2023 has been a massive year! I have had the opportunity to travel to Germany and Poland to compete in the Kieler Woche regattas, ILCA Youth Worlds and the ILCA Youth European Championships. These regattas introduced me to the international standard of racing and fuelled my desire to continue competing in the ILCA 6. I placed 35^th at the Kieler Woche women’s ILCA 6 regatta, 92^nd at the Kieler Woche open ILCA 6 regatta, 46^th at the Youth Worlds, and 54^th at the Youth Europeans.

I have been training hard all year to prepare for these events with the help of the Queensland Academy of Sport program. I am so grateful to my coaches Mitch Kennedy and Annie Eastgate.

I have just returned home from Morocco, where I competed in the Under 21 ILCA World Championships. I spent eight days with my coach, Eshed Meseritz, training hard and preparing for racing in a new location. We have had a variety of conditions, ranging from days of waiting for hours for the breeze to fill in, or launching in 25knots. I improved in a variety of skills and gathered information about the conditions that helped during the regatta!

Before the event, I also enjoyed my fair share of crepes with Eshed during my spare time (and then worked them off by moving my boat from the marina and pulling it through super soft sand on the beach to the designated rigging area for the regatta).

For the event, we had predominantly windy conditions and large swell, with three days of 10-15 knots, two days of 25+ knots, and only one day of 3-6 knots. Throughout the entire regatta, I gave it my all, and was proud to come away with two top 10 race results, and an overall result of 25^th.

Both the pre-event training and the U21 Worlds contributed greatly to my development as an ILCA 6 sailor, by providing an opportunity to continue learning new skills and improving my big-fleet racing experience. I would like to thank RQYS for all their support.

Frances Beebe

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