Trident Youth Travellers at Ripon Sailing Club
by Ian Smith & Fiona Spence 10 Jul 2017 13:28 BST
8 July 2017
Trident NE Youth Travellers at Ripon © Ian S Smith
35 boats from ten regional clubs converged at Ripon Sailing Club on Saturday 8 July for the final event in the 32nd Yorkshire & Humberside Youth Travellers Series and the 21st North East Youth Travellers Series, both of which were sponsored by TridentUK.
The series is split into two separate sections due to the size of the region, hosted by clubs from as far apart as Kielder Water Sailing Club in the North to Ulley Sailing Club in the South. The Northern part series was sailed over six events. (A seventh event was called off due to severe weather). The Southern series managed to compete all seven of its events.
The event at Ripon SC was also part of the Topper Youth Travellers Series.
The wind was a shifty light north-easterly and the race officer set a simple course using the full lake. After an abandonment and re-start following a course notification error, the Optimists of Patrick Beukenhalt (DRSC), Liam Boyce (DRSC) and Christopher Hampshire (Ripon) benefited from the disqualifications of Innes Bamford (Huddersfield) and Angus McKenzie (YDSC) after rounding a mark in the wrong direction to complete an Optimist 1,2,3.
The wind failed to settle but the sun continued to shine after lunch and the race officer elected to use the same course for race 2. Innes Bamford made no navigational mistakes this time and led on the water and on handicap, chased by Angus McKenzie and Austin Wright (Pennine) in their Toppers. Beukenhalt proved consistent and gave a convincing Optimist sailing demonstration to take 3rd on handicap chased hard on the water by Hampshire who ended up fourth.
The final race enjoyed a more consistent breeze and the Race Officer chose to race at the north end of the lake. The fleet enjoyed good racing and Beukenhalt triumphed on the water against the other Optimists and on handicap from Bamford and McKenzie to take the open meeting with Bamford 2nd, Boyce 3rd, McKenzie 4th and Hampshire 5th.
Notable achievements further down the fleet include Tom Bates (Ripon) finishing 15th overall in his 2nd open meeting and Georgina Chard (T&HYC) 16th despite suffering gear failure that meant she couldn’t start the third race. Strong competitive friendships and developing skills were evident by multiple place changes on the water during the racing and show in the handicap corrected results. There were five sailors competing in their first open meeting and 11 sailors in the fleet enjoying their first season of racing having learnt to sail last year.
Angus McKenzie won the Topper Open meeting with Archie Burton (Beaver) in 2nd and Austin Wright 3rd.
The NE Travellers section was dominated by the revived interest in the Optimist class, the first 5 places being taken by them, 1st Patrick Beukenholdt (DRSC) 2nd Oscar Schilling (DRSC) 3rd Chris Hampshire (RSC) 4th Daniel Curtis (KWSC) 5th Abi Cowley (KWSC).
The Yorkshire & Humberside region saw a wider selection of classes with Innes Bamford (HSC) taking first place in his Laser Radial, Liam Boyce (DRSC) 2nd Optimist, Archie Burton (BSC) 3rd Topper, and Henry Redmond (CSC) 4th Laser 4.7 4th and Ben Wilkinson (HSC) Laser 5th.
We were delighted to welcome Dave Williamson the current chairman of the RYA to present the prizes for the day’s racing, the series and the Topper series.
Prizes for the series were generously provided by TridentUK, Mike Saul Dinghy Services and the YHYSA. Ripon SC provided prizes for the day’s racing and the Topper series.
Full series results can be found at www.yhysa.org and www.ripon-sc.org.uk