Insurance4dinghies sponsored sailor Scott Wallis blog #9

A busy time for Insurance4dinghies sponsored sailor Scott Wallis © Graham Wallis

March and April blog from Insurance4dinghies sponsorship winner Scott Wallis

In March and April, there were lots of training weekends and competitions, including the remainder of the GBR selection series.

Our first outing was a freezing weekend down at Weymouth, for training, on the 3rd and 4th of March. There was a mixture of wind strengths and it got quite windy on Sunday but it was still a good weekend. We relished the opportunity to get out in some stronger winds for a change and it was useful boat handling practice.

On the 17th and 18th March, we travelled to Weymouth for the second weekend of racing in the selection series. The conditions were perfect for us and after a good result at the first selection weekend, we were hopeful that we might hang on to a place in the World's team, but things didn't go so well and we finished the weekend below where we needed - leaving ourselves quite a lot to do at the RYA Youth Champs in April.

Prior to the Youths, at the end of March, there was a Youth Squad weekend up in Pwllheli. The weather was amazing - it was very hot - but unfortunately there was no wind. We used the time to prepare the boat for the Youth Champs and left the boat up in Wales ready for the Youth Champs there during the first week of April.

We started the Youths in great shape, leading around the first mark and gaining a second place in the first race. But during the week it became very windy and we didn't manage to remain competitive on the very windy days so our Series didn't go well. Despite a big effort towards the end of the week, we didn't manage to qualify for either the World or European teams this year. However, we will travel to Brittany in July to compete at the French Nationals.

We qualified for the Youth Squad again, so will be training prior to the French Nationals. We had to skip one training weekend in order to make time for our revision programme ahead of GCSEs. In mid April we raced at the Poole Open Meeting. There were not very many sailors there - I think many were focussing on revision - but it was a very enjoyable event with good racing in great wind. We finished second overall.

We're looking forward to getting lots of practice time during the summer and to competing in France and at the British Nationals. I'd like to thank Towergate Insurance for their sponsorship, which has been really helpful.

All the best
Scott

Scott Wallis is sponsored by insurance4dinghies after winning their £2000 sponsorship package competition.