Royal Lymington Yacht Club Youth Week 2015
by Shireen Crowe 2 Sep 2015 11:51 BST
17-21 August 2015
Over 150 young sailors raced in this year's successful Youth Week, which is run by the Royal Lymington Yacht Club with a huge team of local volunteers.
Youth Week caters for all sailing abilities and along with Wednesday Junior Sailing (WJS) is widely acknowledged as a flagship initiative within UK youth sailing. Now in its sixth decade Youth Week (previously known as Junior Regatta) gives opportunities for locally connected youngsters, to take part in competitive dinghy racing supported by professional instructors and a wealth of experienced local volunteers. This year the event was supported by Lymington Yacht Haven, Joules Clothing and, Walhampton School.
Jenny Wilson, Principal Race Officer and her race management team ran four separate fleets in the Solent and its lakes. Unlike 2014 when the tail end of Hurricane Bertha brought in some strong winds and violent squalls, the young sailors managed to race every day. It was a slow start to the week with light winds in the mornings building throughout the day and strengthening to Force 5 on a couple of days, resulting in some challenging sailing. All the fleets managed to sail every day with the younger more inexperienced sailors moving to the smaller, safer lake courses as the tide permitted. Mid week (Wednesday 19th August) torrential rain dampened the enthusiasm of some, but all fleets still managed to race. The remainder of the week was drier, with bright sunshine lifting the spirits on the final day..
The Bronze Fleet with 28 beginner Optimist sailors, some in their first year of racing, showed real potential and lots of determination to keep sailing in challenging conditions. Exhibiting more confidence each day this fleet enjoyed some good racing in a range of conditions from Race Officer Steve Green, with on the water coaching to help where necessary.
The Silver Fleet with Karl Thorne as Race Officer combined 14 intermediate Optimist sailors and 12 RS Tera sailors competing in sometimes challenging conditions of wind and tide. A combination of racing in the Solent for part of the day and in Oxey Lake for the remainder allowed the sailors in both fleets to gain confidence and achieve a very good standard of racing.
The Gold Fleet with Race Officer Malcolm McKeag had some excellent racing in the Solent off Pylewell Lake. A mixture of advanced Optimists and Tera sailors, along with a Fleet of RS Fevas – a new addition to Youth Week this year, and some Lasers, 420 and RS Visions made up a small, but very competitive fleet of around 20 boats. The racing was of a high standard and protests were few in this fleet.
The LR Scow Fleet was the largest of all with 90 children racing mainly three to a boat in three separate fleets. A fleet for regular attendees of WJS and two fleets of privately entered Scows divided by age, had two sessions of sailing a day, returning to the club at lunchtime for re-fuelling and further coaching and briefing on rules. Race Officer Fran Wilson kept them busy sailing a mixture of laid courses and passage races back to the Club, which were hotly contested.
Warm bright sunshine on the last day of the regatta added to the almost perfect racing conditions for all four fleets in the traditional 'fun race' which saw all fleets competing on the same race area. Many boats were dressed with pirate regalia and youngsters in a variety of pirate costumes worn to celebrate the end of the regatta even made Silver Fleet Race Officer Karl Thorne 'walk the plank'. Link to video on facebook...
Commenting on Youth Week 2015, Principal Race Officer, Jenny Wilson said: "The Race Officers were delighted to see such enthusiasm this year from many of the young sailors keen to get out on the water despite the tricky conditions. The improved confidence of many was heartening to see as the week progressed and the standard of racing was high. We had our fair share of protests on the water this year and it was encouraging to hear the knowledge of racing rules well articulated by the most competitive, although some still have a lot to learn. Most gratifying for the race team was the number of local 16-18 year olds who turned out to help in safety and mark laying and coaching ribs."
Winner of the prestigious 'Best Helm in the Regatta' Joules Trophy was Abbey Hire (aged 10) sailing 'White Horses' an RS Tera Sport, in the Silver Fleet. Miss Kelly Burgess, manager of Joules in Lymington presented the trophy to Abbey.
Winner of the new Walhampton Trophy was Charles Overton (aged 12). Mr Nigel Reed, deputy head of Walhampton School presented the trophy acknowledging the achievements of leadership required to successfully helm a boat with younger more inexperienced sailors aboard.
Trophy Winners:
- Joules Trophy Winner: Abbey Hire (aged 10) sailing 'White Horses' a RS Tera Sport, Silver Fleet, won the trophy for the best helm in own boat.
- Walhampton Trophy Winner: Charles Overton (aged 12) helming RLymYC Scow 'Snoopy II'
- AJ Slipway Trophy for the most helpful sailor of the week: Abby Hire by Beach Master Sebastian Chamberlain.
- Wednesday Trophy for the Best Wednesday Junior Sailor: Peter Bennet.
- Oliver's Boat Trophy for the 'Spirit of the Regatta': Andrew Eady