Laser Radial Girls' RYA Youth Nationals at WPNSA

Day one

This year the RYA Youth Nationals were held at WPNSA, and for the first time the girls' and boys' Radial fleets were raced separately. As the girls' fleet had 31 entries, it was a relatively small fleet compared to what most girls were used to racing in. The forecast looked tricky with light winds forecast for the whole week.

As everyone arrived in the boat park on day one, we were greeted by little or no wind. After the briefing, we were immediately postponed onshore for about an hour. Then, we were sent afloat in the hope of finding some wind, and by the first race there were 8–10knts.

Race 1 got away cleanly and having a good start was key to making the most of the opportunities to tack on the shifts. Clemmie Thompson took the first win of the event closely followed by Ellie Cumpsty and Karyna Manuel.

With similar conditions in the second race, Thompson took another bullet followed home by Ellie Cumpsty and Manuel. Unfortunately for Thompson, once ashore, she found out that she had been black flagged.

Race 3 started with slightly more wind, around 12 knots, but by the final run the wind had dropped to very little and we ended up sailing upwind to the leeward mark. Manuel won the race, followed by Rhiannon Massey and Chloe Barr.

Day two

On day two we were sent out into the bay once again to find very little wind on the race course. After three hours of postponement, we finally managed one very light-wind race, with Liz Sherwood taking the win over Manuel in second and Ellie Brown in third.

Day three

On day three, we were once again postponed in the morning. Eventually, Race 5 was sailed in the bay in around 6–8knts. Barr won the race, with Stephanie Wingeatt second and Sophie Heritage third.

After the first race, the wind died and we were sent into the harbour to race. Although there was more wind in the harbour, we had a slight lack of marks to race around as the Standard boys were still using them to race in the bay. The Race Officer then decided to race us on a windward–leeward course; a first for many of us in the Radial fleet. Hannah Brant won Race 6, with Sherwood in second and Freya Cumpsty in third.

Fortunately, by Race 7 we had all the marks back, so we were able to go back to our usual trapezoid course. Again in very shifty winds, Sophie Heritage took her first win of the week, with second place going to Karyna and third place to Freya Cumpstey.

Day four

On day four, we got to the boat park to find, what looked like, foggy weather out in the bay. We were postponed whilst the 420s and Spitfires launched and then sent out after them. However, as we reached the end of the harbour we could see more fog rolling in. Very soon, we could only see a few boat lengths in front and behind us. We were then all herded together so the safety boats didn't lose anyone, but after waiting for an hour we were sent to shore in convoy and when the fog didn't clear all sailing was abandoned for the rest of the day.

Day five

Going into the last day, Manuel was first with a 12-point lead over Brant in second and Barr in third. With the best wind forecast for all week, it was slightly disappointing when we arrived in the race course with, once again, only 5–7knts. Race 8 was restarted quickly after one general recall with Thompson winning.

With similar conditions in Race 9, Brown took her first win of the week, Manuel was second and Massey third.

Karyna Manuel ended the week in first making her Youth National Champion for 2015.

Overall Results: