Gul RS Youth Championships at Oxford Sailing Club

An excellent turnout of 22 boats made the trip to Oxford Sailing club for the youth championships. We were greeted with sun but a lack of wind.

Race 1 started with a lot of the fleet being a bit eager to start with the 1st general recall of the weekend and the black flag coming out. With a very shifty force 1-2 wind, Frances Peters and Claire Lasko shot of the line to make it first to the windward mark followed by Tom and Jess Olden and Rachel Wigmore and Lucy Matthews. With a good mark rounding Peters/Lasko sped off not to be seen again, Wigmore/Matthews had a good down wind run to move to 2nd with the Olden's taking 3rd and Nikki Russell and Ben Lister 4th.

The second race led to some early starters and their second race being over. The rest of the fleet got off to a good start with Peters/Lasko flying off the start line again to lead round the windward mark followed by Wigmore/Matthews and Josh Gebhard and Tom Jeffrey. Wigmore/Matthews managed to steal the lead, with Russell/Lister coming back to take 2nd, Gebhard/Jeffrey taking 3rd and Peters/Lasko slipping to 4th.

Race three and a nice clean start for all the boats, Wigmore/Matthews got off to a great start and led from the windward mark with incredible pace with Andrew Conn and Jake Gebhard following in second. Wigmore/Matthews won the race with Conn/Gebhard having some tricky wind on the last down wind stretch to let Graham Rome and Sophie Hartley in to 2nd and Russell/Lister to 3rd.

After racing David Giles kindly did some video debriefing and shared some of his knowledge. With a disco on Saturday night the over 18 youths did the class proud and drank the bar dry at 9 o'clock forcing them to go out to buy more supplies!

Sunday started sunny but with little wind.

Race 4 kicked off with Jack Norton and Sarah Sharp 1st to the windward mark followed by the Olden's and Gebhard/Jeffrey. With a good down wind leg Conn/Gebhard took the lead with the Olden's still fighting strong in second. Gebhard/Jeffrey managed to make back some places with some good manoeuvring up wind to lead to the windward mark and take the race, with Conn/Gebhard 2nd and Wigmore/Matthews coming through to take 3rd.

With the wind picking up to a nice force 3 for the second race things were going to get interesting, Sam Littlejohn and Emma Clarke powered off to be first to the windward mark followed by Conn/Gebhard and Peters/Lasko. With a comfortable lead Littlejohn/Clarke took the race with Wigmore/Matthews 2nd, Peters/Lasko 3rd.

The final race and some teams went to pack up early due to some premature starting. Wigmore/Matthews led to the windward mark for two laps only to find they were black flagged. So it was race on for the youth cup between Peter's and Gebhard. With some tactical covering by both teams Gebhard/Jeffery just managed to take the race from Peter's/Lasko and with it the youth cup.

Overall Wigmore/Matthews convincingly won the racing and 1st female team but with Lucy Matthews being too old, the youth cup went to Josh Gebhard and Tom Jeffrey, Francis Peter's 1st U16 and Claire Lasko taking 3rd, Sam Littlejohn/Emma Clarke 4th and Nikki Russell/Ben Lister 5th. A special mention to Andy Conn and Jake Gebhard who won the merit prize with the most mixed results from a 2nd and 23rd.

A great weekend and thanks to Oxford sailing club and every one who helped to make it a success.

Overall Results: