Way out west

Jenny Campbell-James reports on this weekend's RYA South West Zone Winter Regatta Report

The RYA’s South West Zone held their Winter Regatta on Saturday 11 December at Chew Valley. 80 sailors from all over the zone were competing in Mirrors, Toppers and Optimists, with the event being the final stage in the selection procedure for the South West Zone Squad.

It was a difficult time for Race Officer John Smalley who had to abandon the first race when the wind died completely at the beginning of the race. After a patient wait a very gentle breeze filled in to allow racing to recommence at about 1pm. The competition was fierce with very close racing in all the classes and two races were completed by each fleet.

In the Mirror Class Lewis Turner crewed by James Beer and Paddy Adams crewed by Freya Adams both ended up equal with four points each but Turner and Beer took the regatta by virtue of winning the first race. Richard and Juliet Long who won the second race of the day finished third overall.

With the 17 strong Optimist fleet it was a close battle between the top 4 sailors. Nine year old James Parker Mowbray showed potential for the future winning the first race but a seventh in the second race meant that the winner of the last race, Christian Townrow, was the champion. Roger Stabbins achieved a second and a fourth which gave him second overall which pushed Parker Mowbray back to third overall. He was closely followed by Mark Billowes, who was only one point behind. The top girl in the Optimist fleet was Natasha Smith.

The largest fleet of the day was that of the Toppers with 41 sailors competing. Simon Bower and Alastair Lucas both were race winners but with their other races not so good they dropped down the leader board. Consistent sailing won the day; John Teague was the overall winner with six points closely followed by Jennifer Dando, the highest placed girl, with eight points and Richard Ash on nine points. Top eleven year old was Richard Cumpsty sailing at his home club.

RYA High Performance Manager for the South West, Chris Atherton, was very pleased with the event. "Chew Valley and in particular John and Gill Smalley have worked incredibly hard to give us a very successful regatta," he said. "The wind was extremely light but all the competitors tried really hard and it was a pleasure to see the youngsters racing so competitively."

The sailors that have been chosen for the RYA Zone Squad will be notified by post in the next couple of days.

Overall Results

Mirrors
1st Lewis Turner and James Beer (Star Cross)
2nd Paddy Adams and Freya Adams (Chew)
3rd Richard Long and Juliet Long (Plym)
4th Charlotte Brett and Sophie Brett (Torpoint)
5th Josh Pritchard and Francis Harvey (Mounts Bay)

Optimists
1st Christian Townrow (Restronguet)
2nd Roger Stabbins (Restronguet)
3rd James Parker Mowbray (Bowmoor)
4th Mark Billowes (Bristol Corinthian)
5th Rory Flutter (Restronguet)
6th Natasha Smith (Bowmoor)

Toppers
1st John Teague (Bristol Corinthian)
2nd Jennifer Dando (Frampton)
3rd Richard Ash (Chew)
4th James Little (Chew)
5th Michael Chapman (Chew)
6th Simon Bower (Dittisham)
7th Steven Millar (Bristol Corinthian)
8th Alastair Lucas (Avon)
9th Jon Sleight (Cotswold)
10th Lawrence Sly (Restronguet)