February was busy. It all started with training out in Portugal, then a quick dash home for a few days before heading out to Australia for the senior Laser World Championships, flying home, out to Portugal again, more training, home again, scramble back to the UK to host the RYA Dinghy Show before calming down slightly last week.

Before heading off to the Laser Worlds I did have a few days at home, which were great and made even better by the rain stopping and a bit of sun coming out. Even went for a chilly sunset walk to St Albans Head where I got this great below photo taken:

After a couple of days back home I once again packed my bags and headed to the airport, this time on a bit of a longer trip to Melbourne, Australia, to compete at my second ever senior world championships. The last time I raced at the Laser Worlds was 2017 and was a real eye-opener, so I knew this year was going to be even tougher.

Flying through Dubai was pretty cool, but I soon made it to Melbourne.

… And after a tricky week finished a respectable 64th overall, which I was a tad disappointed with.

Below: prize giving dinner at the Laser Worlds 2020. Right to left: Micky Beckett (right, with gold hair), Elliot Hanson (our new Team GB Tokyo 2020 selected athlete, congrats mate) and Karl Martin Rammo (& family).

So that were the Worlds wrapped up for 2020. I flew home a couple of days after, this time heading straight out to Portugal to resume training.

Why go back to Portugal so early? A lot of people asked me this question and the answer is I love the process. Staying at home and resting whilst my team mates, and ultimately my competitors, trained hard out in sunny Portugal just didn’t sit right with me.

Training in Portugal brought a wide variety of conditions but for a change this winter we actually had some good wind and warm temperatures.

Above: Looking stormy.

Below: Messing about on the tow home.

A few days in we started a mini regatta to test how we were lining up after all this training. I had a reasonable few days and after 6 races was leading the fleet, but unfortunately I had to leave to fly home early for the RYA Dinghy Show (and my birthday).

Anyway I quickly returned back to the UK and headed straight to Alexandra Palace for the RYA Dinghy Show 2020. As I was co-hosting the show alongside Sarah Ayton OBE, I was pretty busy the entire weekend but still managed to have a blast. The dinghy show is always tons of fun and great to meet friends, old and new.

After a long month away I finally headed home for a few days, knowing I would be able to relax for more than just a few days.

I managed to do quite a lot of sailing, with a bit of time spent sailing the Waszp as well as a Weymouth - Swanage downwinder.

And finally we had our first qualifier of the year last weekend, at WPNSA. There are six of these two day events every year and they help us qualify for the World and European championships, so they are usually quite a high quality event filled with great racing.

At WPNSA broadly speaking I had a good event. I sailed well and was quick up and downwind, often battling for 2nd most of the way round, with the only blip being getting yellow flagged off the start line in race 2. Anyone who has had this before will know how painful it is starting 100m behind everyone!

Anyway despite that minor blip I was happy with how I sailed and I ended up finishing 4th overall. I’m very much looking forward to this weekend, where we have another one of these qualifiers, again at Weymouth.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for some exciting news over the next week….

Sam