Steering the Course - Megan Hardiman
Published 18:04 on 23 May 2021
Steering the Course Women's Sailing Festival at Bartley Sailing Club
#SteeringTheCourse
Stories from our female sailors; Megan Hardiman.
Hi I'm Megan Hardiman and I started sailing when I was 8 at Bartley's K2O club.
My earliest memories of sailing are from being in an optimist for one of the first times on a Wednesday night, learning how to tack and gybe. I remember being extremely excited to get out and sail, even if it was just from one pontoon to the other!
I later got my RS Tera Sport and began to compete at some events. My first one was the zone championships in the regatta fleet, and then I did a series of junior events in the Midlands, which built my confidence and got me into racing. I went to the inlands and start of season championships too, which was quite scary at the time due to the very large fleets, but my first major event did teach me never to go to the windward mark on port! I ended up gaining a lot of confidence and experience from doing these events, and the racing was fun to participate in.
In 2016, I competed in the junior fleet of the Dartmouth regatta, and with this, I was able to meet the British Sailing Team who went to the Rio 2016 Olympics! Not only did I get to meet my idols and get their autographs, but I also got to try on the Olympic medals that they brought back fresh from Rio!
After my time in the RS Tera Sport, I moved into the RS Tera Pro and did some events in that, both in the Midlands and on the South Coast. In late 2017, I had a bad experience in my tera pro when I capsized to windward relatively near to slipway and snapped my mast. This really knocked my confidence and I didn't sail until Summer 2018, when I was convinced to get into my new laser 4.7 and pushed off the slipway!
After a few weeks of building up my confidence again, I was really enjoying sailing my laser 4.7. I went to Grafham water with the Bartley juniors for the regional junior championships, which was a brilliant experience and the following year I won Junior Camel week in Rock, Cornwall, which I had been competing in previously in my tera. In my 4.7, I did some Midlands laser events as well and got to know other sailors from the Midlands and had so much fun racing against them in the series. I also did the Midlands Youth series in 2019, and ending up coming first overall!
2020 was a year of transitioning into the laser Radial. I built my confidence in the radial at Bartley so hopefully this year I can sail in my new Rio laser in the Midlands laser grand prix! I'm still sailing my laser 4.7 on the sea though, and am looking forward to competing in the nationals this Summer.
I really love the sport of sailing as it is so much fun to blast across the water on a windy day, or have a tactical battle on the water. You also meet some really good friends along the way and being on the water gives you a sense of freedom that you can't really replicate. What's not to love?
Want to know more about sailing and water sports at Bartley Sailing Club? Just contact us via our Facebook or website www.bartleysailingclub.com. We have a very active sailing, SUP and Windsurfing programme and many training opportunities offered through our partner Andrew Simpson Centre Birmingham based at the club.
Downloads
Last updated 16:57 on 21 April 2025
