Volvo

It was the best early birthday present to get the call from Saskia Clark asking if I wanted to join her to campaign for London 2012 following Sarah Ayton’s retirement.

Over the past two years, since splitting from Katrina Hughes [Skandia Team GBR 470 sailor now partnered with Penny Clark], I have tried a number of different crews and since last Autumn I’d been sailing with Katie Archer, who is a hugely talented sailor.

Credit Mark LLoyd

But when the call came from Sas I knew it presented my best chance of qualifying for 2012 and although it was really difficult letting Katie down, deep down I knew it was the right thing for me to do. Katie was obviously disappointed but amazingly understanding.

Since then the past month has been mad!

Lloyd images

Saskia flew out to Palma and we just spent eight days sailing and figuring out where our strengths and weaknesses lay as a pair. There were part of sailing together that felt very natural straight away and although we know time is against us, together I’m confident we will bridge the gap and be ready for the big selection-focussed regattas this summer.

We’ve got our first event together – the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma at the beginning of April so before that we’re splitting our time between Palma and Weymouth training.

There was still time to enjoy my 23rd birthday though at the end of February.  

My hometown is Cardiff so I went back to see my family with six sailors in tow. Although I’m not sure how pleased my mum was being bombarded with us all; she had just got back from a ski trip with the school she works for with her hand in a cast after hurting her thumb. When she walked in and saw us all she was like ‘Cheers Hannah!’

She’s a typical mum though and loves looking after me when I go back and we all made sure we helped her out as much as possible. We spent my birthday mountain biking locally in Wales before heading back to Weymouth.

It is a really exciting time for me; Saskia is an exceptional sailor and I can’t wait to see what we can do together. It's great to be part of Team Volvo for life and I look forward to keeping you all updated with our campaign over the next few months.  
 

Hannah

Follow Hannah and her fellow Team Volvo for life sailors on Facebook www.facebook.com/volvocarssailing   

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