Mike Wood

Mike Wood, now aged 19, began sailing in the Saturday morning ‘kids club’ under the instruction of Colin Magee at Bosworth Water Trust in Leicestershire. He has been sailing competitively since 2004 when he was selected for the RYA Topper West Zone Squad under Head Coach Neil Marsden.

The following year he was selected for the RYA Great Britain National Junior Squad – Topper Class, after competing successfully against more than 80 other applicants for just 24 places in the necessary qualifying events.

Membership of the National Squad entailed training weekends and a week training camp at venues across the country throughout the winter period with excellent coaches, some of whom are on the Olympic Program.

In June 2006 Michael won the Topper Nationwide Travelers regatta at Abersoch against 150 boats over 2 days.

In July ‘06 he competed in the Topper World Championships at the prestigious venue of Lake Garda in Italy. After a tense competition with more than 160 entries representing more than 10 countries, over 5 days Michael came third in the Gold Fleet Regatta, achieving a podium finish and winning the bronze medal, and confirming his status as third in the world in this very competitive class!

Michael was chosen to represent Great Britain at the Irish National Championships in County Wexford where he narrowly missed out on first place on just one discard, finally finishing in third place overall.

In October ‘06 he was selected for the Topper National squad for the second year running.

1 year later in 2007, Mike became the Topper World champion winning the gold medal at the end of a highly competitive week. This was a great way to end a very enjoyable few years in the topper class but as with everything, there is always another challenge ahead!

The next step on the pyramid was to change classes into an RYA recognized Youth boat and to this end Michael began helming 29er. This boat is ‘smaller brother’ of the 49er, which is the Olympic class boat.

After only a short time, Mike and his crew were accepted into the RYA National Youth Squad which gave the team access to top 29er coaching and sports science specialists. After 18 months in the 29er and some very credible results like top 3 at the National championships and two Tailored Support camps, Mike decided to make a big change in his plans. In September 2008 Mike moved from the 29er into the other RYA recognised youth class the International 420. The 420 is a highly contested international class with many countries having well established programmes making the racing very tight.

During the past 3 years in the 420, Mike has become 420 Uk Selector series Champion 2010 and 2011. He is also RYA national youth champion and current UK national champion. In 2011 Mike came 5th at the World Championships in Buenos Aries, Argentina.

 The next stage is start in the Olympic 470 class. This is going to be a long and very challenging programme but Mike and his crew are looking forward to the journey and all the trials and tribulations it will bring.

Michael has been helping young sailors in the Leicestershire area at the Mayors Trophy Series since it was founded and at the regattas he acts as P.R.O. (Principle Race Officer), setting courses and giving briefings.

Michael is a qualified RYA Assistant Instructor and racing level 2 coach, and he coaches other young sailors whenever his sailing commitments allow. He has also been coaching the LRYSA team that competed at the NSSA Regatta in Plymouth and has worked with Junior and Youth National squads.