I am representing Australia in the International Laser Class Association (ILCA) 4 World Championships being held in Greece, July 2023.

Competing at Worlds in 2023 is an over $10,000 cost and that is not including the cost of an accompanying parent travelling with me as a youth sailor.

I have a single parent that supports my sailing costs 100%. Your support would ease the burden on one income and unfortunately, a couple of funding and support opportunities criteria have changed and so are not available this year until I am older and in a different size rig (sail).

If you are able to support me I would be deeply grateful.

Please note, in the interests of transparency, if I receive any funding support for this trip this is all added to the tally of this campaign.

However, I understand you don't know much about me yet so here is part of my story:

The traditional way of going about youth and junior sailing is; you start in the Optimist (beginners) class - it is a great boat to learn in, it's a bit like a bathtub with a sail in it.

But unlike a lot of people, I started sailing late at 10 years old. Plus, due to Coronavirus (COVID), I didn't get a chance to compete in an Optimist national event because in 2021 I was ready, but the world was in lockdown due to COVID-19. So, it got in the way and delayed my being able to compete at a National and International level.

Once I aged out of Optimist, I moved into the International Laser Class Association boat (ILCA) previously known as Lasers. It is an Olympic-class boat and it gives me the opportunity to develop over the long term and really find out how far I can go.

However, my progress was delayed in 2022 because national events were cancelled, again due to COVID. Also, they were meant to be held in Fremantle, Western Australia. Where I train and sail but unfortunately was cancelled two years in a row.

In January 2023, thanks to the support of 24 donors, we raised $2,500 to pay for half the costs of attending my first Australian National sailing competition - thank you! This was an incredible help - not to mention incredibly motivating too.

The best thing from this National event experience was, I went there and did it, my first nationals and I achieved 7^th overall. Most importantly, I learnt a lot from the experience that I can apply to future events.

I was also happy that I improved at a good rate. My results showed that I was learning fast in comparison to my cohort. I was moving up the ranks. That was encouraging. Now for future events, I know what mindset I need to be in.

I now know I was learning how to develop the best mindset I needed for big events like these. I've talked with coaches and thought about it myself. So now going into future events, especially while I'm a youth sailor and a youth athlete, I would be able to have a clearer view of what to achieve. As much as I want a good result and to win in every event I enter, I also understand, at this stage of my development, I’m not focused on trying to do that until I’m an adult competitor. I'm focused on getting as much big fleet experience as possible to continue to learn and develop as an athlete.

What I need to do right now is develop my experience and learn as much as I can during these opportunities.

What I would like to focus on, is to give myself the chance to use the skills I have. I spent hours and hours training my fitness. And I didn't give myself the chance mentally or position myself well on the racecourse to be able to use the speed I've worked on. Through my fitness and technique. My coach said I was the fastest there. I was confident I was the fastest. I know I'm a very fast sailor. But I wasn't focusing on speed I was too consumed by everything else.

As my coach said, he said at the start of the regatta, he could guarantee we'd all be at least 15% better by the end of the regatta, and I can say I definitely feel like I'm 15% better. I could see in my results they were improving.

The next event I would like to compete in is the ILCA 4 Youth World Championships in Greece in July 2023.

I'm fired up. I'm doing more non-sailing fitness so during my sail training I’m not training my fitness I'm focused on my technique. I'm in full swing for the next event.

I have a single parent that supports my sailing costs 100%. Your support would ease the burden on one income and unfortunately, a couple of funding possibilities are not available this year. If you are able to support me I would be deeply grateful.

I also send a detailed blog post after the event exclusive to my donors. This includes photos from the regatta. I share my personal experience of not only the facts and figures of my results but also how it felt to go through this experience for the first time. This level of detail is for you as a donor. This post isn't published publicly but is only available to you as a donor that supported this campaign. A shorter version is shared publicly. I wish to share this with you as a small way to say a very sincere thank you.

Thank you for considering supporting me to travel to Greece.