Marie Uyttendaele (age 10) and Boris Goethals (age 12) have been sailing since they were six years old. As with any youngster, a healthy hobby is always welcome but these two took to the sport like a duck to water. Both are active members of the Duinbergen sailing club R.B.S.C. They have been building their hobby into a true passion and within their first year of intensive sailing have become the Belgian champions for multi Hull Dragoon 2017. Who knows what the future will bring for these two passionate sailors? We asked them for the secrets to their success. Here’s what they had to say:
What explains the rapid development of your skills?
This season was our first on the Hobie Dragoon. In the beginning we were a bit afraid because this cat is much larger than a Catsy. But, after a while we enjoy it. So we had a lot of fun, and we sailed nearly every day of the summer holiday. In addition we had a very good trainer, Laurent Verbeek.
How can other young sailors follow your example?
Just sail every day and have fun!
What is your training like? And how do you prepare for competition?
The most important is to sail as much as possible. And to listen to our coach; he explains what we can do better. We have a lot of discussions about the different aspects of cat-sailing. For every competition we make a plan dependent on the weather conditions.
The three keys to success are:
1. Trust each other.
2. Have fun.
3. Train a lot.
How do you keep it fun?
Between the matches we talk a lot, but not about sailing. Then we are joking!
