Katie Dabson and the power of the GB Formula Kite girls

Katie Dabson is leaning on the power of the GB Kite Girls ahead of her return to international competition.

The 27-year-old will take to the water at the upcoming Formula Kite European Championships in Spain from the 16 to 24 March.

Following a 'disappointing' result at last year's championships in Portsmouth, Dobson revealed that she is refreshed and ready to go again after a successful winter training period.

"I was pretty disappointed with my Europeans last year," she said.

"We'd had a pretty important year and had been going flat out since Palma, which was in April time.

"So coming away from that I knew I needed some time off to rest and recover and took some time off until the end of November.

"Since then I've been back in training with the girls, and I think everyone's pretty motivated ahead of the Europeans. It's been a really productive winter actually."

Dabson is one of a five-strong British Formula Kite team that train together in Weymouth, informally known as the GB Kite Girls on Instagram.

Ellie Aldridge might be the one who is off to Paris this summer but the Kite Girls are one cohesive team in Dabson's eyes as they all aim to help each other perform at their best at the upcoming Europeans.

"This winter actually has felt the best it's felt in a long time and we've been really cohesive as a group," she said.

"Everyone knows that Ellie is the one going to the Games and we're the team behind her helping her become the best she can be.

"We've kind of learned to do the sport together over the years.

"There was no kite surfing in the sailing team before we came together so we were kind of almost leading that because we had to.

"We had to figure out what we wanted from the sport and what we wanted to work on which brought us together.

"Five years later now and we're all pretty nice to each other."

Dabson won't necessarily be eyeing up a podium finish in Spain. A strong winter period of training instead makes the championships a prime opportunity to perfect her starts and speed and a major international event.

The kiteboarder revealed that her main focus at the Europeans will be to find a new skill to work on ahead of a busy summer.

"This event isn't necessarily an outcome event, it's more of a process event as we call them," she said.

"So we instead go into it with specific goals and not necessarily looking for a medal result.

"Of course, if I get a medal then that's lovely but I'm going to be concentrating on working on my start and speed.

"A good results for me would be coming away from this event with some learnings and a new skill to get better at."

Follow the British Sailing Team on Instagram at @britishsailing