Youth Primus Inter Pares at GWV De Vrijbuiter, Loosdrecht, Netherlands
by Mark Cole 21 Oct 17:15 BST
16-17 October 2021
Youth Primus Inter Pares © Mark Cole
The Youth Primus Inter Pares, the annual regatta for the Dutch Youth 'Champion of Champions' was once again held in the RS Aero 5 after the first edition in 2019.
All winners of the Dutch Youth Class Championships were invited to compete in the fleet of RS Aero 5s which were provided by RS Sailing, for the coveted Dutch Youth title. This included 2020 winners after no event was possible last year.
The eight Dutch national youth champions participating were:
- Jeanet Engelsma - Flits
- Xander Schaap - RS Feva
- Hidde Schraffordt - Laser Radial
- Zeb van Dorst - Laser 4.7
- Jolle Bausch - Splash
- Max Frank - Laser 4.7 (2020)
- Jasmijn Holtus - Optimist (2020)
- Laura van den Acker - RS Feva (2020)
To familiarise themselves with the RS Aero all the invitees joined the pre-event training on the Friday evening before the event and sailed into the sunset, under the guidance of top coach Annemieke Beemster.
Day 1
It was a privilege to watch this great bunch of talented youth in action with five races sailed. The day started out with a patchy 4 to 6 knots which increased to around 12 knots, testing the young sailors in their mastery of the RS Aero.
Day 2
A bit more wind today with a S/SW breeze of 12 to 16 knots, and notoriously shifty conditions on the lake around the mini-islands. Five races were sailed bringing a grand total of 10 races sailed over the two days.
It was the ILCA team sailors dominating the podium positions in the end, congratulations to Zeb van Dorst for taking the NL champion of champions title, Max Frank second and Hidde Schraffordt third.
See full results here
A big thank you to local RS Aero sailor Vincent Viool for looking after the sailors with safety and general support on the water.
The following week is a school mid term break in both the Netherlands and Germany and sees Youth training camps taking place in both countries building Youth participation and working towards the first RS Aero Youth World Championship in Weymouth UK in 2022 during the four yearly RS Games.