Inaugural Youth Icicle Series at Bough Beech Sailing Club

Bough Beech Sailing Club hosted their inaugural Youth Icicle Series, for youth club members, students from Tonbridge and Sevenoaks Schools, as well as anyone under the age of 19 who entered their main Icicle series. There were Fevas, ILCAs, Toppers, Fireflys, 420s and a couple of RS200s.

This well attended event took place over four Saturdays with two races scheduled for each day. Around 30 boats raced on each day, with 47 sailing at some point in the series. The predominantly light winds were useful for some of the less experienced sailors, allowing them to practise their starts and perfect their tacks and gybes around the trapezoid course. For those with more experience, they were looking for gusts and playing the shifts, in order to move up the rankings.

Bough Beech Sailing Club Youth Icicle Series - photo © Sarah Seddon

There was some great competition on the water between the two RS200s - Lara and Sophie (Downs/Wilsonian) secured some great results (1st, 2nd, 3rd) but also carried a 10th and 13th meaning they lost out to the more consistent results that George and Alex (Tonbridge School) obtained (which also included a 1st and a 3rd). George and Alex held 3rd place overall.

The Fireflys enjoyed some good competition as well, but the highest placed boat was sailed by Jacob and Sam (Tonbridge School) with 13.5 points clear from the next one down in 7th place. Jacob and Sam secured 2nd place overall.

Bough Beech Sailing Club Youth Icicle Series - photo © Sarah Seddon

The clear winners though, with a whopping 16-point lead, were Sam and Dexter (Bough Beech SC) in their 420. Their lowest result over the series was a 2nd and the vast majority were bullets. You know you're doing well when you are discarding two 2nd results! Huge congratulations to them both for some really tactical and consistently good sailing.

Overall Results: