Rutland Sailing Club Youth and Junior Championship
by Fiona Tylecote 21 Sep 2016 21:55 BST
17-18 September 2016
Ewan McAnally, first O'pen Bic, at Rutland Sailing Club Youth and Junior Championship 2016 © Nick Neve
57 of Rutland's best youth sailors to took to the water this weekend for the Rutland SC Youth and Junior Championships. With ages ranging from 6 to 18, and boats from Optimists to 29ers there was plenty to keep the competitors and the race officials on their toes. Oakham School were out in force with sailors in Lasers, Fireflies, Fevas and Teras.
There were 6 races sailed over the two days: four in the moderate to windy conditions of Saturday and two in the lighter flukier winds on Sunday.
The regatta fleet was open to competitors sailing junior singles handers including Toppers, Optimists, O'pen Bics and Teras who had less experience of racing and wanted a smaller course with coaching available. Matusz Jesis enjoyed good winds at the front of the regatta fleet, leading every race on the water and recording a series of firsts and seconds. However it was Lauren Attwell sailing her Optimist, and continuing even when she was cold and her hand hurt who went on to win the event.
Amelia Green, also sailing an Optimist gave Lauren a run for her money and took first Optimist in the last race. Jono McDevitt and Ed Ashmore were fighting it out in the Bics and Imogen McEwing and Solomon Wilby had some great racing in their Toppers showing some great promise. The advantage of the regatta fleet was they made it out on time, snuck in a cheeky race before the main fleet made it to the race course and therefore were able to be sipping hot chocolate on the shore before the main fleet came in on the Saturday.
The race team had a lot of fun with the poor lone man on the committee boat likening the experience to a Hen weekend – how did he know? The first race on the Sunday was Barts's Bash and fleet of the previous day were joined by some youngsters from Sailability in Access sailing dinghies and RS Ventures. This was the first time these kids had taken part in racing and we hope to see them on the junior course again in the future. They put up a good show with Josie Cockburn finishing a creditable thirteenth and Fraser Hanan seventeenth. Also sailing were Elsa Marie Cockburn, Alex Haywood, Logan Bell, Alex McQuitty and James Adair, Sam Toseland, Ross Toseland and Tony Barnby.
Back in the overall results there were five different race winners across the six races – only Maddy Kirk (Oakham School) in her Laser 4.7 managing two wins, which left her leading the event on Saturday night tied on points. Saturday's light winds suited her less well but she did take on the bet of sailing one leg backwards!
The eventual winner was Harry Martin from Oakham School sailing a Laser Radial: he recorded one win, four seconds and a third to win by a margin of 7 points. In second place was Oscar Morley in a Laser std, who with the stronger winds of Saturday suffered slightly for the two hours of hockey he had played prior to sailing. Other race winners included Charlie Turnbull in his Topper and Ewan Mcanally in his Open Bic, although it was a consistent series by Jamie Tylecote which gave him first Bic overall.
First Firefly was Elysia Dooley and Becky Sale putting together a dominant series and finishing 8th overall. Jess Flint and Alice Hutchins lead the Feva fleet, counting a second and third they finished 7th overall. In a bit of a girl thing Carys Attwell also controlled her fleet being leading Tera in every race and finishing 10th overall. Annabel Turnbull and Joseph Green battled against each other in the Toppers but on Sunday Annabel showed her brother that he couldn't have it all his own way finishing as leading Topper in both races on the Saturday, which pulled her up into 9th place overall.
The day finished with cakes and prizes and a great speech from Harry Martin thanking all the Race committee and rescue, although looking at the photos I think they had quite enough fun anyway! Congratulations to all competitors for a great and busy weekend's sailing.
Top 10 results:
1st Harry Martin, Laser radial, 9 points (first Laser)
2nd Oscar Morley, Laser std, 16 points (first Under 15)
3rd Maddy Kirk, Laser 4.7, 21 points
4th Jamie Tylecote, O'pen Bic, 23 points (first under 12 and first O'pen Bic)
5th Charlie Turnbull, Topper, 25 points (first Topper)
6th Ewan McAnally, O'pen Bic, 25 points
7th Jess Flint and Alice Hutchins, Feva, 25 points (first Feva)
8th Elysia Dooley and Becky Sale, Firefly, 35 points (first Firefly)
9th Annabel Turnbull, Topper, 36 points
10th Carys Attwell, RS Tera, 45 points (first Tera)
The club wish to add a massive thank you to Fiona and Steve Tylecote (the latter as USA backup) for their tireless enthusiasm in putting on this event and those over previous years.