We asked Poppy, one of this year’s Performance Academy Sailing Scholarship recipients to reflect on the past year of support she’s received – this is what she had to say…

“This scholarship has been a complete game-changer; it has given me opportunities to develop my sailing in so many different ways. Reflecting back to the start of the programme, I had just started in an ILCA 4 Regional Training Group (RTG), with very little competitive fleet experience. Having the flexibility within the programme allowed me to consolidate my learning from the RTG and collaborate with high quality coaching to target key areas for development. It has been an unmissable experience, and one that I would encourage anyone to apply for, providing opportunities to attend UKLA open training sessions, 1:1 coaching with National coaches and online mentoring sessions – along with some great Rooster kit!

As the RTG came to an end, I decided it was the right time to transition into the ILCA 6; it felt like an exciting progression, and it was great to know that the scholarship sessions would help me to facilitate this, along with all my questions.

I am really enjoying racing in such an extremely competitive fleet, such as in the qualifiers at Paignton and Portland, and have already had some great takeaways – the three main ones being: try to be more consistent (… improve starting), begin to understand tactics to a greater extent and like always in a laser, I need to improve my fitness. I hadn’t quite realised the extent to which one tack off could mean you’ve suddenly gained 10 places just like that, but that’s what makes it enjoyable, because I’m guessing it can work the other way round too.

At this point, I have finished my practical ‘on the water’ sessions but have several online mentoring sessions available, which should really help as the weather changes into the winter months. I would like to thank James Parker-Mowbray for the great online sessions and Ali Brown for the amazing 1:1s, you have both been incredible, and have made a huge difference to the way in which I approach things.

I’d also like to thank Rooster for some fantastic new sailing kit, which will keep me happy and warm on the water this winter.”

If you’d like to be considered for PASS 2024 don’t forget to apply by midnight on 31 December 2023.