Junior Sailors compete for new Ellen MacArthur Trophy
by Mike Shaw 16 Oct 2006 09:04 BST
The youngest sailors among Derbyshire’s Youth Sailors are to be encouraged in their racing sailing
with the possibility of winning a new series trophy to be named the Ellen MacArthur Trophy. Dame
Ellen has agreed to her name being associated with the ten event Derbyshire Youth Sailing series with immediate effect. This means that this year’s Junior competitors are already in with a chance of being the first to win the newly commissioned trophy. Dame Ellen is the only honorary life member of Derbyshire Youth Sailing.
For DYS, Junior sailors are those young sailors who attend Infant or Junior School at the beginning of the sailing season in April. Typically these sailors are from six up to 11 years old and are at the very beginning of their racing sailing activities. They race alongside the older sailors in the DYS series events and have previously been rewarded for their overall series results with prizes of tokens to spend at chandleries, but they were missing out on receiving a trophy.
Dame Ellen was approached to secure her support for these young sailors by providing the incentive
of winning a trophy bearing her name. Ellen commented “I get a real buzz from seeing any young
sailors in their boats having fun and learning life lessons from sailing activities. It is a pleasure to be able to encourage them in a small way to perhaps go on to achieve great things.”
DYS Training Officer Mike Haynes said “Dame Ellen’s success at the top of competitive sailing
certainly has a significant effect on young sailors throughout the world but perhaps nowhere more
strongly than in Derbyshire. We are delighted that the new trophy recognises this and is to be an
ongoing reminder to young sailors for years to come of her association with Derbyshire Youth Sailing.”
There are still six DYS series events to come this year and with the outcome of the competition being calculated from the top six results for each participant, there are still just enough events for Junior youth sailors to join the contest and challenge for the Ellen MacArthur Trophy. Sailors had better be quick as the next event is on Saturday 10th June at Ogston Sailing Club near Clay Cross – one of the places where Ellen learned to sail.