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Alex Baxter (12 years old) reports, 'On Saturday the 25th of February, the junior sailing group was lucky enough to get a tour of the Sail GP centre at White Bay.

As we arrived, we could already see the towering sails above the colourful tents, each sail and tent with matching colours and flags with the countries' names in centre display.

We headed over and a guide soon came out and showed us over to some purple tents, where a a Great Britain team member gave us an interesting presentation of how Sail GP is working towards sustainability and solving global issues, such as poverty and climate change.

Following this presentation, two guides came and took us to the Swiss team tent, and tent is really an understatement. It was a massive metal structure with a tent-like tarp spread over it. It was probably big enough to fit two houses.



Sail GP racer and RSYS member Will Ryan came out and introduced himself to us and we were able to ask him questions, like “How much does the boat weigh” (2.4 tonnes). He showed us how the Sail GP life jacket worked and how it has spare air so you can breathe underwater for 2 minutes. There is also a safety knife that is for if you get tangled on rope you can cut yourself off.

He showed us a harness so you don't go flying off the boat and a helmet for safety and communication. He let us all hold the gear and answered some more questions. Then he even let us wear some of the gear.

Then we all took a photo and had a tiny peek behind the scenes at some of the humongous foils.These are the foils they use to rise out of the water and make the boats appear to fly.



We left and walked down past all the tents and saw the GP Boats floating gracefully in the water, very unlike when they are traveling nearly over 100 km/h. We moved on to the two white tents where they stored and fixed the wings (sails). There were a couple technicians working on some parts for the sails. Some were a glossy, dark blue that belonged to France and a bright, powerful red that belonged to the Spanish team. We eventually left the tent and had one final look at the high and mighty boats, and left.

We learnt so much about Sail GP and the Swiss team while we were down there and it was such an amazing experience.