Profiles:

Emma started sailing in a Mirror with her Dad before racing Toppers and 420s.  
Luke’s sailing began when his family moved to Lymington – first helming Cadets then crewing in a 470.  
We met at university and went team racing together; that's really good for learning the rules, close quarters manoeuvring and how to sail with a hangover…
After uni we sailed a Laser 4000 for four years when it still had a fantastic UK and European circuit.  
We then had a sabbatical from dinghy racing while we went yacht cruising for five years.  
Once back home, we quickly realised we needed to get an adrenalin fix again; fortunately some friends lent us their RS800.  A few capsizes later we were hooked!  Weight equalised racing in a twin wire skiff that doesn't require a degree in boat handling, combined with a friendly social scene; it was everything we wanted.  It has been a challenging learning curve; at our first nationals we were mid fleet but found the faster sailors were always happy to give advice, and five years later we found ourselves at the front.
 
Tips:

- Practice boat handling on flat water and don't worry when it gets tricky in chop; everyone’s in the same situation.
- The RS800 is gloriously forgiving downwind but upwind Luke the helm needs to focus on steering, so Emma as crew doing tactics on the beat makes a big difference for us.
- Club racing is good practice, particularly for those tricky two-sail reaches.
- Keep fit to avoid injury and so you can enjoy the last race of the day.
- Don't take it too seriously: the RS800 events are about having fun on and off the water.
- Race an RS800 at Garda at least once in your life!

Luke and Emma McEwen
RS800 National Champions 2016
RS800 European Champions 2016
RS800 Magic Marine Grand Prix Champions 2016