Llangorse Sailors shine in sunny Pwllheli
by W. Willett 29 Apr 2016 12:00 BST
23-24 April 2016
Eleven young sailors headed north from Llangorse Sailing Club on the weekend of 23 & 24 April to compete at the Welsh Youth and Junior Championships at Plas Heli – the new Welsh National sailing centre – coming home with a haul of medals and heaps of learning and experience. In all, 116 sailors took part across all the RYA pathway classes and Llangorse accounted for almost 10% of them with the club's sailors taking part in fleets from Optimist 'Regatta' fleet right up to Laser Radial.
Saturday dawned with sunshine and right on cue the cold northerly breeze kicked in to give fabulous (if also rather cold) sailing conditions. Four races back-to-back on Saturday for the main fleets made for a long and challenging day afloat for the older sailors, while the regatta fleet were put through their paces closer to shore. Wind off the land made it a game of snakes and ladders as the shifty breeze and changes in pressure tested everyone and Sunday was a repeat with the brisk northerly holding to give two more races for the series in a strengthening wind up to 15 knots.
In the Laser class, Theo Phillips got off to a great start with a 6 and 2, following up with some consistent scoring to bank 7th overall. Out on the blue course, the Topper racing was extremely tight and with a good entry from the club the stakes were high. Madeleine Vowles showed great composure on Sunday and came home with the award for top placed junior girl while Luc James and Miles Everett were locked in battle all weekend - Miles just shading it with an impressive 16th in race six. Duncan Lloyd-Evans and Georgia Phillips finished within a couple of points of each other posting a string of results in the early teens for 17th and 18th respectively, while further up the leader board Ollie Vowles banked two impressive races in the top three taking 8th overall. In the Topper 4.2 class, nine year old Tommy Willett recovered from an early capsize in race one to go on and win the remaining five races! He became the Welsh Youth & Junior Topper 4.2 champion with a race to spare, doing himself and the club proud.
Showing the strength of grass roots sailing at the club there was a good turnout in the OnBoard regatta fleet too: Tom James, Osian James and Béa Sparks had a fabulous weekend of thrills (and some spills) revelling in the conditions with growing confidence as the weekend went on. Tom showed some great skills posting several top-three results either side of the odd capsize, and Béa joined those lofty heights in the final race with a 2nd place of her own to round off the weekend with the award for 2nd girl overall; just a handful of points ahead of Osian in the overall standings.
Back on home waters, junior coaching continues at the club through May culminating in the club's annual Cadet Week where almost 40 young sailors will be working through the RYA syllabus at the end of the month and into June. There's a full programme of junior racing, coaching and training all year and inquiries about junior sailing and membership are always very welcome.