My Story

After being born and diagnosed with deafness in my right ear, I never really gave the disability much thought apart from the obvious annoyances of having to walk on the right, sit on the right, do everything with anyone – on the right. It was only when I was unable to complete a solo flight scholarship due to my deafness with Air Cadets, that I realised I would not be allowed to join the RAF as a pilot. I then understood the limitations that the disability brought to my life. Following this, I took the mentality that I may be limited, but I can do mostly anything. Mostly anything turned into chasing another career path to become a Test Driver. After working in this field for a number of years, I’ve decided to take a career break to take on something truly special – A Round the World Yacht Race.

The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a 40,000 mile circumnavigation of the globe - The longest yacht race in the world. 12 identical 70ft racing yachts, with a crew of 22 on board will race 8 legs with 15 stopovers over 6 continents. We will experience bone numbing freezing conditions in the southern ocean. Hot sweaty, energy sapping temperatures in the tropics. Waves the size of houses in the Pacific, and frustrating zones of zero wind in the doldrums. It's a race to test the physical and mental side of a person working with strangers, when sleep deprived, in a pressure cooker that is a racing yacht. This is no holiday - More people have climbed Everest, than sailed around the world.....

Thursday 29 November 2012

Training is getting hard!

Been pushing the gym quite hard and ended up doing a pathetic session today. Arms and shoulders just broken after sailing and this weeks gym. Rest time I think!

Deafness Fact

There are around 35,000 0-25 year olds in the uk with permanent deafness.

Wednesday 28 November 2012

VISAS!!!

Just been told by Clipper we need to get Visa's for.....Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China and USA!! Happy days!

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Deafness Fact

8 in 10 children will have an ear infection by the time they are 3 years old.

Monday 26 November 2012

Hamble Winter Series Pictures - 3rd Place


Deafness Fact

Almost 9 million people in the UK are affected by deafness or experience significant hearing difficulty. That's 1 in 7 of the population!

Training Hard!

Circuits tonight due to feeling a bit breathless on the boat at times- must get fitter and stronger!

Sunday 25 November 2012

Facebook and Twitter!

Hopefully all linked up to both!

3rd Place!!

What a weekend. First of all had a good meeting with Mumtaz, Kelly and Amy for the race campaign.

Then a day of practice and a day of racing. It was touch and go as the weather was up to 50knots at night, but calmed enough for us to race.

The race went well, we lost out to a very experienced crew and one with done pro dinghy sailors in, so for our first outing we did well.

More focus now! Need to get in a dinghy!

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Against the Tide 2

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceSoGbxix3c&feature=youtube_gdata_player


This is the documentary series on the Discovery Channel which will follow the race!

Monday 19 November 2012

Hamble Winter Series Race

This weekend I will compete in my first sailing race! I'm racing on a 38ft'er with some of my Clipper people from Level 1 training. I don't expect us to win, but a podium would be nice. Count down to race day on Sunday begins!

Thursday 15 November 2012

First Sponsorship E-Mails sent!

So the sponsorship campaign starts. Hopefully you've all received an e-mail asking you to donate kindly to Deafness Research UK. Thank you very much if you have!

Sunday 11 November 2012

Training Plan Set

So for the race I need to prepare myself in the best possible way for the race. This involves the learning sail boat racing, tactics, sail trimming, navigation.....but also me! I need to get fit and strong for the race so I've laid out a new training plan for the gym. I used to row competitively so I have a good base fitness which I'll need to retain, however I need to move the strength from my legs to my upper body. Game on! 

Saturday 10 November 2012

Woodlands Dental Sponsorship

A big thankyou to Matthew Holyoak for the donation to the race fund. Check out his dental surgury at http://www.woodlands-dental.co.uk  00 44 1253 731800.

Deafness Research UK Affiliation Agreed!

Hello all,

So today I have had confirmation that Deafness Research will be my official charity for my race campaign! I hope to raise £40,000 for them, £1 for every mile of the race. Now we just need to find some rich people to hand over their money!

BP