A few weeks before sailors Will Jackson and Ava Hider enjoyed strong performances at the 2023 Island Games in Guernsey, history was made by another of Cayman’s sailors at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games.
Competing in the women’s ILCA 6 class at the CAC Games in El Salvador from 26 June to 1 July, Charlotte Webster, 19, finished fourth to notch Cayman’s best-ever sailing performance on that stage.
“The conditions were really tricky,” Webster said. “The wind was shifting, it was light, it was windy, it was a bit gusty at times.”
“Sailing is one of those sports [where] you can’t predict everything,” she continued. “If one girl goes off the right side of the racecourse and everyone’s going off the left, there’s a bit of risk and reward.
“Are you going to follow the right and not know what’s coming? Are you going to stick with the group and play your odds there?”
While the unpredictable racing conditions in El Salvador were tough, so too was the level of competition.
Webster, who for the last year has been training and competing throughout Europe whilst completing her first year of studies in environmental science at the University of Exeter, says that the sailing world is a relatively small one – meaning she often knows the sailors she is going up against.
At the CAC Games, for example, she was familiar with all three of the women who finished in the podium places just ahead of her: Mexico’s Elena Oetling, an Olympic veteran; Venezuela’s Daniela Rivera, a three-time CAC silver medallist; and Cristina Castellanos, a training partner of Webster’s over the past year.
Setting sail for broader horizons at Worlds, Pan Ams
Meanwhile, that history-making achievement at the CAC Games is only the latest in a string of international sailing successes for Webster. In February, her placing at the US Open Sailing Series in Clearwater, Florida, secured a spot for a then-undetermined Cayman sailor to attend the 2023 Pan American Games, which are taking place from 20 Oct. to 5 Nov. in Santiago, Chile.
Describing that achievement as “groundbreaking” for Cayman, Webster confirmed to the Compass that the Cayman Islands Sailing Club has now officially recommended her to the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee as the sport’s representative for Pan Ams. If selected when the CIOC formally announces Cayman’s team for those Games later this year, Webster will compete in the women’s ILCA 6 class in Chile, where she will fight for one of a few Olympic qualifying spots up for grabs.
First, however, Webster and the rest of the world’s sailing elite will converge on the Dutch city of The Hague next month for Olympic sailing’s principal qualification event: the senior level Sailing World Championships.
Since returning from the CAC Games in El Salvador, Webster has been training on island in advance of her trip to the Netherlands, which will mark a senior World Championships debut for the young Caymanian sailor after appearances at the Youth World Championships in 2021 and 2022.
“Worlds is our first ILCA Olympic qualifying event, so it’s going to be a really tough competition,” Webster said. “There are over 100 boats going [110 entries in the ILCA 6 class], all fighting for those spots.”
Despite expecting stiff competition from the world’s best sailors, a degree of familiarity with the North Sea venue where Webster will race in the ILCA 6 class from 13-20 Aug. (last year’s Youth Championships were also held in The Hague) has helped in her preparation.
“It can be quite a windy venue and there’s a really strong current there, so making sure I’m physically fit is the top priority,” Webster said, adding that strength and conditioning work in the gym has been a focus of her training.
With such a large fleet of boats set to take part in The Hague, Webster’s prior experience at competitive European events should also aid her readiness to deal with whatever scenarios occur on what is sure to be busy starting lines for her races.
“[Experience] starting on a line with more than 10 boats is super important when you’re going to these major events,” she explained.
Once the World Championships have begun, results should be available on the event’s official website.
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