Students Edie, Felix, Henry, Oskar, Silas and Zak represented Windermere School at the RS Feva World Championships in Weymouth at the end of July.

This was a true World Championship, with 186 boats and 372 sailors from c.16 nations across the world and five full days of racing. It was a very competitive fleet, with many older sailors from across the nations choosing to compete for a final time having missed out on recent years due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The RYA Northern Squad, including many of the Windermere sailors, led the opening parade, and the atmosphere was fantastic.

 

 

The sailing conditions were excellent but testing, with winds of 18-25 knots on the first three days, dropping to 8-15 knots on the last two days, challenging the sailors to perform in both heavy and lighter winds.

The Windermere team did us proud.

Felix and Zak qualified for the gold fleet, and finished 14th overall.

 

 

Edie, with her helm Max from Roa Island, also qualified for the gold fleet and finished 34th overall.

 

 

Henry (with his  helm Finn from Coniston sailing club) qualified for the Bronze fleet and finished 7th.

 

 

Oskar and Silas qualified for the Bronze fleet and finished 50th.

 

 

All of our sailors have grown up through the Windermere School sailing programme, and then participated in the RYA Regional training groups. This is a fantastic pathway to build capable sailors who can jump in any boat and sail it fast. More than that, to compete at this level the sailors have to balance their school work and training, manage their fitness and diet, work closely as a team, and develop real grit and resilience.  Along the way they have a lot of fun and make lifelong friends.

The team is already focusing on the training needed to get to the 2023 Feva World Championships in Italy where we hope that more of the Windermere squad will be joining them next year.