Falanda Sailing

 To start the off the Easter holidays, me and mum rushed off to London, for a quick look around, before attending an award ceremony at the Royal Thames Yacht Club. It was the 2022 Classic Boat awards and I was presented with the ‘Young Classic Boater of the year’ award - a category I believe they invented for me! This was an amazing honour and I went home that evening with a beautiful trophy shaped as a boat, and I must say that the varnish is even better than Falanda’s!  On our return, I had my birthday and then we went straight out to sea for the weekend, accompanied by my family on a plastic boat of all things! With a gentle trip to Brixham the first night, we were accompanied by a stunning sunset where the whole sky turned pink, before slowing melting away to darkness as we reached Torbay. The rest of the evening was spent staring into the patch of water ahead of us, terrified we may hit a crab pot in the pitch black - luckily, we didn’t!  Next morning I woke up to l...

 We had a cracking sail back to the exe today, trying out pretty much every point of sail with a fairly confused wind that swung round onto the nose as we approached the fairway.  Again, me and falanda had a fantastic sail, but this time in company with my parents, who were on a plastic yacht of all things! Although I was just slightly embarrassed to be seen next to a fibreglass boat, I must admit that I can see the comfort of head height, long berths, and a completely dry deck that seems to appeal to both of my parents.  I am blaming James and Fiona personally if my dad comes home with a fibreglass boat this summer!

 Me and falanda had a great blast out to sea today, we left Brixham, heading out into the channel until around 4pm when we had to turn around due to time restrictions - set by my parents! We didn’t quite make it to France today, but we will be having another go asap!  This isn’t the best video, however I think it partially shows the way in which Falanda glides over the waves almost effortlessly, instead of just bobbing around up and down in them. She glides over the water, occasionaly slicing through the chop, and so I cannot think of a better place to be than miles out on the beautiful Falanda. Shortly after this video was taken the wind picked up so u reefed down and then Falanda took off, and we were properly flying! I genuinely don’t think I have ever been happier than in that moment, I had the wind, rain, and spray in my face, and with falanda content as well, I had found true happiness- right in the middle of the English Channel!  It was just me, falanda and the sea...

  https://fb.watch/czqRSxuDJL/

 Here we have Boatlife ’s video of my live interview at the Birmingham boatshow in Febuary, which I believe 🤞 went fairly smoothly despite my fairly rushed arrival! https://youtu.be/nvThJu13xaw  

Even Falanda is looking much happier sitting on her mooring now the mast is back up - thanks to Trout's Boatyard ! - with her sails back on again. All the other exe boat are starting to be launched again ready for boating season so Falanda now has some company and the river isn’t looking quite so empty.  For Mother’s Day I took my mum Topsham Wood Carver out for a sail, and we got her sailing nicely, I was really pleased to still know my boat enough to get her sailing on her own (without having to steer), after 2 months of being stuck onshore. I last took Falanda out in January!!  I am also honoured to have been awarded the Jester Award for 2021 by Ocean Cruising Club , which came as a total surprise when I was invited to the award ceremony in the US! Unfortunately it was a bit too far to travel, and I was also stuck in the UK with school commitments so couldn’t make it over there! I am also very excited to say that I now have a navigation buoy named after me, placed just sli...

 What an exciting week!  This week me and Falanda have visited the NEC in Birmingham for the very first BoatLife boatshow. It was strange getting Falanda lifted out and trailered up there, as usually February is a strange limbo time for boaters in England, when very few people sail, and there aren’t any major events. On the first day, the boatshow was opened by Pip Hare Ocean Racing, who was then part of a live -interview /chat room type thing. It was an amazing story that she told throughout the interview and it was super interesting to watch. After this I got to talk to lots of big brands about potential sponsorship, which was great as I had the opportunity to get across my ideas face to face which otherwise probably wouldn’t have happened. I also got to meet the Status Code 14 rowing team, who are planning to row across the Atlantic later this year.  We had to leave later in the afternoon as Murdoch McGregor was driving all the way down to Topsham (from Alloa, Scotl...