Rooster Southern Area Topper Travellers at Warsash Sailing Club

Rooster Southern Area Topper Travellers at Warsash © Ian Walker

Rooster Southern Area Topper Travellers at Warsash © Ian Walker

Rooster Southern Area Topper Travellers at Warsash © Ian Walker

An armada of Topper sailors descended on Warsash SC over the weekend of 20th and 21st May for one day of pre-event race coaching followed by the second Rooster Southern Area Topper traveller on day 2.

27 sailors attended the pre-race coaching day headed up by the RYA Topper Southern Zone coaching team of Lynne Billowes and Abbie Hewitt working specifically on starting techniques including boat handling and starting strategy. Despite a number of rain squalls going through, the sailors returned to shore all positive in what they had learnt – and Lynne and Abbie returned to shore with mascara still intact. So all happy!

The next open coaching event will be on 10th June at Poole YC.

5 to 10 knots greeted the sailors on day 2 for Rooster Southern Area Topper traveller with 44 entries in total - consisting of 32 sailors registering in the 5.3 fleet, and 12 sailors in the 4.2's.

A new venue for the Topper southern area this year - the hospitality, friendliness, event management and location setting of Warsash SC are very hard to beat. To top it off, the wind was perfect, then sun was out, the after sailing tea was excellent, and the prizes were presented to the sailors by Volvo Ocean Race winner and double Olympic Silver medallist, Ian Walker. It does not get better than that!

5.3 Fleet report (by Angus Kemp)

Angus Kemp, 14 year old sailor from Poole Yacht Club secured his second win in the Rooster Southern Topper Traveller series at Warsash Sailing Club on Sunday 21 May 2017. Having sailed a Topper since age 9 and now in his final full year sailing in the class before moving into a youth boat Kemp is drawing of his years of class and Royal Yachting Association training as well as personal practice to make this his most memorable year.

Following a win at the South West Traveller at Castle Cove the previous weekend and sailing in challenging conditions of a typically vicious Solent chop and a significant tide Kemp raced a consistent series during the day.

Leading off the start in Race 1 ahead of Phoebe Hutchings, Warsash SC, put him in a secure position. Hutchings pushed hard throughout but Kemp managed to retain to a comfortable 1 minute lead at the end of the race.

Race 2 saw Kemp win the pin end and lead off the start again ahead of Heloise Shadbolt (Warsash SC) & Dan Batty (Dorchester SC). At the first mark racing was tight but he managed to retain his lead in what was a closely fought battle to mark 2 when he again stretched his lead to take honours.

With a near perfect start in race 3 again winning the pin and tacking on port to clear the fleet, Kemp found himself with a significant lead. A lead he retained and slowly improved upon throughout the race bringing home his 3rd win of the regatta.

With his win secured Kemp just needed to bag a last win to make it a clean sweep....... but this was not to be.

Race 4 saw Kemp again gunning it out on the pin end. Unfortunately for him just a little too closely and after hitting the pin a 1 turn penalty was the order of the day leaving him at the back end of the fleet. Not deterred, he worked hard and fought his way back to secure a 2nd place finish which was later discarded as his worst score, race four winner was Joseph Bradley (Hill Head SC), with Batty taking third.

The podium for the 5.3 fleet followed this pattern with Kemp 1st, Bradley 2nd and Batty 3rd.

The win leaves Kemp in first position in the Rooster Sailing Southern Traveller series following his win at Spinnaker sailing Club earlier this spring.

The battle in the series will reconvene at The Poole Yacht Club on 11 June 2017. Entries are accepted on the day for more information and pre event training email Juliette.kemp@ntlworld.com

As always. Thanks to our series Sponsors – Rooster Sailing who provide us with our amazing visors (when will you get yours?) and subsidised prizes.

Rooster Southern Area Topper Travellers at Warsash - photo © Ian Walker

4.2 Fleet report (by Dan Perkins age 11)

After an amazing day of race coaching by Lynn Billows (the South Zone Topper Head Coach) on Saturday, it was great to see eleven other 4.2 Topper sailors competing on Sunday. The weather was fantastic, bright, sunny, warm, wavy and quite windy. With six sailors out of the 12 competitors coming from JETS, I thought that racing was going to be close.

My Dad and I prepped my boat in Lobster Quay. As always we gave the hull and foils a really good clean and checked everything as we rigged. Dad headed off to begin his safety boat duty, so I changed into my sailing kit and wandered down to Shore House where my Mom was somewhere behind a huge queue of excited sailors at the registration desk, 44 in total.

We had to sail out of the Hamble river and then a long way to the race area. It was so far I thought that we were going to Hill Head instead, fortunately the tide was with us even if we were beating into the wind.

After two false starts racing was finally underway. I was off to a flyer! Ahead of the other JETS I just had to keep in front of Sophie Rennie (Parkstone YC). We were pretty level all of the way around the course. Sophie was only half a boat ahead as we came into the wing mark, but I had an overlap and called for room. It was all going to plan until my friend and fellow Warsash sailor Scott Whitehead sailing a 5.3 cut in. I was left with nowhere to go, Sophie was through and I wasn't going to make the mark rounding cleanly. I bailed out and circled back ready to chase down first place. The beat to the finish line was tough. My arms, legs and stomach muscles were screaming, I was seeing stars!! My boat was going so fast but I had to settle for second place, maybe I should have called for more room, oh well; my Dad would be telling me to get over it and concentrate on getting ready for the next race. I had a drink and ate some snacks then sailed over to talk tactics and find out what tips I could get out of my friend, National 5.3 Squad sailor Sam Jones.

The next three races were just as competitive! After four great races Sophie had won and I finished second, only just ahead of Aaron Goodman (Hill Head / JETS) on countback.

Prizes were presented by club member Ian Walker and included a Warsash Cup and Rooster visor which are now proudly placed on my sailing shelf.

Ian also awarded a Rooster visor as an endeavour prize to William Groom (Stokes Bay / JETS) who managed to complete two races in his first ever traveller before retiring as he was too cold. Maybe the prize should have been a Rooster neoprene beanie instead? Only joking, great effort Will!

I can't wait for the next South Zone Traveller at Poole YC on the 11th June 17.

From the Topper Southern Area organising team, a big thanks to Warsash SC for running such a brilliant event and also to our series sponsors, Rooster Sailing.

Overall Results: