At the Women ’ s Team Racing nationals , our team was mostly competing with universities , building up to the UKTRA , where we sailed against the seven-time champions , including our former coach , Andy Cornah . It was quite a challenge to race against university teams , but we took it in our stride and did our best . We had two ‘ celebrity ’ visits , from another former Sevenoaks coach , Bruce Hebbert , and from expert umpire Chris Atkins . Both gave us in-depth sessions on the rules of team racing and the tactics that we could use .
In school , the sailing dinner was a resounding success , featuring our own Sailing Jazz Band . It was nice to see the Year 9s I know from VSU sailing on a Thursday and encourage them to keep sailing . Rosie Heydorn , Arabella Parker and I all completed our Dinghy Instructor course , and we ’ re hoping to use this qualification to further inspire younger people in sailing . As a team , we ’ ve been taking losses in our stride and are working towards improving . Through a Gold DofE sailing expedition , we continued to work on our collaboration , gained our Day Skipper qualifications , and are even better friends than before !
This year for me has been eye-opening in seeing how amazing , large and widespread the sailing community is , which will be a huge comfort when I ’ m off to university .
Allegra Fleming , Lower Sixth
SEVENOAKS SCHOOL 2023-2024
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