IW Youth and Junior Championships 2022 Event 1 at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club
by Steve Sheridan 8 Jun 2022 07:29 PDT
28 May 2022
IW Youth Dinghy Championships Event 1 © Steve Sheridan
The Royal Victoria Yacht Club hosted the first event in this year's IW Youth Dinghy Championships on Saturday 28 May. Thirty-four sailors from around the Island launched their Tera and ILCA dinghies into a lively Northerly breeze which was forecast to ease as the day went on.
The ILCAs were first away with the race team having set a port-handed triangle course to allow for the ebbing tide. Tera Pro and Sport followed with a coached regatta fleet of Tera's. (This last fleet was largely composed of younger sailors with little or no experience of sailing away from home waters and so RIBs accompanied them around the course to give advice when needed.)
The single lap first race was soon completed with the ILCA 6s in particular revelling in the conditions and each class was won by a Gurnard sailor. Fred Salter coming in ahead of RVYC's Sam Osborne and Noah Evans. In the ILCA 4s, Gretal Haines won from Yarmouth SC's Oliver Mayo and RVYC's Beth Blake taking third. In the Tera Pro's, Ben Anderson took race 1 from Ruby Sunderland (BHYC) and Will Bradley (Gurnard) third. Tera Sport results were Cass Day winning with fellow Gurnard sailors Samuel Leather and Rafe Bradley completing the podium. The coached regatta fleet also saw a Gurnard podium of Fallon Day, Luc Gheorghiu and Ran Wheeler.
There was a slight delay before race 2 as the wind backed about 60 degrees and as soon as marks had been re-laid it went back to the North. Fickle conditions. Although it was difficult to set a fair line, the race team decided to crack on with race 2; two laps this time with the breeze just softening a little. Apart from one general recall for the Tera Pro/Sport class as the tide swept them over the line, competitors coped well with the building tide and variable wind speed and direction with plenty of RIB cover to ensure safety for all. The scheduled three races were completed by 1300 and competitors headed ashore in the lighter conditions to enjoy a BBQ and prize-giving in the sunshine on RVYC's lawn.
Final results saw quite a few results being settled on count-back and the fleet winners were all from Gurnard.
ILCA 6: Fred Salter
ILCA 4: Gretal Haines
Tera Pro: Will Bradley
Tera Sport: Rafe Bradley
Tera Coached Regatta: Fallon Day
Two of Gurnard's sailors enjoyed RVYC so much that they came back on Sunday for a WASZP taster session with class captain Martin Evans.
Gurnard will host the next event in the championships on 17 September.