P&B Northamptonshire Youth Series round 4 at Draycote Water Sailing Club
by Norman Byrd 2 Sep 20:00 BST
A bumper turnout of 41 sailors arrived at Draycote for round 4 of the Northampton Youth Series sponsored by Pinnell and Bax. The weather, at least at 8am in the morning was lovely - sunny, blue sky, a few clouds and 6 knots of wind. The forecast told a different story though, gusts up to 24 knots and rain in the afternoon - it seemed impossible!
Draycote made the sensible decision to shorten the morning training a little and bring the afternoon racing forwards. Head coach Clem briefed the sailors and two groups went afloat. Jess, leading youth ILCA 6 sailor, and Jon, Draycote Youth and Junior fleet captain joined the coaching team for the day. Mark rounding was the order of the day, and plenty of that took place in a gradually building breeze. The adults were rounded up (mainly enthusiastically) for the AGM.
After a slightly hasty lunch the sailors were briefed for the afternoon race series. Draycote uses lights rather than flags to start their races, and thankfully the morning session ended in a practice start sequence. The series is a little unusual in actively encouraging on water, mid race coaching, and less confident sailors are coached and encouraged around the course. Average lap times are used to score the races, meaning that as long as you manage one full lap, you'll receive a result for that race.
The fast handicap fleet, starting first, was composed of ILCA 4s and 6s, Fevas and Tera Pros. Home sailor Noah, ILCA 4, won the fast fleet with three back to back wins although he was pushed hard by Solomon, Middle Nene SC, in his ILCA 4. Peter, Draycote, ILCA 6 and Keali and Phoebe, Northampton SC in their Feva scored podium race finishes. The fast fleet finished Noah, Solomon and Peter.
Solomon appeared to stop mid race during race two. Boat breakage? No, he'd rushed back from a windy Poole Week and was shattered. He was simply giving his legs a breather mid race!
The Topper fleet, starting next, saw very close racing between Ed, James, Hari and Tom. James, Notts County SC, won the first race, with Ed, Draycote, winning the second two. Ed won, from James and Hari, Draycote. The Toppers were the largest fleet with 14 boats, a great sight to see.
The slow fleet was made up of Topper 4.2s, Tera Sports and a Pico. Theo, Draycote, won all three races, and to his credit, was the only slow fleet starter in race 3. Isaac, Draycote, came second with a 2,3 and Ben, also Draycote, third, with a 3,5. Had there been an award for enthusiasm it would probably have gone to Ben and Jamie sailing two up in their Pico.
A worth mention goes to Gaston, who when volunteers were asked for to assist the PRO, gave up the opportunity to sail to help on the committee boat. He was awarded a copy of Golden Lily, Lijia Xu's autobiography.
Draycote head honcho Dave Rowe had asked for the fleet to be ashore between 3pm and 3.30pm, and by 3.15pm everyone was safely ashore. The breeze had built to mid-teens during the races. And between races 2 and 3 perhaps to high teens, but then came the rain, and with that, the breeze moderated, much to the safety team's relief.
A fine selection of cakes was produced including some rather nice cream scones and a wonderful carrot cake (someone had to undertake quality control).
After some final number crunching the overall results were declared. Peter came third, Solomon second, and Noah won. Will, the Draycote Commodore, handed out the prizes, of which two went to his sons! As ever the first timers received the biggest round of applause as their medals were awarded.
Round 5 takes place at Hollowell on the 13th September. It's been a memorable year with a winter program, an Easter coaching camp and some fantastic days of training and racing. All youth and junior sailors from all clubs are welcome to attend on the 13th.