UK 29er Class Association 2012 Review
by Phil Tilley, 29er Class Association 1 Feb 2013 06:46 GMT
2012 Sailor Member Age Distribution in the 29er class © UK 29er Class Association
2012 has proved to be another strong year for the 29er class and its sailors within the UK and abroad. We have seen growth in attendance at major competitions and in the strengthened training scheme. The membership has continued to grow to around 270 sailors predominantly youth individual members with around 1/3rd females. See Figure 1. Around 30 new boats have been sold within the UK which is up from only 6 new boats 4 years ago.
The class maintains its RYA youth pathway status which means it meets the demanding expectations of providing a development ground for our future Olympic champions.
2012 Racing Year
For most of the RYA National youth squad sailors the year started with the first Eurocup event in February in Spain. 12 boats travelled to the event with the top British boat being Ben Batten and Tim Gratton in 3rd place. The following week the domestic season started early with the Noble Marine sponsored winter championships at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club, 36 boats turned up for the weekend but unfortunately no wind on Sunday meant only 3 races were sailed. The winners of the no discard event were Ben Batten and Tim Gratton with Vikki Payne and Stephanie Orton top ladies and Rob and Emma Loveridge as top juniors. Sailors who would figure frequently throughout the year.
The well-attended and competitive 8 event Harken Grand Prix series kicked off on 17th/18th March at Rutland sailing club. Over 100 boats entered at least one event and over 40 boats doing three or more events showing a good depth of talent and willingness to travel. It was a year where the girls showed they could sail just as well as the boys, with all girl, all boy and mixed crews spread evenly throughout the final results. Nobody won more than one event which reflects the high level of competition within the fleet and the long series is effectively a game of two halves with the first half being dominated by the older crew pairings and then newer and younger crews showed how much they had learnt through the summer to provide a different group of winners in the second half. Rob and Emma Loveridge were the series winners and in the 7 events they attended they were never outside the top ten. Second in the series went to the all female pairing of Ruth Allan and Alice Masterman.
A record 72 boats turned up in Pwllheli for the RYA Youth Nationals and was won by Ben Batten and Tim Gratton who's worst result of all 13 races was 10th. They went on to finish a credible 7th at the Youth World championships.
14 boats travelled to the European championships in Sopot, Poland and top GBR boat were Jack Hawkins and Tim Walton in 13th.
The boats then moved to Travemunde in Germany where other GBR boats entered to swell British attendance to 31 boats. Top boats in the Worlds in Travemunde were Ben Batten & Tim Gratton in 8th, with 6 Brits in the gold Fleet (top 54). Matt Venables & Will Alloway were 2nd in the Silver fleet.
The Zhik 29er Nationals were heralded a huge success both for good racing and a good social program. 64 boats made there way to Restronquet Sailing Club in Cornwall and a very close series of races was eventually won by Matt Venables and Will Alloway, Ian Payne and Chris Berry were a very close second, first all girls were Ruth Allen and Alice Masterman in 8th and first Juniors Rowan Edwards and Daniel Blight.
The British team dominated the podium at the final Eurocup series event on Lake Garda at the end of October of the 6 boats that went we had Morgan Peach & Owen Bowerman 1st, Matt Venables and Will Alloway 2nd, 4th and 1st Ladies Vikki Payne and Stephi Orton.
The Eurocup series consisted of 7 events at European venues held from Feb to October with 20 British boats attending at least one event abroad. The best placed British boat and First ladies overall were Vikki Payne and Stephi Orton with our National Champion winners in 10th.
The Ovington Boats Inland Championships concluded the racing calendar with some lighter wind sailing and won by Rob and Emma Loveridge.
2012 Training
The class training program is perhaps the most extensive in the youth sailing pathway and underpins the competitive racing. The class run training sessions are fully aligned with RYA national and transition squads and provide for all levels from first timers to potential world champions.
The autumn training includes dedicated events for new sailors joining from other classes and leads towards RYA transition squad selection.
New in 2012 has been Advanced Open training which is only open to those sailors qualifying for gold fleet at identified events, ensuring the training also has dedicated events for our top sailors. This training is partially subsidized by the RYA but lead by the Class association.
This association lead training is additional and complimentary to the RYA Transition & Youth Squads which currently train around 25 of our top boats. This winter we have over 200 sailors taking part in our class open training program at venues around our coastline & lakes.
Class Promotion
In 2012 the class has seen increased use of facebook which has effectively replaced the traditional website message board. This is a closed user group and has just under 400 members and has proved useful for crew matching and equipment advice. In addition we have started promoting an open page which currently has over 150 likes and will prove a key site to attract interested parties.
Blogging at the National Championships and key events proved very popular with over 200 unique viewers.
The class is indebted to a couple of IT literate parents who continue to help develop the new media marketing tools including a twitter feed.
Looking forward
2012 has been a great year and 2013 also promises to be another year of growth with many new sailors joining from Topper, Feva, Cadet, Mirror and Optimist classes. There are around 10 boats participating in the GJW direct Sailjuice winter series meaning they will have a fleet within the results.
The stability of our class is helping create meaningful and lasting relationships with our sponsors with Zhik agreeing to commit to National Championship sponsor until 2015, Harken agreeing to commit support to 2016 at an increased level of support in 2013 and Noble Marine again sponsoring our Winter Championships at Draycote Water in February.
The class continues to move forward with a strong and committed committee and looks forward to a long lasting engagement with supporters, sponsors, sailors and parents throughout 2013.