Queen Mary Sailing Club Youth Open Regatta

by RYA on 22 Oct 2010 Queen Mary Sailing Club Youth Open Regatta - Challenging conditions greeted some 90 young sailors who attended the Queen Mary Sailing Club Youth Open Regatta on 16 October 2010 for a blustery set of four races.

The races were sailed in an increasing breeze which tested the skills of all the sailors, and numerous capsizes kept the safety crews busy.

The youngsters came from seven different centres in the London area, six of which are RYA OnBoard centres. The standard varied from those who were confident sailing the course to those who are actively involved in various RYA Youth Zone Squads. For a lot of the youngsters it was the first chance to sail in a big fleet on a large stretch of open water.

In the first race five different types of boat filled the top five places, with Patrick Croghan in a Tera Pro first, Tim Palmer in a full rig Laser second, Tom Mitchell and Oliver Scott in a Feva XL third, Lucy Harris in a Laser 4.7 fourth, and Angus Couper in a Topper fifth. The split in the boats kept everyone on their toes with the handicaps, and all the places were closely contested for the entire day.

The wind persisted for the second race and produced some impressive sailing from all the competitors. The Fevas relished the chance to get the spinnakers up and flying and had some close racing downwind.

There were numerous retirements as the cold and wind took their toll, prompting some telling comments from the Desborough Sailing Club team: 'This must be the windiest place in the world ', 'I can’t feel my feet', and 'Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr'.

Once everyone had warmed up over lunch, races 3 and 4 proved just as entertaining and challenging, with another squall again keeping both competitors and safety boats very active before things calmed down.

The starts in the afternoon proved to be extremely important, giving clear air and tactical options for the leaders. The two Laser 4.7s of Lucy Harris and Ellie Tapper scored well in both the final races and proved that posting consistently good results is what counts.
And the winner is...

At the end of the day Tom Mitchell (15) and Oliver Scott (14) from Docklands Watersports Centre in their Feva were overall winners. Tom and Ollie started racing two years ago at Royal Victoria Docks with encouragement from OnBoard and the Watersports Centre.

Tim Palmer of Queen Mary Sailing Club was second in his full rig Laser. Third to sixth places were separated by just the one point, showing just how close the day’s racing had been.

There were more successes for Queen Mary members with Patrick Croghan top Junior and third overall, and Angus Couper top Topper sailor.

RYA OnBoard development officer and event organiser Tim Anderton said: 'This was an end of season event for a number of local centres who work with the RYA as either OnBoard or Volvo RYA Champion Clubs.

'It proved a huge success and gave the youngsters a chance to sail on a large stretch of water with a big fleet. They all coped extremely well and the standard of sailing was very high. There was a lot of support from both the centres and the parents who brought the kit and the kids across.'

Run by the RYA, OnBoard is a grass roots programme which introduces sailing and windsurfing to young people aged 8 to 18, through schools, youth groups and training centres.

Over a ten year period OnBoard aims to introduce a minimum of 500,000 children to sailing and windsurfing in the UK, converting over 10% of them into regular participants. So far it’s nicely on track.

www.ruob.co.uk