Toddbrook Sailing Club ‘Sail for Gold event for Derbyshire Youth Sailing
by Mike Haynes 24 Jul 2012 08:01 BST
21 July 2012
Derbyshire Youth Sailing 'Sail for Gold' event at Toddbrook © Ed Washington
On Saturday 21st July Olympic gold was the theme and gold was the colour as the sun shone and a breeze that can only be described as fair but a bit erratic, blew for the Toddbrook Sailing Club 'Sail for Gold' regatta. Boats from other Derbyshire sailing clubs threaded their way to the Whaley Bridge club bringing young sailors to take part in the latest of the Derbyshire Youth Sailing Peak Dinghy Spares 2012 Series.
Toddbrook Sailing Club has recently gained the status of a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) accredited Training Centre and was taking part in a national RYA ‘Push the boat out day' to celebrate and support the endeavours of Team GB sailors in the forthcoming games.
The tricky conditions provided the young Derbyshire sailors with a stern test of their capacity to cope with variation in wind speeds and direction. However, those watching from the shore and the reservoir wall, which is topped with a quite busy pathway, were certainly entertained by the days' racing.
A total of 18 boats sailed for gold with Joshua Haynes (Trent Valley SC) in his Optimist dinghy being the overall winner, keeping Lewis and Harrison Coppinger, from the home club, sailing a Graduate dinghy, in second place.
Joshua has just returned from competing with the Optimist Class GB Development Team, in an international event called the Chocolate Cup, sailing on Lake Balaton in Hungary, where he was the highest placed GB sailor being 2nd overall after eight races. Josh was equal on points with the Hungarian National Optimist Champion but was awarded 2nd place after the rules for splitting a points' tie were applied.
"Perhaps there were future Olympians sailing on Saturday." commented Jane Thorpe. "It was a fine opportunity for experienced and novice sailors alike to compete, with Sally Best and Annabelle Coppinger sailing together in their first DYS event. The girls have only recently taken up sailing and enjoyed being ahead of Annabelle's brothers for at least part of the racing".
As well as some excellent sailing and enjoyment of some summer-like weather, the event also raised funds for Sailability with a game of Pooh-sticks which was won by Toby – a golden Labrador, much to the delight of the young sailors.
The next Derbyshire Youth Sailing Peak Dinghy Spares 2012 Series event is in the South of the County at Staunton Harold Sailing Club on Saturday, September 8th. Derbyshire Youth Sailing website is at www.dysailing.com where there's more information about DYS.