13 year old Laser sailor, Adam Greaves enjoyed a fantastic day sailing on the Olympic 49er with Team Draper Greenhalgh at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, venue for the 2012 Olympic Games. The 49er duo held a competition to go for a sail in a 49er. Just over 200 entries received from all over the world, Australia, East & West Coast USA, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Holland and UK to spend a day with Chris Draper and Pete Greenhalgh for the ride of their life on a 49er and the winner was 13 year old, Adam Greaves from Portland, Dorset.
According to Olympic 49er helmsman, Chris Draper, Adam was beaming from ear to ear.
We had Fuzz, (Grant Spanhake) the legendary sail designer and trim coach with us, as well as our training partners, Dylan and Alain. Adam spent the first session in the RIB with Fuzz and was generally beaming from ear to ear all morning. He looked the part, wearing my Skandia team GBR Oilies which I thought I wasn’t getting back! ”
“His general comment was ‘amazing’, it was pretty safe to say he was loving sailing the boat. When we got a little more confidence I suggested we tried a wire to wire tack while Adam was helming. Perhaps a little ambitious and we had an impromptu swim, which had to be done really. Adam was great to have a long. We all really enjoyed his company and enthusiasm for the day. Big smiles all round.”
Full report on Adam’s VIP day out at: http://www.teamdrapergreenhalgh.co.uk
“It was really nice to get so many people interested in what we are doing, it gives us a great feeling of encouragement.” Said Chris Draper. “I was especially keen on choosing Adam as he got into sailing through the ‘Sail for a Fiver’ project at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The Chesil Trust charity, Sail Laser and WPNSA have teamed up to offer local schools the chance to send kids to the academy and I am a big fan and a patron of the project and Adam is a great example of what ‘Sail for a Fiver’ has achieved.” –www.teamdrapergreenhalgh.co.uk
