Eric Twiname Shield

RYA South Zone win on Rutland Water

The RYA Eric Twiname Championship 2004 reached a dramatic climax over the weekend of the 8/9 May. Competitors, coaches and RYA high performance managers held their breath as event director, Duncan Truswell announced that the RYA South zone had won the coveted Eric Twiname Shield for best placed zone overall.

Over two hundred and fifty budding sailors, all under the age of fifteen were representing one of six English zones or their home country and racing in a Cadet, Mirror, Topper, Optimist or one of three windsurfing classes at Rutland Water.

Since December the children have been training hard as members of their RYA Zone Squad and with their class associations in preparation for the biggest RYA junior regatta in the calendar.

The event has been entirely funded for the last sixteen years by the Eric Twiname Memorial Trust who were established in 1980 and have since handed out £500,000 to worthy causes in sailing. In line with the charities ethos of helping youngsters get afloat the event provided many sailors with their first taste of racing in a major national championship.

For David Grant his first national regatta could not have been any better and his win in the Optimist class was made even more impressive because, of the 48 boats racing in the class, he was the youngest helm at only ten years old. From the six races that were sailed David won four and discarded a third as his worst result. David, who hails from Restronguet, was sailing as a member of the RYA South West zone and will now begin preparing for the Optimist Inlands with added confidence. Along with Joshua Irons from the South zone who finished second and Ben Robinson from the West in third place, David received some fantastic sailing kit from Extremity and Optimistonline.co.uk.

In the Mirror class the girls ruled the waves and occupied the top three positions. Winning the event were the Barry sisters, Emma and Martina from the East zone. The pair who say that they love sailing with each other, won the last two races of the series to push Abi Stodel and Amie Rix also from the East back into second place. Despite the East zone scoring first and second it was the South zone who won the team prize in the Mirror class.

Nevertheless the East zone had their revenge on the South in the Cadet fleet. As the only two zones racing in the class some friendly rivalry heated up as the weekend drew to a close. Scoring a string of four firsts Chris Videlo and Thomas Power were thrilled to have won the event and along with their team mates help win the team prize for the East zone. “This is my first big event helming and I am so happy to have won. I now really want to move into the intermediate squad or even the national squad and also hope to make the British team for the World Championships in Australia.”

In the Topper class Bleddyn Mon flew the flag for Wales by showing that in the shifty conditions that prevailed throughout the weekend consistency was the key to winning. Despite not taking line honours in any of the five races he sailed a solid series and shocked himself when he realised he had won the weekend back on land.

RYA high performance manager of Wales, Tim Hall however knew that Bleddyn had the potential: “I knew that Bleddyn could finish in the top three, but to actually win the event is fantastic. He works very hard at his sailing and I am thrilled for him.”

In the windsurfing class the South West zone convincingly won the team prize helped on the way by Duncan Bryan in the 4.5m class. Duncan was unstoppable, winning every race of the six sailed. In the 5.5m class Alex Smith from the East zone began Sunday on equal points with Ali Masters from the South West zone, however he held his cool under pressure and won the two remaining races and the weekend.

In the National Junior class Richard Cleworth did all his work on Saturday by winning three of the four races therefore allowing him to discard a fifth on Sunday and win the championship.

As well as team prizes for each individual class their were three overall team prizes up for grabs. In the windsurfing class the South West zone convincingly won the team prize, leaving the North zone in second place and the East zone in third. The overall dinghy prize was won by the South zone and RYA high performance manager of the zone, Chris Atherton was delighted to accept the prize on behalf of his team. In second place was the East zone and third was the West zone. The solid performance by the South zone was subsequently enough to win the overall Eric Twiname Shield.
The young sailors will now use their experience that they have gained over the course of the weekend to proceed over the summer months into major championships organised by the class associations.

Speaking about the event, RYA Junior Squads Manager and event director said,” The rigours of a championship can sometimes be very demanding on young sailors and the regatta this weekend will have prepared the sailors well for the coming summer. The event was a huge success and a massive thank you goes to Rutland Sailing Club for hosting the sailors and the Eric Twiname Memorial Trust for financing the championship.”

Results

Optimist
1, David Grant, South West (1,1,2,1,1,(3)) 6 pts
2, Joshua Irons, South ((16),3,6,3,2,5) 19 pts
3, Ben Robinson, West (6,6,(10),7,6,1) 26 pts

Topper
1, Bleddyn Mon, Wales (2,8,(19),6,4) 20 pts
2, Stewart Brown, West (6,4,1,15,(21)) 26 pts
3, Chris Penny, Northern Ireland ((44),10,6,3,9) 28 pts

Mirror
1, Emma Barry/Martina Barry, East ((6),4,4,1,1) 10 pts
2, Abi Stodel/Amie Rix, East (2,2,2,(15),10) 16 pts
3, Silvania Booth/Jennifer House, South (4,3,(12),6,11) 24 pts

Cadet
1, Chris Videlo/Thomas Power, East ((8),1,1,1,1,5) 9 pts
2, James Rusden/Mark Trevis-Bell, South (3,2,3,4,(5),1) 13 pts
3, Christopher Proffitt/Alex Coulton, East (2,3,2,(6),3,4) 14 pts

4.5m windsurfing class
1, Duncan Bryan, South West ((1)1,1,1,1,1) 5 pts
2, Sam Sills, South West (2,2,2,(3),2,3) 11 pts
3, Lewis Robinson, North ((4),3,3,2,(10),2) 14 pts

5.5m windsurfing class
1, Alex Smith, East (1,(4),1,2,1,1) 6 pts
2, Ali Masters, South West (2,1,3,1,3,(5)) 10 pts
3, Jordan Mayes, South West (3,(7),2,3,2,2) 12 pts

National Junior Windsurfing Class
1, Richard Cleworth, West (1,1,1,2,2,(5)) 7 pts
2, Edward Strange, South West ((3,3,3,1,1,(7)) 11 pts
3, Kim Jiskoot, South East (7,(8),2,3,4,1) 17 pts

Overall
1, South, 4pts
2, South West, 6 pts
3, East, 7pts