I have been sailing since I was nine years old but I only started sailing competitively and loving the sport at age 13. Last year I began sailing in a new boat called a Laser. My personal project will be my self improvement of sailing the Laser; and also self improvement of my personal fitness because the Laser is an extremely physically demanding boat. To sail a Laser in strong winds, you must extend your body out of the boat to counterbalance the force of the wind pushing on the sail, which is called hiking. For my sailing improvement, I will have my sailing coach to give feedback on how I am improving. For the personal fitness part, I have engaged a personal fitness coach. The way we will track my progress in the fitness aspect is how long I am able to hold the hiking out position needed to keep the boat flat when sailing strong winds. This is a very physically intense position to hold when sailing and requires an extremely strong core, legs and arms. Now I am able to hold the hiking out position for around 5 minutes which is not that long. The duration of an upwind leg of a sailing race could be as long as 20 minutes so there is a lot of room for improvement.