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Noah's journey to the European and World Championships

  • Winning the Sir Peter Blake regatta!

      12 December 2019
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    The Sir Peter Blake regatta is held in Torbay annually, however, this was my first time attending it. Named after the famous Kiwi sailor, the “memorial” Sir Peter Blake regatta is an iconic and prestigious title for young sailors with ambitions. It was a two day event, with textbook conditions, seabreezes each day, and a good Auckland choppy sea state.

    The first day, there was about 12 - 15 knots and heaps of opportunities. My first day results were 1,3,3,3, and second overall which was a great consistent start to the regatta. Also, there was a huge gap of points between me and 3rd place, so if I sailed well the next day, I could only improve…

    The second day was just as sunny and hot as the first day with just a little bit more breeze.

    On the first race, I was trying to limit the leverage the first placed guy had over me and try to make sure that he’s either close ahead, or behind me. On the second race, I wanted to make a break with the guy in first, now having a good game plan after trial and error on the first race. After a good start, my hiking straps broke which meant that I couldn’t keep the boat flat anymore and boats were overtaking me. It was a very tough moment but all I could do at this point was forget this race and just focus on the next one. In each regatta, you get to discard your worst result. With a gear breakage, retiring was a major setback, but it was still possible to win. After repairing the straps with my coach, I was mentally ready to smash it in the next race. The last race went past very quickly in my head. I had a great start ahead of the first guy, and covered him until the end, trying to put as many boats as I could between him and I. In that race, I finished 2nd, whilst he finished 5th. That was enough to put him behind me, and take the regatta win! Having a gear breakage was a major setback, but it's my consistency that saved me. It’s my first ever “national” regatta win, and I’m working towards achieving some more.

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  • 3rd at North Island Championship

      12 December 2019
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    The 2019 North Island Champs were held in New Plymouth on the West coast of New Zealand. The North Islands is a “Ranking Regatta” and will partially count towards selecting for the world championships. The venue is known for its exposed waters and challenging weather conditions. We arrived a day early to train and prepare for the three days of racing that lay ahead. The forecast at the time wasn’t promising, predicting too much wind to sail on the last two days of the regatta. At that stage though, all we could do was prepare for the worst.

    On the first day of racing, it was relatively light winds with a huge swell making it difficult to sail and leaving many sailors feeling unwell and having to go ashore. Being prone to seasickness, I had a couple really tough moments where I just had to fight to stay on the water and get results. Despite this, I was still able to hang in there and minimize points. By the end of the first day, I was sitting in 5th. Out of all my years of Optimist racing experience, that day had been the most mentally challenging.

    On the second day of racing, we had anticipated sea sickness by eating ginger! Also, the wind had picked up more which meant that we had to be much more active in the boat and just focusing on your race. Like for Day 1, we had three races. I managed to get some really good races and even managed to finish the day with a comfortable win. Even better (although I didn't know that yet) to finish the regatta winning the last race.

    On the last day it was pouring down, with 30 knots of wind, low visibility, 3 metre swell, etc. The race committee pulled the pin. In the end, I finished 3rd overall, 2 points away from 1st.

    On the whole I’m proud of my regatta and fighting it out when I could have simply abandoned. Also, I’ve got a small margin of improvement for the next regatta...

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  • Update following the 2019 European championships.

      4 August 2019
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    The 2019 European Optimist Sailing Championships were a pleasure to attend. Being held in France, and in the middle of summer, we had sea breezes almost daily and high temperatures making the racing enjoyable all the way through the week. To prepare ourselves for the 5 - day regatta, we had a week of training with the NZ team beforehand. This gave us an opportunity to compare ourselves with the other teams. We had chartered boats with the regatta organisation, so we spent some time setting them up to our satisfaction. We trained in particular with Oman, South Africa, and Portugal. Towards the end of the week more and more European teams started arriving. During the pre-regatta training, my boat speed was quite good against the rest of the team and other nations, especially in the lighter breeze.

    The regatta itself started with a day on shore without enough wind to get on the water, so we spent most of our time playing cards in the shade and drinking heaps. The second day, the weather wasn’t looking promising to start with, but we managed to get out on the water anyway and get two races in little wind. I had good speed but I had little experience and gave away places by simple tactical errors. The next day was a little windier, so the scheduled three races were completed. I had learnt from the previous day’s results, but my down point was more about speed that day.

    The qualifying series were over, which meant that the different fleets were now going to be separated because of the ranking – gold, silver, bronze. In this case, the first 59 boats went into the gold fleet. After the third, day I was 60th which meant that I only just missed out on gold, but would be ahead of silver rather. I took this as an opportunity to learn to be ahead of a fleet rather than being at the back gold fleet. The next day, I had a really bad first start, but I managed to climb myself back into 8th. Next race, I had a great start mid line, and was leading all the way until the second mark, where I got overtaken by a swede finishing second. On the last day of the competition, there was a real pattern with the wind on the course, so it was an easy day to follow. The first race, I secured a top ten. Then I won a race, giving me enough lead to not have much left to do in the next race to win the silver fleet. The next race, I was conservative and still finished 12th giving me the silver fleet win!

    Prize giving was later on that night. In the NZ team, we had one sailor in the gold fleet, whilst the rest were in silver. It was thrilling to be on the podium and receive the medal of honour of the town of Crozon and staying up late with friends from previous regattas enjoying ourselves…

    My focus is now on the upcoming sailing season. I will spend a week in Auckland during the next school holidays and will compete in the Winter champs. Then the first ranking regatta of the season will be the North Island Championships in New Plymouth in November. This will contribute to my goal to qualify for the world championships in 2020…

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