Dru's Sailing Prowess

I started sailing when I was 11 years old, and as I liked competing in the Club racing I entered the Topper National Series and the South West Topper Traveller Series to race against other junior sailors. I then joined both the ITCA 4.2 National Squad and the RYA SW Zone Squad to train over the winter.

My results improved and so I achieved a place in the RYA Topper UK Junior Squad. I placed 2nd Girl in the SW Topper Traveller Series in 2018. In 2019, I went to the Topper Irish Nationals and I also transitioned to the Laser 4.7 Class (now called the ILCA 4 Class) which is the next size Junior Boat on the RYA Pathway. I was one of three Under 16 Girls selected for the 2019-2020 RYA Laser 4.7 UK Junior Squad and qualified to represent GBR at the 2020 Laser 4.7 European Championships held in Vilamoura, Portugal.

This year I qualified as 1st Under 16 Girl for the 2020 Laser 4.7 World Championships to be held in Lake Garda, Italy. Due to COVID-19 the World Championships had to be cancelled, but the European Championships still took place in August and I had an amazing experience sailing against the top junior sailors in the world.

The travel restrictions for Portugal were also lifted so I competed at the UK National Championships in Weymouth. I entered this event in the ILCA 6 (which has a bigger sail and is the singlehanded boat used by women at the Olympics) and so I was racing against adults including our women’s Olympic representative for Tokyo, the current female Youth World Champion and several others!

Dru, Year 11

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Although both the competition was tough, Dru was delighted with her performance, finishing 62nd overall and 1st among Under 17 Girls. This is an amazing achievement and the PE department would like to congratulate Dru on her success with sailing and wish her lots of luck for the next event.