Happy New Year!

What a year 2019. Time really has flown by and it is hard to believe we are now in a new decade and finally in the year of the Tokyo Olympics.

There are many exciting events in the pipeline this year, the first being the RYA Dinghy Show 2020, held at Alexandra Palace, in London. I will be hosting alongside Sarah Ayton OBE on the 29th February - 1st March so make sure you do come along and have a look around at what the show has to offer.

*Above:*Sarah Ayton OBE and I at the photoshoot for the RYA Dinghy Show 2020.

Since my last blog post a lot has been going on - but unfortunately not much sailing! On the 15th November I had an operation on my toes to solve some serious ingrown toenail problems. Anyone who has experienced this before will tell you how annoying and painful they are and unfortunately I was plagued in 2019 with multiple, long episodes of pain. It is funny how something so small can cause so much pain.

After struggling in October & November, I moved my operation date forward to November 15th and went under the knife as soon as I could.

The op went smoothly and that evening I was discharged and taken back home, where I was told to put my feet up as much as possible - something I really struggle to do.

After an agonisingly slow week I returned back to the gym and soon got back to work. Luckily I hadn’t lost any fitness and recognising that I wouldn’t be able to sail for a month or two, the upcoming block was a perfect time to improve my strength and fitness. I soon set about working hard in the gym and on the bike.

Alongside my big fitness push, I had ample free time on my hands so I finally could start on some projects that I otherwise would never have time to do. The first one of these was to create a mount for my Laser which would house my compass and watch. Finding the right place for a watch on the Laser has always felt a bit awkward for me and I never felt comfortable with having it on the mast/boom/anywhere for that matter.

As part of my work experience with Actisense over the summer I had worked with the team there to design and 3D print my own compass mount, see the picture below:

Whilst this 3D printed version was exactly how I hoped it would be, after sailing with it for a few times it became apparent that I would need to make some tweaks to the design to make it perfect.

So I set about on a big project; to remake this compass mount in an updated design and out of carbon fibre. Having never worked with carbon fibre before (but hearing plenty of horror stories about it) I was a bit apprehensive but determined to teach myself how learn all about its properties and how I could then make my carbon mount as strong and light as possible.

The first stage was the physically adapt the old, 3D printed model. This meant cutting it up, and then refilling and shaping bits with the white filler you can see on the below picture.

After applying a few coats of varnish to create a smooth surface finish I was all set to start adding the carbon fibre with epoxy. It really was a fine art to get the right mixture, but slowly I started to build up the layers correctly to resemble something like I wanted…

To hold my watch, I had to make a separate part. Actisense 3D printed a mockup of my sailing watch, which I then had to wrap in carbon to create the right shape for that part.

After laying 3 layers of carbon down, I took the project to my friend Laurence Lloyd Jones. Together we spent almost 8 hours drilling holes, cutting the mould away and sanding down the finish to get it to a workable state.

I then used a hole saw to cut out the gap for the watch holder.

And here was when it all was pieced together to see if it all fits nicely.

The next stage was to epoxy in the carbon tubes (for my Laser control lines and elastic etc.) add the bottom plate and seal the unit before employing a substantial sanding process to get it to a perfect finish.

And here is the finished product! After putting in quite a few hours, I am super happy with the finish and how well she works on the boat. No tangled control lines and easy visibility of both the watch and the compass makes me believe I will have a unique advantage on the world circuit.

After a pretty serene few weeks at home healing, in early December I was off to Southampton to load my boat onto the British Sailing Team trailer, heading to Europe for winter training and the start of the 2020 season. The pic below shows our trailer fully loaded ready to go.

A couple of days later, I followed the trailer and flew out to our winter training base, Vilamoura, Portugal.

Arriving in Vilamoura I was greeted with nice sunny skies and 20 degree temperatures - another world compared to the weather in the UK.

Unfortunately I still wasn’t completely ready to sail at this stage - so to reduce the risk of any infections and ensure I was 100% ready to sail by the the start of 2020, I had to sit out and watch from the rib all week.

It was, however, an interesting perspective to watch all the sailing going on from the rib.

Above: My teammate Dan Whiteley heading out for sailing.

11 days later and with Christmas looming, it was time to fly home.

However, still unable to sail, I was full of energy and got straight back into plenty of cycling. Around Dorset there are some cracking mountain biking route and over the years I have really taken to the challenge that off-roading brings. I went mountain biking almost 10 times over the Christmas and new year period in some pretty tricky (and typically English wet!) conditions.

*Above:*Overlooking Swanage on my mountain biking route.

Over Christmas I also took on a new project - updating the UK Laser Association website. The old website had been up for almost 20 years and with the UKLA committee looking to upgrade, I volunteered to make it for them. Go check out my work on www.laser.org.uk

And just like that 2019 was over and it was another amazing year, filled with great opportunities and surrounded by some pretty cool people. Some of my year highlights include:

• Travelling, training and competing in over 7 countries all over Europe and the World.
• Flying across the pond to America, twice, to sail against some of the best in the world.
• Sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Winning the Laser Nationals for the second year in a row.
• Achieving a disappointing, but still solid, top 40 at the Europeans.
• Sailed at my first Waszp event - the nationals - and finished 4th.
• Raced against the best of the best at the Endeavour Trophy, finishing 4th - a new PB
• Sailed in a Moth for the first time.
• Sailing in an Optimist for the second time!
• Witnessed countless incredible sunsets.
• Designed and made my own 3D printed/carbon compass/watch mount.
• Finished 6 years of slow progress building my own design of sailboat. It actually worked.
• Sailed a foiling Nacra for the first time in 20 knots.
• Selected to host the RYA Dinghy Show 2020 alongside multiple Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ayton.
• Had an operation to remove some annoying toenails!
• Put on 2kg of muscle and smashed my year on year fitness test scores.

2020

Just a few days after the New Year, I was straight back onto a plane heading to Portugal for the first sail of the year - and my first sail for nearly two months as I had been out of action following my op. Arriving at the airport, I managed to get a great little deal to hire a car for the 11 days we were there.

*Above:*Our hire car - a Fiat Panda. Love ‘em.

The very next day I was out riding with the lads. It felt great to be riding around and being actually able to feel your fingers, unlike what i had grown accustomed to back in the UK over Christmas..

And for the first time in too long, I finally got back to sailing again. Despite being out of the boat for so long I got back in pretty quickly and seemed to be back up to speed in next to no time.

8 days of solid sailing later and the first training camp of the year was over. The good news was I was still in one piece, with the toes holding up nicely.

One happy chap.

On Wednesday I flew back to Bournemouth to get home before we had Youth Squad training over the last two days. We had some unusually light wind conditions in Weymouth (it’s normally cold, wet and 25mph winds this time of year) and had some epic racing with the younger up and coming guys.
Whats next? Well on Wednesday I fly back out to Vilamoura where it is full send into the next coached training camp. T - 17 days until I fly to Australia to compete at the Worlds!

Thanks for reading.

Sam