Journalism

I have had many articles published in the Yachting Press as well as in Health & Fitness Magazines over the last few years. Dispite being mildly dyslexic, I have always loved to write. I have diaries stretching back to 1994 and a pile of note books on sailing. In the last edition of Yachts & Yachting Magazine I had written a profile on my highly successful training partner, Evi Van Acker from Belgium. I have just sent off my next article on Yoga and how it benifits sailors.. Here is an aricle that was published in Yachts & Yachting Magazine last year.. Life On The Road; ISAF World Ranked Number 3, Laura Baldwin gives Yavhts & Yachting Magazine incite on what life is like for a full time Olympic campaigner with six years experience!.. It’s no holiday! Returning home after weeks away I explained to my friend how I was really in need of a holiday, to which she replied, “what do you mean? Your life is one big holiday!” A training camp or regatta abroad is opportunity to improve or achieve so I don’t want to miss a moment. It is also very costly with coaching taking up the largest chunk then on top there’s the accommodation, travel costs, fuel for the coach boat, harbour fees, gym fees & food. So I feel I really need to make the most of it so as not to have that dreadful feeling that you are wasting time & money. Generally in the morning I do a cardio session followed by core stability work (abs & back) then sail all day and weight train in the evening. After a few weeks of hard training you are ready for a holiday / break even if you are in the Caribbean! A special way of life; It is a fantastic way of life. Travelling the world, making friends with people from all nationalities and learning about different cultures whilst all like-minded and sharing the same passion. It is rewarding achieving your process goals on a daily basis when you set about to learn something and master it. When trying new things sometimes you get worse before you get better but when you achieve a result above your expectation it is a fantastic feeling. Qualifying for Athens 2004 was beyond a dream come true for me! I feel very privileged to be able to do what I do. Sailing was my hobby it was what I loved to spend my weekends doing. I used to wish the weekends would last forever and so I made that happen! My parents made it possible in the beginning and continue to be my largest financial supporters along with Skandia Team GBR and my sponsors; Jeep, Harken, SiS, Hearty’s & Concept 2. Come rain or shine; When the sun is shining it is hard not to enjoy doing what I do. I spent this winter training in Australia and USA, which was fantastic. Returning back to the UK mid March was a shock to the system though. At the first Laser Qualifier Regatta we had a wind chill of minus thirteen! It was arctic! When it is so cold that you are struggling to keep a grip of the mainsheet, hands burning, shivering uncontrollably and your feet no longer feel as though they are a part of you I do question why I sail because it is not fun when it is like that but we just have to get on with the job. It is similar when it has been windy for a long period and you are exhausted, everything hurts but you have to keep working as hard as you can and fight through the pain. I actually love the feel of exhaustion, after a hard day it is satisfying to feel how hard you have worked. Variety is the spice of life; Laser sailing is very physically demanding and therefore requires a high level of cardio fitness, strength and endurance. I far prefer training outside and mix up my cardio training between; Kayaking, cycling, running, surfing, X-Country Skiing & swimming. Then hit the gym for weigh training in the evening. Boat work; Thankfully there is not so much to do to a Laser compared with many of the other Olympic Classes. I still weight my boats, measure the mast rake, make all the rope systems work optimally with Marlow ropes running through Harken blocks and cleats. The hanger at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy is perfect for boat work, especially when it’s cold and wet outside. Logistics; There is a lot to organise to make a campaign work and run smoothly. I try to get all the logistics out of the way before the season starts so there’s nothing hanging over my head whilst racing. I book all the flights & accommodation, enter all the regattas, order all the equipment I will need including spares of everything and all the tools needed to fix anything on the boat or trailer, get the trailer and coach boat and trailer serviced. Coaches; Olympic Gold Medallist Rower, Tim Foster was a guest speaker at the recent RYA World Class Performance/ Development Squad Camp in Weymouth. Tim talked about how he gained motivation from his team mates within the boat and told us how Peter Haining won the World Championships in the single skull class but found the feelings of winning less with no one to share the excitement with. Later he won in a team and told of how much greater the feeling of achievement were with others to share it with. In a single-handed class, your team mate, the person who is living the same dream as you and who will feel as excited about things as you do is your coach. I believe that a coach is most important for single-handed sailors. Finding the right coach is therefore crucial. Tim also told of how important it was to find the right combination of characters to make a winning team and the different qualities each had to offer. After months of thought and communication with many possible coaches I decided Hugh Styles was the best man for the job of coaching me. He is strong-minded, determined, a great sailor with experience in the Laser, an Olympian, young and enthusiastic, a good communicator and our personalities match. Training Partners; I have a great team of sailors to train with who are not only some of the best Radial sailors but they are also my closest friends. ISAF World Ranked Number 1, Paige Railey from USA, Canada’s 2002 ISAF Youth World Champion Jennifer Spalding and Belgium’s Evi Van-Acker who has won Palma, Holland & the European Championships this year! Pressure; The pressure to achieve results from the RYA, sponsors, supporters & mostly yourself can be hard to handle but in order to be successful you have to learn to deal with it, it is part of the job. When you have a bad regatta despite all the hard training and effort it is tough going. Doing well however makes up for the slumps and keeps motivation to continue through the bad times. It really is a roller coaster ride of emotions. Dept; A very expensive roller coaster ride at that! I am in massive dept to my parents who have been the most fantastic supporters any child could wish for! They have given up tremendous amounts of their personal savings to make my dream come true. They have sacrificed their own hobbies and holidays to fund my campaign and for that I will be forever in dept to them. I hope one day too be able to repay them and get my dad that Ferrari he’s always dreamed of! Site seeing; Despite travelling the world I really haven’t seen very much of it. When I write my autobiography it will be titled; “Highways & Harbours” as that best describes what I see! I often feel I should take time out to look around the places I visit but any time off I give myself I really need to take completely off, lay in bed or on the sofa relaxing or I get too tiered. It can be quite stressful not knowing where you are and having to find your way around. Locating the supermarket, gym, sailing club etc Most of the ISAF Graded Regattas are hosted in the same venues each year so after the first time on tour it is a lot easier as you know your way around. Having said all this, I have seen some beautiful places. My favourite city in the world so far has to be Sydney, I can see myself living there one day. The harbour is spectacular, the Opera House is impressive along side the harbour bridge. Bondi & Manly beaches are beautiful and I love that all the fast food places serve fresh fruit, salads, sushi and the Thai food is fab! Harbours are not bad places to hang out either! I’ve sampled exquisite foods, drawled over all the magnificent yachts, explored cities thousands of centuries old and bursting with history, seen beautiful sunsets over backdrops of mountains, vast sandy beaches with palm trees and watched the water reflect the most magical glow. Living out of a bag; The most frustrating part of life on the road must be the constant packing and unpacking and never being in one place longer than 2 weeks. Packing up all the kit at the end of a regatta is not my favourite past time! I hate living out of a bag so as soon as I get to where I am staying I totally unpack everything, fill the draws and shelves and then I feel like I am home and can relax. Home from home; In the first two years on the road I used to feel home sick and unsettled. I missed my friends and family. But by my third year on the circuit I no longer felt that ‘missing’ feeling. I just got used to making where ever, I was at that moment feel like home. When asked where I lived I would answer; “where ever the Jeep is parked!” Last November however, I moved to Weymouth after the news of London winning the 2012 bid and now I feel that pull to want to go home again but it’s a nice having somewhere to go back to between regattas. Sacrifices; To be the best at anything in life you have to make sacrifices. To be an Olympic Gold Medallist you need to devote your life to the sport. This will mean missing special occasions at home such as birthdays & anniversaries and sometimes, even Christmas & New Year. Maintaining relationships with friends and loved ones is hard which is why so many sailors on the circuit are single. If you have aspirations of a career apart from sailing it really has to be put on hold if you want to stand a realistic chance of getting the desired results as everyone these days is sailing full time. Socializing; I try to make an effort to make friends and often go to dinner with different groups of sailors. My close friends are from all over the world; Jen Spalding (CAN), Paige Railey (USA), Evi Van Acker (BEL), Brendan Casey (AUS), Matias Del Solar (CHI), Marc De Haas (NED), Matt Blakey (NZL), Aaron O’Grady (IRL), Zach Railey (USA), Johnas Christiansen (DEN). The end of regatta parties can be great fun! Being a Celebrity! Since the Olympics I have been asked to do some pretty cool things like racing on the indoor pool at the London International Boat show representing my clothing sponsor Gill. I beat double Olympic Gold Medallist, Shirley Robertson! Soon after the Games the Team was invited to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace, have lunch with the Mps at the Houses of Parliament, Party in Hamleys Toy Store, have dinner with Tony Blair and Open the Southampton Boat Show. It was a very exciting time! I have been asked to award prizes at regattas, talk at schools and social clubs, support charities and I am an ambassador for London 2012. I even get fan mail from time to time and requests from students wanting to use me for their final projects from people who contact me through my website. www.laurabaldwin.co.uk that Greendesign kindly sponsor. OK Magazine hosted a fundraising ball for children with Leukaemia and invited some sailors as celebrity guests! I went with Ed Wright, Joe Glandfield and one of my best friends, Kat Young. OK accommodated us in the five star Park Lane Hotel for the night after wining, dining & dancing. Learning the hard way; The first year racing on the Olympic circuit was a big new adventure that excited me enough to keep going despite missing my friends, feeling home sick and fighting it out not to finish last in the regattas. I was often calling home in tears needing help and advise from my parents when I was lost, the car had broken down or something had been stolen. Knowing my way around the regular regatta venues helped reduce some of the stresses’ after the first year of campaigning but I still learned the hard way on route; • Take your trailer test so you can manoeuvre a trailer freely. I didn’t know how to reverse a trailer in 2001, let alone reverse it up a ramp onto the Barcelona fast cat ferry without jack knifing. I made such a mess of it that the ferry left without me. I had to wait 7 hours for the slow ferry that I could drive on forwards. • Don’t stop too long in the off road parking or service stations as there are gangs of thieves waiting to rob unsuspecting visitors. I’ve heard loads of stories from sailors over the years. Lyon, Nice & Barcelona being the worst spots. • Lock your trailer with more than just a bike lock to a lamppost in Medemblik! The RIB was in the water and I only had the cut up lock to show for my trailer in 2002! • Don’t tail gate the car in front over the retractable bollard in Hoorn as it has power enough to launch even a Transit van into the air! 2002 • Don’t leave valuables lying around or on display in your car, especially in Hyeres! My apartment was broken into and my computer, mobile, camera & cash stolen in 2005. Summery; From time to time when I have a moment of realisation that sailing is my job, it’s what I do and I feel very lucky. I love sailing. Laura Baldwin – www.laurabaldwin.co.uk