South West Youth Sailing Academy excel in RS Tera Worlds at Carnac
by Nicholas James 8 Aug 2017 17:55 BST
30 July - 4 August 2017
Six sailors from the South West Youth Sailing Academy (SWYSA) have just returned from the RS Tera World Championships in Carnac, France.
The SWYSA is a not for profit group of RS Tera and Topper sailors from seven clubs in the South West training together through the winter to improve their sailing skills. The group has grown from 12 children in 2014 to over 50 sailors last winter where they have been coached by World champions and ex Olympians on inland and coastal venues.
The group were fortunate to have funding for the head coach Tim Anderton from the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation who helped with the expansion of the SWYSA project. Tim said "This is exactly the sort of project that the ASSF is all about, helping young sailors, many who have never sailed before into the sport, hopefully for a lifetime and with many of the SWYSA sailors not owning their own boat but borrowing club boats we hope to remove the financial barriers that often prevent so many potential sailors entering the sport".
Of the six sailors who travelled to the World Championships only one had ever been before and for most it was their first ever big event. The practice race on the Sunday saw first and second places for SWYSA sailors Albert Gilmore and William James closely followed by the other RS Tera sport sailors Ben Meek. Over five days of racing in challenging conditions the SWYSA sailors picked up several third and fourth places and even a second in the Sport fleet.
With these promising results the SWYSA sailors are now looking forward to the National Championships at WPNSA at the end of August.
South West Youth Sailing Academy Results:
Sport Fleet
3rd Boy, William James
5th Boy, Albert Gilmore
17th Ben Meek
Pro Fleet
10th Freddie Gillmore
23rd Evie Booth
36th William Meek