Derbyshire Youth Sailing at Carsington Sailing Club
by Mike Haynes 29 May 2012 09:15 BST
26 May 2012
Derbyshire Youth Sailing event at Carsington © Steve Giles
Fabulous racing conditions
The sunny and breezy weekend weather conditions provided a fabulous day's racing for the Derbyshire Youth Sailing 2012 Peak Dinghy Spares Series event that took place on Saturday 26th May at Carsington Sailing Club. Strong breezes of between 16 and 24 knots that were swinging and shifting, provided the necessary challenges for the county's youth sailors to enjoy racing against each other in the mixed fleet entry of more than 30 boats in this the third event of the annual series.
Carsington SC members, Alice and Toby Woodings romped home at their own club with elder sister Alice achieving victory ahead of her brother in their Laser Radial dinghies, both displaying very skilful racing. Sailing conditions couldn't have been better or more different than for the previous two events.
The first event of the series at Trent Valley Sailing Club was troubled with light winds that barely made racing possible. Some highly skilled racing by Adam Hart of Ogston Sailing Club gave him the first series event win in his Laser. This was followed with another equally impressive win by Optimist Class sailor Josh Haynes of Trent Valley Sailing Club at the second event held at Combs Sailing Club where the wind was again light and very unstable.
DYS Treasurer Melissa Wellbourn commented "The sailors seem able to cope brilliantly with the variable conditions that they are presented with and this is testament to their level of skill and dedication to their chosen sport. They were very impressive and this bodes well for a summer full of successful racing sailing campaigns for Derbyshire's Youth Sailors."
Each event consists of three races that last around an hour and the timings are corrected for the different types of dinghy so that the results reflect the capabilities of the sailors, rather than the speeds of the boats. The sailors who compete range in age from under 10 up to 18 years of age and there is always keen but friendly competition at all levels through the fleet. The novice racers at the back of the fleet are encouraged and supported to help them develop the skills and gain experience racing alongside the older sailors.
The race series is scored both on an overall basis and also with three age groups of Senior, Intermediate and Junior groupings. The leading Senior after three events is Alice Woodings and the leading Intermediate is Toby Woodings. The leading Junior is Alastair Joyce from Ogston SC sailing his RS Tera dinghy. The Overall leader with all results combined is currently Alice Woodings. Full results are available on the www.dysailing.com website.
Derbyshire Youth Sailing provides an excellent, fun racing and training programme for the county's budding young sailors to compete against their peers from the clubs around the county. The volunteer run organisation, affiliated to the RYA, also takes teams from Derbyshire to compete in the National Schools Sailing Association national events. This summer, the Derbyshire Team will be seeking to retain their National Championship successes from last year that saw them taking the Overall Team prize. The National Regatta is being held in Weymouth this year, the venue for the Olympic and Paralympic Games sailing events, and will in fact be the last event held before the organisers take over the venue for the Games.
There is plenty of time for other racing youth sailors to join in the fun at the rest of the series events. The next event is on Saturday 9th June at Ogston SC near Chesterfield and is sure to be a popular occasion. Pre-registration is available on www.dysailing.com. Membership of DYS is FREE for sailors who go to school in Derbyshire or are members of a Derbyshire sailing club. Sailors should be at least capable of sailing a simple triangular course in order to enter Derbyshire Youth Sailing events. So young sailors of Derbyshire should get themselves afloat, have a little bit of training at their local club and then come and join in the fun of competing in the sailing racing events.
The series racing at County level provides a great opportunity to travel to other nearby clubs and get a taste for what can lie ahead as youth sailors venture out onto the regional, national and international racing circuits.