North East Youth Travellers at South Shields Sailing Club
by Barbara Darling 25 Apr 2005 08:58 BST
The first of this Trident-UK supported series was at South Shields when twenty sailors ventured out into the estuary. South Shields club provided the quantity and the quality with Phillip Richardson winning all four races in his Laser. Kneale Brown in a Feva gave a good chase with two seconds followed by two thirds.
The wind was north easterly and cold, but it did not seem to bother the young sailors. The presence of a generous rescue fleet gave them confidence, especially when some enormous tankers glided out. Matthew Cheganis crewed by Henry Logg in a Magno came a very close third in these first races, Liam and Kieran Alcock in a 405 worked hard with the spinnaker and Alex Firth in a Topper began to creep up and finished fourth just before lunch.
After lunch the competition between the younger Topper sailors started to show with Luke McGill from Sunderland sailing a clever race to finish second, Michael Matthews also from Sunderland fourth and Thomas Steavenson, Tynemouth, fifth. The wind picked up slightly in the fourth race catching Michael unawares, he turned turtle and promptly stood on the upturned hull and did a dance! He still managed to finish sixth behind Steavenson and McGill with Alex finishing second.
Kathryn Gill, Rachel Stratton, SSSC and Gina Smith, SYC, had their own Topper tussle, and similarly did the other 405’s with Chris Stratton, Phil Moore, Suzanne Thompson and Craig Moody trying to keep kites flying in the awkward wind. Katherine Brown and Florenca Lezcano sailing in their first competitive event were just pleased to finish and not be last.
Overall Results:
1st Phillip Richardson (SSSC) Laser
2nd Kneale Brown (SSSC) Feva
3rd Alex Forth (SSSC) Topper
4th Luke McGill (SYC) Topper
5th Mathew Cheganis & Henry Logg (SSSC) Magna
6th Michael Matthews (SYC) Topper
7th Thomas Steavenson (TSC) Topper
8th Liam Alcock & Kieran Alcock (SSSC) 405