ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships – Cropley to represent Britain

by RYA on 9 Sep 2015 2015 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships – As well as winning the event Cropley was selected to represent Great Britain on an international stage in Malaysia in December.

A full schedule of racing took place over three days (29-31 August) with sailors competing for the one selection spot in each class at Hayling Island Sailing Club.
The EUROSAF Youth Sailing silver medallists match raced friends Isabel Davies and Gemma Keers (Itchenor) out of the girls' 420 race to secure their spot explains Baker: “We tried to start near them then pinch them out at the start, we then sailed them off the course in one race so that they didn’t tack because we would have tacked on them.”

Taking on their friends was hard but stands them in good stead for the tough competition in Malaysia said Cropley: “It would be easier doing it against someone we didn’t know or weren’t such good friends with, it was quite hard. “We just did what we had to do, anyone would have done what we did. Only one boat could win.” Cropley continued: “We are really happy to be selected we have been aiming for this for the past year so it’s great to achieve our goal.”

The 2015 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championships will be held in Langkawi, Malaysia from the 27 December 2015 – 3 January 2016, open to competitors aged 19 and under the event brings together the best youth sailors from across the world to compete for Youth World Champion glory.

The RYA have currently selected a team of 12 sailors who will represent British Youth Sailing. The event is a proven talent indicator, past notable British winners include Olympic champions Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy. Oli Woodcock, the Team Leader said: “I think we have a really strong team heading out to Malaysia with a lot of fresh faces. We are going to work with all of the sailors to create tailored training plans we need to make sure they work around their school commitments. We will then meet once as a team in December. “I think we have a good chance of medals in a lot of the classes and I’m really looking forward to working with them all over the next few months.”