Zealous is pleased to announce its partnership with Helsinki yacht club, Brändö Seglare for 2016 onwards. Brändö Seglare is a Swedish speaking club, built upon strong family and community values. Over the past several years Brändö Seglare has had a strong Optimist racing programme with many sailors qualifying to represent Finland at IODA World & European Championship competitions. You can find more information about the yacht club here
Spring has well and truly arrived in the North, with two weeks of training completed as our Zealous programme takes shape at Brändö Seglare on Helsinki’s East side. With a racing team of 19 sailors, looking to grow to 22 in the next ten days, it has provided the perfect platform for us to launch our coaching programme, as well as bring on an awesome team of coaches to deliver it.
After two weeks and 11 sessions on the water, the sailors have well and truly blown away the cob webs after the long Finnish winter. With training sessions ranging from 0 - 7 degrees and 0 - 15 knots, sailors and coaches have had a good opportunity to focus on a range of skills sets to assess the direction of the programme as we build up towards the Finnish National Qualifications in May, and onwards to the Finnish Ranking series running from June through September.
To help make the Zealous programme a success in Finland, Jacob Von Koskull & Jocke Svinhufvud have joined the Zealous coaching team work along side Head Coach, Sam McKenzie. Von Koskull, currently competing in the 470 class, placed 11th at the 2013 Optimist Worlds brings a high level of specific and technical expertise to help fast track young talent. Svinhufvud, currently competing in the Laser Radial class, finished 49th at the 2015 Optimist Worlds & 2nd in Braassemermeer Magic Marine Regatta 2015 brings his skill set of boat handling and attention to detail to help sailors to get up to speed fast.
It is a real privilege to have such recent optimist talent and arguably two of the best young sailors Finland has produced in the past 3 years join our coaching team. We’re really looking forward to supporting Jacob & Jocke in the future in pursing their dreams in Olympic sailing in both the 470 & Laser class.
You'll find the sailors and coaches out on the Helsinki harbour again next week.
We're all exiting for the season ahead. Trim on, Zealous Coaching Team