The Qualifiers are by definition the fairest way of qualifying sailors for international events. Selection (someone choosing who gets a place) is always subject to personal opinion, whereas the results speak for themselves. My belief that the cream always rises to the top and 6 events per year achieves this.  Indeed, even at individual regattas there is rarely an unexpected result. Read more...

I should learn to listen to my own good advice! Not only about on the water things like focusing on the fleet, not just one boat but about taking action (it is nearly always best to do things sooner rather than later): It has taken me a long time to sit down and write about the Olympic games because the fresh emotion at the time always makes it hard for me to put my thoughts into words and as the dust settles and time moves on it is surprising what you remember. Now sat in Weymouth with strong winds forcing the cancellation of the first day of racing at the WPNSA Qualifier, I finally seem to have found the time to write. Click to read full article...

When SouthEast Sailboats asked me to write about the runners and riders for the Tokyo2020 Olympics I hardly knew where to start! With just so much uncertainty around this year’s Olympics it is really, really hard to even know where to start, so why not choose World Sailing rankings? [Read more...]

Perhaps there has never been a more difficult Olympic quad, or should that be pent (it has been a 5 rather than 4 years between games) to call out the top performers? With so few competitions in the 2nd half of the Olympic cycle the chances to compare the top sailors head-to-head have been few and far between and the times they raced on the Enoshima Olympic waters against each other is now a distant memory. Sailing is currently a consistency sport and will remain so until we end up with the winner of the last race wins the regatta format (something that incidentally I would not be a fan of). Therefore, changes in the pecking order can take quite some time, so when not sure we can look back to when we had dominate sailors in each class.... [click to read more].

It has been a busy few weeks and as I always say, time flies when you are having fun. Hard work and fun can definitely go “hand in hand” and if you are not enjoying yourself when you are improving performance perhaps you are doing something wrong. This winter I have spent my entire time in the same time zone whether it be UK, Vilamoura or Lanzarote...[click to read more]

Well, now with the cancellation of Semaine Olympique Francaise de Voile in April (The French Olympic week - Hyeres regatta) it looks like I am almost a resident in Lanzarote. I am now eyeing the increasing number of new Covid-19 cases in Bulgaria, where we are meant to have the ILCA Europeans in May and wondering if that regatta will also be cancelled. We have been so lucky here in the Canary Islands where we have been able to continue to race and train in a very safe way.

This year is the 1st year that I have coached at the Lanzarote winter series and I have to say the atmosphere was great. I have always enjoyed being on the Canary Island and everyone was just so grateful to be racing again. It seems such a long time since the European Championships in Poland and with the recent postponement of the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma until October 2nd – 9th no one is quite sure when we will all be back racing again. Indeed, I suspect most of us will stay here to train until our next major regatta…

In this mini-series of articles, we shall be looking at the main sail controls for the Laser. Now whilst some things are personal preference such as, do you prefer an oval or cylindrical tiller extension, there is always a best way of doing things or at the very least an appropriate way to find the best individual solution for you.

We will start with the Outhaul system perhaps because it is often the most neglected control line and it really shouldn’t be. Indeed, in the dim and distance past long before the advent of the XD control lines we have now, the Outhaul was just ran along the boom to the cleat and many people didn’t adjust it all day or at most adjusted it once a leg!