Derbyshire Youth Sailing Team come close in defence of their title
by Mike Haynes 17 Jul 2012 09:15 BST
8-13 July 2012
The Derbyshire team didn't manage to retain their title but came an impressive fourth place overall out of 29 teams competing from right across the UK in the National School Sailing Association Golden Jubilee Regatta 2012 in Weymouth. The overall winners were the team from Northampton.
"Defending the title of being the overall winning team was our aim last week and all the sailors worked really hard to try and achieve this, but the team from Northampton proved stronger in the end and our congratulations must go to them." said Derbyshire Team Manager Melissa Wellbourn. She continued "Our highest placed sailors, Harvey Martin and Will Ward, were the champions of their fleet in the Feva Class double handed dinghy and we also had highly placed sailors in the Laser Radial and Handicap fleets too."
Harvey and Will become the latest recipients of the Derbyshire Bell Trophy which is awarded to the leading sailors from the Derbyshire team at the NSSA Annual Regatta. Harvey commented "The conditions were pretty difficult all week, with very changeable weather to contend with, but we kept our focus and the results came good for us."
In the Laser Radial single handed class dinghy, sister and brother Alice and Toby Woodings came a very creditable 6th and 7th place respectively overall. In the slow handicap fleet the highest placed Derbyshire sailors were Oliver Law in his Europe single handed class dinghy who was 5th, while James Hart and Ben Haynes in their Splash single handed class dinghies were 7th and 8th respectively, separated by just half a point. In the fast handicap fleet the Fireball double handed dinghy of Sam Brooke and Oliver Stone was placed 12th overall.
The NSSA Golden Jubilee Regatta held at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy provided a fantastic opportunity for the school age sailors, from all parts of the UK, to come together in a celebration event which included the Olympic Torch relay, a visit from HRH Princess Anne and rubbing shoulders with Team GB members in their last days of preparation before the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The organisers of the NSSA event certainly had their work cut out for them, with the Games venue coming to the final stages of preparation and the weather failing to provide the sort of conditions you would normally expect at this time of year. The difficulties were overcome with everyone pulling together to help out, from those who contended with the saturated ground at the campsite in one of the local schools, to those who managed the launch and recovery of boats that totalled approaching 10,000 occasions in the week.
The Team GB sailors were very generous of their time to all of the sailors and Paul Goodison, the Laser Class Gold Medallist who is seeking to win Gold again in 2012, attended the prize giving as guest of honour and presented the winning sailors with their trophies. Everyone in the Derbyshire Team enjoyed their time at the regatta and met new friends as well as seeing friends from previous NSSA and other events.
The next DYS series event is this Saturday 21st July, back in Derbyshire at Toddbrook Sailing Club which is hosting the event as part of its' Sail for Gold celebrations in the Push the Boat Out event. Derbyshire Youth Sailing website is at www.dysailing.com where there's more information about DYS.