29ers in the RYA North East Youth Championship at Yorkshire Dales
by Toby Cope 8 Nov 2017 11:51 GMT
4-5 November 2017
29er sailors during the RYA NE Youth Championships at Yorkshire Dales © Jo Harris
On the 4th and 5th of November, the RYA North East Youths were held at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club. We were greeted on the Saturday morning by about 10 knots gusting up to 17 knots, but with bitterly cold winds.
With a fairly large 29er fleet for a regional event, we launched into a day of competitive racing and good breeze. Day one race wins came from Sam Cooper and Simon Hall; Toby Cope and Harry Pulford; Ewan Luke and Zac Blomley and Ben Batchelor and Maddie Wylie from 5 races.
On Sunday we launched to similar conditions, but the wind was coming from a slightly different direction, which resulted in slightly more shifty racing. Race wins came from Toby Cope and Harry Pulford; Pierce Harris and Alfie Cogger and Archie Leckie and Ben Ibbotson. This brought final results nice and close on overall points! However, Harry and I managed to seal the win and picked up an impressive trophy.
Thank you to Yorkshire dales for hosting the event and to the northern volunteers for making everything run so smoothly.
The 29er Class Association would also like to add their thanks to all involved. It was fantastic to share this experience with the other youth classes and the club was extremely accommodating. Thanks also to 420 parent, Jennie Clark, for organising everyone so well and liaising with the RYA to establish such an impressive event. We were very pleased to see some new 29er sailors racing alongside the more experienced teams and their attendance was welcomed by all.
Finally, well done Toby Cope and Harry Pulford on your win.