Youth Team Racing event at Norfolk Broads Yacht Club
by David Talbot 16 Apr 2018 21:21 BST
14 April 2018
Youth Team Racing event at Norfolk Broads Yacht Club © David Talbot
Now firmly established on the calendar, Saturday 14th April saw the fourth year of running this event at Norfolk Broads Yacht Club.
At the start of the day a complete lack of wind forced a delay in racing. An impromptu coaching session by Henry Harston gave a few tips to those competitors new to team racing and eventually a couple of practice races were able to be held in the Firefly dinghies, kindly provided by Norwich School.
A round robin series of 12 races then got under way as the breeze came and went, but the sailors showed great patience and skill in dealing with the tricky conditions. Experienced team racers on the Waveney and Oulton Broad Yacht Club (WOBYC) and Horning Sailing Club teams were quickly demonstrating their skills at mark traps, downwind duels and hard covering, all under the careful eye of umpiring team of Jon Gent and Mark Easton. Younger sailors from teams such as Norfolk Broads Yacht Cub made up for lack of experience with great enthusiasm and quickly got to grips with the team racing format.
The series slowly progressed in the light winds until race 11, when the wind disappeared completely. At this point the Norwich School team, led by Ed Cubitt, held an impressive 100% win rate, although most of the races had been extremely close, with the result often changing several times during the race.
After another delay, just as the race officers were considering abandoning racing, the wind returned, albeit from a completely new direction. The course was swiftly re-set and the final two races of the series were sailed in the best breeze of the day, resulting in two more wins for the home team NBYC. The cumulative delays and lack of wind meant that there was no time to sail more races and the winners, were declared as Norwich School, on the basis of the round robin series.
Once again, despite the lack of wind and challenging conditions, the most important result was the excitement and enthusiasm of the young sailors at the end of the day. We hope they come back for more at future events and that others will be encouraged to join in too.
Overall winner: Norwich School – 6 wins
Second: N.B.Y.C. – 4 wins