Derbyshire Youth Sailing (DYS) event at Burton Sailing Club

by John Gay 26 Apr 2023 19:07 BST 22 April 2023

This year's Derbyshire Youth Sailing (DYS) handicap series got off to a flying start with the season opener at Burton Sailing Club on Saturday 22nd April. The weather was perfect, to ease the competitors into the new season, with a gentle 8-10 knot breeze and even the sun was shining. This was in stark contrast to last year's conditions which were 30 knots plus.

21 boats from all across Derbyshire entered the event, with a strong contingent of 13 boats in the Senior age group, which has been boosted by a number of sailors moving up from intermediate, making this an extremely competitive category. Many of those sailors changing age group have also changed boats this year, and for many this was their first event in their new class.

There was some very close racing amongst all the fleets, the largest of which was the Lasers, which included all 3 sail sizes across the 9 boats. 5 Toppers and 4 Teras were the next largest fleets, with a Graduate, Supernova, and Byte completing the field.

The racing was dominated by the Seniors, and in particular a very strong performance by Glossop's Jacob Bennett in the Laser Radial, who won all 3 races and was the overall event winner as well as winner in the Senior age category. Hot on Jacob's heels was Swarkestone's Patrick Hill in a Laser Radial, who came second in all 3 races to take second overall, and second Senior.

After a shaky start in race 1, Ogston's Luke Wilshire in the full rig Laser was third in the last 2 races to take third overall, and third Senior.

Race 3 saw a big wind shift, which Sam Clarke in the Laser Radial took full advantage of, with a well executed port flyer, this wasn't enough to lift Sam into 4th overall as he finished on equal points with George Jacobs in the Byte C1 who took 4th based on his 3rd from race 1.

The Intermediate fleet was a battle of the Toppers and Teras, which was eventually won by William Morbey from Combs in the Topper, in his first event as an Intermediate. William's best result of the day was in race 2 where he took full advantage of some big gusts to finish ahead of many of the Seniors. Burton's Phoebe Gay also in a Topper was second Intermediate, and Burton's Alistair Casey in the Tera Sport was third.

Jack Mason from Burton was the sole Junior entry, in his first ever open event Jack decided to take a gamble, ditching the Sport rig and going with the larger Pro rig, after a slow start he managed a very respectable performance earning a well earned medal.

As usual there were some tough battles lower down the fleet, and it was good to see such a well disciplined group of sailors sailing at such a high level, who even supported each other between races with some group stretching exercises, they are all a credit to their home clubs. The galley team at Burton made sure competitors, parents and volunteers were well looked after throughout the day, as they do with all visiting fleets.

Next event is Toddbrook (at Combs) on 29th April, full details can be found at www.dysailing.org

Overall Results:

Pos	Fleet	Class	Sail	Sailor(s)	Club	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1st	Sen	Laser Radial	213589	Jacob Bennett	Glossop SC	‑1	1	1	2
2nd	Sen	Laser Radial	173533	Patrick Hill	Swarkestone SC	‑2	2	2	4
3rd	Sen	Laser	142116	Luke Wilshire	Ogston SC	‑6	3	3	6
4th	Sen	BYTE C1	3587	George Jacobs	Combs SC	3	‑5	5	8
5th	Sen	Laser Radial		Sam Clarke	Glossop SC	‑9	4	4	8
6th	Sen	Laser 4.7	45084	Amelia Gay	Burton SC	5	6	‑8	11
7th	Sen	Laser Radial	152818	Jonathan Hill	Swarkestone SC	4	‑11	9	13
8th	Sen	ILCA 4	159246	Alice Edwards	Burton SC	7	‑9	6	13
9th	Sen	Laser 4.7	168908	Lucy Bambrook	Errwood SC	8	‑10	7	15
10th	Sen	Supernova	523	Matilda Harrison	Ogston SC	10	7	‑11	17
11th	Int	Topper	12230	William Morbey	Combs SC	‑13	8	12	20
12th	Sen	Laser Radial	174668	Daniel Dean	Ogston SC	11	‑12	10	21
13th	Int	Topper	46800	Phoebe Gay	Burton SC	12	‑13	13	25
14th	Int	RS Tera Sport	3428	Alistair Casey	Burton SC	‑20	14	14	28
15th	Int	Topper	48963	Lily Hosty	Swarkestone SC	14	15	(DNC)	29
16th	Int	Topper	28582	Tabatha Izzard	Swarkestone SC	15	16	(DNC)	31
17th	Sen	Topper	45034	Matthew Edward	Burton SC	‑17	17	15	32
18th	Int	RS Tera Pro	3427	Hannah Casey	Burton SC	16	‑18	16	32
19th	Sen	Graduate	2873	Abigail Longworth & Alice Wilson	Toddbrook SC	18	‑19	17	35
20th	Int	RS Tera Sport	3	Robert Ward	Burton SC	19	(DNC)	DNC	41
21st	Jun	RS Tera Pro		Jack Mason	Burton SC	21	(DNC)	DNC	43