2025 Kicks Off with ILCA Success for GP Watercraft
by GP Watercraft 18 Mar 2025 10:30 GMT
GP Watercraft's Shaun Priestley coaching © GP Watercraft
GP Watercraft, the performance coaching company led by Shaun Priestley, has had a brilliant start to 2025 with ILCA sailors both internationally and in the UK.
The training schedule has been as busy as ever, the year starting with a three-week training block where the ILCA 6 Olympic team from Hong Kong joined Adriana Penruddocke in Bermuda for some time on the water. The venue was Usail Bermuda, and with 1-3m sea swell and wind on all-but-one day, it was an epic training environment for the sailors.
February saw the US Sailing Series mid-winter championships in St Petersburg, Florida. This meant training in Bermuda with GP Watercraft for Sebastian Kempe (ILCA 7) and Adriana Penruddocke (ILCA 6) for three weeks beforehand. Preparation then moved to the Melges Watersports Center in Merrit Island, Florida, with more training after the championships.
The sailors achieved excellent results, with Seb claiming 1st place out of 47 boats, and qualifying for the Junior Pan American Games.
Adrianna had 3 finishes in the top 10, 4th being her highest place, finishing 26th out of 150 overall.
In addition, Matteo Bertacchi (ILCA 7, Italy) was training with GP Watercraft coach Rory Wilson in Vilamoura, Portugal, ahead the Grand Prix regatta. It paid off with him finishing 12th out of 84 in the event.
Back in the UK, the ILCA UK East regional group has been growing in numbers and GP Watercraft is proud to support the region. Unfortunately there was no wind at the Brightlingsea weekend, so the time was spent working on boat set-up, calibrations with theoretical conversations and video analysis in the classroom.
The following Eastern region February weekend at Grafham was again great with big numbers for the ILCA 6 and ILCA 4 fleets. Two long days in chilly conditions enabled the sailors to put the theory into practice - the focus starting to shift from technique and set-up into racing exercises.
In addition, Royal Hospital School supported the Eastern region training, bringing along a group of ILCA 6 sailors to join the action.
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