Recruits selected to join the 2025 British Sailing Keelboat Academy have been making the most of training weekends to develop their teamwork, boat handling and racing.
Coaches for the squad have been impressed by the Academy's latest cohort of 40 young sailors, who have joined from as far afield as the south-west and north-east, Scotland and Wales, with many having only previously raced dinghies.
At London's Queen Mary SC the sailors were able to learn asymmetric and symmetric spinnaker boat handing aboard the club's RS21s and Royal Thames YC's Sonar fleet, with a variety of conditions and a chance to get used to working in teams of four or five.
An inshore weekend at Port Solent (8-9 March 2025) then enabled the sailors to further their skills in teams of 8 to 10 aboard Prometheus Sailing's charter fleet of 40ft Sunsail racing yachts.
Academy Lead Coach Phil Devereux said: "It's all about doing your own role well and trusting the person next to you to likewise do their job to the best of their ability. There were some good conversations about how the individual roles add up to a collective and coordinated effort with clear, accurate, quality communication.
"We've had productive weekends and the feedback from the coaching team reflects how pleasant and hardworking everyone is in this year's intake. They're team players with the types of character attributes that we' re very happy to have representing the Academy. I'm proud of the squad and what we've achieved so far."
An optional offshore weekend (22/23 March 2025) saw around half the BSKA's recruits sailing out of Hamble aboard two Fast 40 boats chartered from Britannia and included navigation, night sailing, cooking on board, watch systems, man overboard drills and safety.
The Academy as a whole will be in Cowes for a weekend of J70 racing (5-6 April 2025). This will also include an opportunity to network with members of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, and hear from Vendée Globe star Sam Goodchild, whose journey in keelboat racing first began as a young sailor with the Academy.
Look out for when applications re-open for the next intake in late summer 2025, follow @BritishKeelboatSailing on Facebook and Instagram for all the latest news, and find out more at British Sailing Keelboat Academy.
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