Grant Reports

Emily Wright

I was selected by RYA to represent GBR at the RS Venture Connect Worlds hosted at Barcelo Mussanah Resort in Oman in November 2022. They chose to send two under 25 teams one of which was myself and Rory McKinna, the other Adam Billany and Jazz Turner.

This was my first time competing in a World Championships so was honoured to be given the opportunity to gain invaluable experience and begin my exciting journey in high performance competitive sailing.

In the months leading up to this event RYA hosted online theory sessions and practical training weekends at Rutland and Northampton. These training weekends were coached by Hannah Stodel and were invaluable to getting experience in our new pairing and with the RS Venture Connect itself.

From 19^th – 28^th November the team was in Oman for the event. We went through the official classification process and then had a couple of training days out on the water before the racing began. In training Rory (helm) and myself (crew) performed very well despite the slight and shifting winds.

During the competition racing the standard was high and the weather conditions tricky – we performed well especially considering the level of previous experience of some of the other teams. We placed 15^th out of 26 in the para class (23^rd of 36 overall) which we were very proud of. This event was such an incredible experience at which I learnt so much and was lucky to be surrounded by a lovely team and meet inspiring sailors from all over the world. I am now a classified B2 World Sailor with this result on my World Sailing profile and am aiming to continue training and competitions to improve and achieve more over the next few years. With 36 entries from 19 countries this event was an amazing showcase of para sailing from across the globe.

My success at this event has lead to my recent selection to represent GBR in the Para Worlds in the Hague in August 2023 again in the RS Venture Connect.

In addition to the training for Oman. I have been training with GBR Blind Sailing and competed in the Blind Sailing Fleet Nationals in February placing 1^st. I am continuing to train with GBR Blind sailing for the upcoming Blind Fleet Worlds in November and Blind Match Worlds next year.

The RSrnYC Trust funding and support has been extremely helpful in enabling me to access training opportunities, to develop my sailing skills and has aided my journey to representing GBR in competitive para sailing.