GP Watercraft reflects on successful 2024 and first Olympic campaign
by GP Watercraft 4 Dec 10:00 PST
Shaun Priestley and Julia Buessellberg in Marseille © Shaun Priestley
Shaun Priestley of GP Watercraft was excited to be supporting two sailors as they started their Olympic journeys in Marseilles in the Summer.
Julia Buessellberg represented Germany and Adriana Penruddocke represented Bermuda in the Women's ILCA 6 competition. Both were competing at the Olympics for the first time for their respective nations and Shaun had coached them during their preparation for the Games.
Shaun, who has a been running a long-term performance coaching relationship with the Bermuda national sailing team coached Adriana through the Olympic qualification competition at the Pan American Games in Chile in October 2023. Adriana secured a top 10 place in the Pan American Games to qualify and finished 36th in Marseille.
Julia, previously ranked number three in the women's ILCA 6 class, finished 25th in Marseille.
Shaun says: "I am immensely proud of the ILCA 6 Olympic Games campaign. Adriana had some fantastic moments both in the qualifying process and out in Marseille at the Games, showing her potential going forwards. It was a pleasure to work with Julia in both the build-up too, and at the Olympics. The future is looking bright for these talented sailors."
Men's Success in ILCA Performance Coaching
In addition, GP Watercraft coaches Sebastian Kempe in the ILCA 7. Sebastian won the Youth World Championships in the ILCA 6 in 2021 and was second in the Youth World Championships in 2022. He narrowly missed out in qualification for Bermuda in the 2024 Olympic Games.
After taking a break, Sebastian put in a solid performance at the ILCA 7 Open and National Championship in Weymouth in August. He achieved silver in the under-21 men's division and fourth overall in a fleet of 60.
About Shaun Priestley
Shaun started off sailing Toppers and Lasers at club and county level, before moving into racing Solings with his father. He's raced Solings, Etchells and radio-controlled yachts nationally and internationally and his performance coaching career took off after running two Laser performance training centres on Lake Garda. After Garda, he moved to Bermuda to work with at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and their youth ILCA group. He's been working with the Bermudians and the Bermuda Sailing Association ever since. He's also been an active coach in the UK and has at times supported the ILCA 6 British Sailing Team, ILCA 6 & 7 British sailing squad, RYA youth squad and ILCA UK class training previous to the Olympics.
Results
GP Watercraft has achieved excellent results with different sailors including:
- European Youth Laser Radial Championships - third
- World Youth Laser Radial Championships - third
- World Youth ISAF Championships - first and second
GP Watercraft has also supported sailors to multiple top three finishes at Europa cup events, gold fleet finishes on the Olympic circuit and a top three finish at the ILCA North American Championships.
Rory Wilson
GP Watercraft is excited to announce that Rory Wilson has joined the team as Head Coach. He's coached sailing nationally and internationally and has a vast and detailed knowledge of ILCA sailing and foiling. He's previously worked for the Andrew Simpson Foundation's Performance Academy and is looking to help GP Watercraft to support the class associations in the UK and overseas. Rory also continues to develop his own coaching with British Youth Sailing.
In addition to his performance coaching activity, Shaun is also a Director of Melges UK, a distributor of Melges sailing and foiling dinghies and keelboats in the UK.
End of Year Training
GP Watercraft is closing the year out in a typically busy fashion with a training camp in Vilamoura for Bermudian sailor Sebastian Kempe and Italian sailor Matteo Bertacchi- teaming up with some British groups, Bermudian sailor Adriana Penruddocke and German sailor Julia Busselburg who are training with coach Shaun Priestley in Bermuda.
In addition to the above, GP Watercraft is proudly supporting the Ilca UK class training on a regional and national basis and is looking forward to the coming training in December at WPNSA and 2025 training programme.
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