much to everyone who helped with our trip to this event, especially my crew, Tom Altmann and Nick Wilkinson who with out, this wouldn’t have been possible.

We have learnt a lot from this trip and now know what we have to improve on for the upcoming events through the year. We will now get strait back into training for the British Qualifiers and the Governors cup and hopefully some events in mainland Europe.

Over the weekend I completed my RYA Sea Survival Course, this now means along with a medical I can commercially endorse my Yacht Master Ocean as well is it is one of the Qualifications I needed for competing in the Mini Transat Class.

There is still more work to do with the Match racing Boats based at Farmoor so we can get the best out of training on them, then we are going go through our options for the events we can do this year.

Sam