Sam Goodchild Sailing

Safe and Sound

Sam Goodchild — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:54:59 +0000

Firstly, apologies for the over due update. After 19 days at sea, we finally sailed into Southampton earlier this week. Throughout the trip we had a big variety of conditions. We started off upwind, into 20 knots of trade winds, then that slowly died away and we ended up motoring for a a night. It then slowly built again on the beam and we we’re reaching and then beating in very light winds. Shortly after that the wind built and we had a few days with the spinnaker up, regularly reaching speeds in the high teens and early twenties. About a week out, we had the hardest part of the trip where, for 4 full days we were tight reaching int 25-30 knots of wind, with regular squalls. Even though we were making good average speeds, almost every other wave was coming over the deck, which made being on watch a bit more miserable, especailly combined with the cold. So, the trip finished with a fast gennaker run into lands end and then a final 24 hours of motoring.

During the trip I learnt a lot about sailing these types of boats and a lot about the limits of where to push myself and the boats, to get the best out of them. There were also a few memorable moments, including one of the days where we averaged over 14 knots for 14 hours and hit a top speed of 23knots. Then a couple nights later when we spent an hour trying to get a spinnaker down at 4 o’clock in the morning, because it had got itself wrapped around the forestay.

The next planned event now is the 3 peaks race and the preceding 2weeks for the preparation. I am also, in the process of arranging my plans for the rest of this Month. Will now try and keep the updates regular again.

Sam

Delayed Progress

Sam Goodchild — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 13:38:57 +0000

Unfortunately for various reasons, we are not going to leave for about another week. The skipper comes out to the boat early next week and then we will be heading off shortly afterwards. Even though its a pain, it has also given us a chance to sort out all the stuff that is on the boat a give it a clean.

At the moment, the Azores high is quite far north and, if it stays this way we will end up having to travel a lot further to get back to England. Therefore, our departure may depend on the forecasts of what is supposed to happen with that high pressure system. The aim will be to head north and go around the edge of this system, hopefully but unlikely, with the wind behind us as much as possible.

So far we have no definite leaving date but, are hoping to leave as soon as reasonably possible. For this delivery, we are going to have a lot of stuff on the boat which will slow us down a little but we are still hoping to make a fast crossing, possibly with a stopoff in the Azores to restock, depending on the route we end up taking.

Sam

Update

Sam Goodchild — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:55:45 +0000

Plans are starting to come together for this seasons sailing. By next week I will be in Antigua preparing this Class 40 for the crossing back. And, hopefully we will leave at the beginning of April providing the weather is looking kind. My plan is to then do as many of the RORC offshore races as I can and hopfully, by then we will have some of our Match Racing funding in place and we can start competing instead of training.

Over the weekend we had the two Match Racing boats at Oxford Sailing Club on the water and we’re doing some racing against Abingdon Schools NSSA team, helmed by our Match Racing teams bowman, Nick Wilkinson. We mostly focused on pre-start but, noticed the boats were very unequal which, puzzled us all day untill we came to winding up the keels and found out that one of them hadn’t been wound down.

A lot of the final plans for the events this season have not been finalised yet but, there are lots of options and hopefully it will be a successful one. I also hope to do some of the Mini Transat events with my own boat or crewing for another boat if I am unable to get use of one myself.

Sam

Offshore Again

Sam Goodchild — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:34:37 +0000

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

Season Beginning

Sam Goodchild — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:43:12 +0000

Over the weekend I joined 12 of the other RYA keelboat squad members for the first training weekend this season aboard the tp52, John Merricks II. We had a very positive two days sailing, being able to keep the boat under control, most of the time. We were fortunate enough to be joined by a couple professional sailors who were able to teach us all a lot, especially my self. Even though this is not the type of sailing I enjoy the most, it is still very exciting and definately worth while, due to how much I learnt.

For this week, I am working aboard a newly launched Class 40. The boat is being measured later in the week and then it is sailing to Germany. So, it is going to be a busy week where I should learn a lot especially about the measuring and testing of offshore racing yachts.

The sailing season is now rapidly getting underway with more and more boats on the water and racing each weekend. My main aim for the season, is to get my Mini Transat campaign up and running. In the meantime I am aiming to get as much more short handed and offshore sailing as I can by competing in the RORC races as well as hopefully the double handed fastnet. We also plan to attend many more match racing events with the hope of improving our ISAF ranking and going to some higher graded events.

Sam

Solo Racing Festival

Sam Goodchild — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:52:54 +0000

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

Back Again

Sam Goodchild — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:15:38 +0000

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

Too little, Too late

Sam Goodchild — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:01:58 +0000

Finally for the third day we had some lighter, but shifty, wind, which much more suited our light weight crew. Today the Play-Offs and the Semi-finals were completed. Unfortunately we missed out on the 5th-6th Play-offs by one point and were forced to sail in the 7th-8th play off. Where we managed a comfortable 2-0 win over the other team.

The event has now come to an end for us, despite a disappointing result, of 7th place, we were fairly happy with our performance, especially in the second half of the event. Unfortunately we only became competitive too late in the to make a significant difference to our result, but we have learnt some very valuable lessons that we can now take forward to get some better results in the future.

The three of us would like to say thank you very much to all the support we have received from everyone, both financially and morally. Also good luck to the finalists for tomorrows racing.

Sam

Finding a Groove

Sam Goodchild — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:15:30 +0000

Day 2 ending up being another very windy day of racing with, winds regularly reaching over 25knots. Through the morning we had quite a few successful pre-starts but then seemed to loose our advantage on the upwind legs and unfortunately lost some more races. After Race four, we racked our brains on how we could improve our upwind speed and, with a few pointers from the local coach, we managed to sort this out and fortunately managed to win all of our 3 races in the afternoon.

Disappointingly for us all we found this groove a little late in the event, for a boat we had previously not sailed before, and have missed the semi-finals but, are confident we have a good shot at battling the others for our best possible result.

Well, with only the weekend left of racing, hopefully it will bring good races and results.

Sam

Team Goodchild do Match Racing battle Down Under

Sam Goodchild — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 17:40:05 +0000

RYA Press Release:

Two young RYA Keelboat Squad sailors will be bidding to show the big boat sailing world they are ones to watch for the future at the National Bank Youth International Match Racing Championships this week.

The invitation-only event in Auckland, New Zealand is considered one of the most prestigious events on the World youth match racing calendar.

And Southern Squad duo Sam Goodchild and Nick Wilkinson are putting their skills to the test against seven other top young international crews at the regatta, which got underway in the early hours of Thursday morning UK time (12 February).

Skipper Goodchild, 19, and 17-year-old Wilkinson, both member of Oxford Sailing Club, were part of the team that romped to RYA National Youth Match Racing glory last summer, emphatically claiming the title without dropping a single race over the three day event.

In taking National victory, Team Goodchild are now also in pole position to represent Britain at the 2009 Governor’s CupInternational Junior Match Racing Championship in California this summer.

The National Bank Youth International Match Racing Championships runs until Sunday 15 February.