Bridgman takes a win in a world-class fleet

Bridgman, competing under the Guernsey Yacht Club banner, finished 22nd out of 140 competitors and was second out of the Great Britain contingent at the event held in Sandefjord, Norway, from 6-10 August.

Very light winds at the start of the event made for some very technical and tactical racing which left Bridgman 75th after the opening day.

As the wind picked up over the next few days, he was able to improve his results and was the star of the show during the fourth day of racing when he secured his first-ever win at an International Waszp Games in what was described by the event organisers as ‘a standout performance’.

This was followed by a second-place finish which, together with his maiden victory, helped catapult him from 45th after day three to 21st overall at the end of the fourth day.

‘I’m pleased with how I performed considering the level of competition and the varying racing conditions,’ Bridgman said.

‘I have practised very hard this season to improve my light-wind sailing and I do feel I’ve improved a lot, particularly on manoeuvres and race tactics, but I kept getting shut out, causing me to crash off the foils on the starts and at which point I was always playing catch up.

‘Then I managed to pull back up the leaderboard as the wind picked up throughout the week, with the final two days being particularly windy and wavy with 2m waves and 30mph gusts to battle through.

‘Of course, I would have wanted to have finish higher, but I was very happy with that comeback and to hold on to 22nd place in the end.

'I left everything out on the water but unfortunately there were just too many mistakes this time around.’

Bridgman’s final regatta of the summer will be the UK national championships in Weymouth on 22 August where there are expected to be 80 boats competing at the venue which is set to host the world championships in 2025.

‘Now I’m looking ahead to the UK national championships and then I’ll be considering whether I compete again next season.

‘The boat designer is expected to release a new rudder which could increase speeds by 15-20% so I’ll definitely be watching developments with interest this winter,’ added Bridgman, who is sponsored by The International Stock Exchange, under the banner of its private markets service, TISE Private Markets.

Mark Oliphant, head of marketing and communications at TISE, said: ‘We are so proud to see Andrew compete with the best in the world and deliver such a strong result. It was particularly impressive to see him record his first race win at this elite level and get the accolades from the event organisers for that day’s racing.’