Junior and youth teams head for Grafham

A preview of this coming weekend's Twiname RYA team racing championship

The Twiname RYA Junior and Youth Team Racing Championships will take place at Grafham Water Sailing Club on 6-7 November. The event has proven to be very popular this year with entrants coming from many different areas of sailing, including club teams, school teams, junior and youth class teams, from all over the country. The entry is oversubscribed with a few teams having to go onto a waiting list. The organisers are particularly delighted to have a wide representation from schools such as Sevenoaks, Radley, Uppingham, Portsmouth, Haileybury and Canford.

The junior competition (open to sailors who are under 16) will be held in Feva Dinghies. It is the first time that the Eric Twiname Trust has used its six Feva Dinghies in competition. Purchased earlier this year for groups of young sailors to hire and learn about team racing, the enthusiasm for this year’s competition is encouraging. Indeed several of the junior teams have been out practising in the boats. Other Feva dinghies are being lent for use at the competition by Sevenoaks School and LDC Racing Sailboats.

Possible favourites for the junior title are the 'Grafham Gremlins' with Ben and Tim Saxton leading the way. The twin brothers recently dominated proceedings at the Optimist End of Season Championship by winning all of the races between them. Other teams that draw ones attention from the entry list are those from Hayling Island SC, Bowmoor SC, the Mirror team from Itchenor SC, the 2 teams from West Kirby SC and Derbyshire Youth Sailing representing the National Schools Sailing Association. Though for some of the others it will be their first serious team racing competition.

The senior competition is to be sailed in Firefly dinghies with boats lent by West Kirby, Sevenoaks School and Cambridge University. For sailors who are under 19 this competition has attracted representation from the well known team racing sailing clubs of West Kirby and Spinnaker together with the well known team racing school of Sevenoaks. The question is can these more experienced team racers match the speed of teams from the Cadet class, the 29er and 420youth classes and the teams from the clubs.

Junior and Youth Team Racing Coordinator David Campbell-James who has been one of the main organisers of the event stated: “We are really hoping for an excellent weekend of team racing with 38 three-boat teams from all over the country competing. There should be one race every three minutes on a round-robin system, so it will be an extremely busy weekend. We are very grateful to the large army of helpers that have been brought in to ensure the smooth running of the event and to Grafham Water Sailing Club for hosting the event.”

The Twiname Trust, who are sponsoring the Championship as well as supplying their fleet of six Fevas, are very pleased that their support of British Junior and Youth Team Racing is having such a rewarding response. John Reed ET Trust said "Well done to all those who’s hard work has produced such an excellent entry"