Follow the British Keelboat Academy selections live 

Experience all the action from the British Keelboat Academy selections weekend

The second of two trials to select new squad members for the British Keelboat Academy will be taking place this weekend, and the BKA will be providing live updates as all the action unfolds at the UKSA’s headquarters in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Candidates who have received an invite to the selections will be given a range of tasks to test not only their sailing but also personal skills such as teamwork, leadership and capability to think under pressure. Being able to contest at a high level and run successful keelboat racing campaigns is not only about sailing ability, so these other areas will be major components of what the selectors will be looking for in order to choose suitable sailors for the BKA. 

 

 

The weekend will compromise a number of different activities and tests designed to push the sailors to their absolute limits, including command tasks focussing on teamwork and leadership, outdoor fitness sessions and orienteering to establish their levels of fitness, ability to operate in unusual environments as well as tasks covering their ability to plan and manage time. Sailors will also be encouraged to try several roles on board to demonstrate their abilities and gain an understanding of what is required when a member of the BKA.

Luke McCarthy, BKA Head Coach, added: “The BKA continues to offer some of the country’s top young sailors the skills and experience to take their sailing forward to a high level. We are looking forward to challenging this second group of talented and enthusiastic sailors bring to the selections, and will be offering places in the BKA squad to those that perform best. We are excited to be able to share this live through the blog – hopefully this will give other young sailors an idea of what the BKA is about and encourage them to get involved in future.”

We welcome comments from friends, family, past squad members and other sailors, so please feel free to get involved once we go live! Email comments to the address in the live chat or use the Twitter hashtag #BKAselections

For more information about the British Keelboat Academy please visit the BKA website at www.britishkeelboatacademy.org, or follow the BKA on Facebook or on Twitter (@tweetbka)