Topper sailing with Martina

Published 08:13 on 14 May 2026

Hi everyone, my name is Martina.I started doing national series this year,  so far I visited 4 events. Each new racing weekend is always at a different location, which I quite like, because you get to see new places as well as develop your racing skills across different conditions and venues. You also get to visit Olympic venues which is really exiting for me.

This weekend I visited Hayling Island, which is a sea location but with strong currents at times, which really challenged me. We had a fleet of about 70 competitors in a 5.3 rig. Across the two days we completed 6 races with mixed conditions. On the first day it was really light about 7-10 knts and sunshine it almost felt like summer. Completely opposite on the second day it was 15-17knts gusting 18 with rain. It was really cold. This was the first time when I sailed with a gps traker from TracTrac. My parents really liked it because they could watch each race from their phone. This tracker was also useful because now on the way home I can see how I raced and what my possible mistakes were, improving my tacktics for the next event. 

When I first started going to national events my main worry was that I might not be able to compete with the sailors, but I soon noticed that everyone is on different levels and I always had someone to race with. I would say that despite the official part of the events it is still really fun, you get to meet new people, challenge yourself and ultimately improve your sailing as well as racing skills. Racing in such big fleets teaches you a lot of how to make your own decisions and how they can effect your position at the finish line. It is also intresting to see how other sailors  race and what their tactics are.You will have your ups and downs but at the end of the day you will just feel proud of all the effort that you put in to those races. 

Last updated 08:13 on 14 May 2026