Tough conditions for youths

South Zone win RYA Eric Twiname Championship

Very windy conditions greeted 300 junior sailors from all over the country as they arrived at the weekend (7/8 May) at Rutland Water for the 2005 RYA Eric Twiname Championships.

The event is the climax of the RYA Zone and Home Country Squad programmes within which over 600 young sailors have been training hard all winter. It offers our most promising young sailors the chance to sail at a major, multi-class regatta against the very best of their peers.

There was an exciting buzz in the air as the young sailors prepared to represent the six English zones, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Anticipating the battle to find the best zone and home county squads in each class, competition was close in the Topper, Optimist, Cadet and Mirror dinghies as well as the Techno, MJOD, 4.5m and 5.5m windsurfers.

After tough sailing over two days, the class team honours were spread across the country. The South claimed victory in the Mirrors, Optimist and Cadets; the West in the Toppers and Techno windsurfers; the South East in the 4.5m and 5.5m windsurfers; and East in the MJOD. This meant the South East came out the top zone in the overall windsurfing category with the South victorious overall in the dinghy classes.

However, the Best Overall Zone and the coveted Eric Twiname Shield was taken by the South. Despite displaying strength and depth of talent across a large number of classes, the West claimed runners up spot as they failed to take any class team victories.

So how did it all happen? The fleet were divided into three course areas with the Cadets and Optimists on blue inside course just off the club. The Mirrors and Toppers competed on the orange course (towards the dam at the East end of the Water) and the windsurfers all together on the third yellow course up West creek.

On Saturday, only the Cadets, Optimists and larger windsurfers took to the water as heavy squalls ran continually down the length of the reservoir delivering a hearty punch to the youngsters as they battled to stay upright. 10 year old Optimist sailors James Parker-Mowbray, representing the South West and Ross Moreton (Wales) did extremely well to find themselves at the front of the fleet at the first windward mark, but flying downwind was very hard due to their small stature! Eventually Rory Jones, from the West Zone, recovered after an early nose dive to take the victory from Jonathan House, representing the South zone. The Cadet sailors also found the conditions tough, many capsized but the girls proved toughest with Phillipa Horne and Anna Whitford taking first place away from fellow South zone rivals, Chris and Andrew Smith. Sam Sills (South West Zone) stormed away in the Technos, taking first place after winning the first three rounds, and Tom Eskdale won in the MJODs.

As the day progressed, the squalls became stronger and more frequent and in the afternoon racing was called to a halt due to the breezy conditions. The evening entertainment, in the form of a Human Table Football competition and a Bungee Run helped those sailors that hadn’t got on the water burn off their excess energy. The many smiling faces in the club house showed what fun everyone was having.

On Sunday, the breeze dropped marginally but enough to get some good sailing. The windsurfers changed to a slalom course, starting from the beach and short sharp races, enabling the 4.5m and 5.5m boards to get afloat. In the 5.5m board Josh Leadbetter, from the North Zone, set the challenge winning the first race. This was taken up by fellow north zone opponent Matt Staples winning the second. Andrew Petts (South East Zone) then decided to show his winning form, taking the next two races with Izzy Hamilton (South West Zone) proving her fitness to win the final race of the day but Petts had easily won the overall title. Never finishing out of the top five, Gemma Harris, also from the South East, proved consistency pays and was placed second overall.

In the 4.5 board Callum Stewart, from the West Zone, won three races which was enough to win the class with South East Zone competitors, Jack Brooks second overall and Sam Latham (who won two races) taking third. Tom Eskdale (South West Zone) won the MJODs (the largest windsurfing class), and going better in the new conditions Jonathan Gibbs and Ryan Taylor both from the East zone came second and third respectively.

After the previous days racing, three more races were held for the Cadet and Optimist classes. Phillipa Horne and Anna Whitford continued to dominate in the Cadets winning two of the day’s races. Also consistent were fellow South Zone rivals Chris and Andrew Smith who finished second overall. The South Zone competitors kept the pressure on as Robert and Arthur Henderson won the final race with Edward Harrison and Charlotte Hayward, from the East Zone taking second in the final race.

Jonathan House (South Zone) proved a worthy overall winner in the Optimist class winning the last two races. Jonathan is one of the major success stories of the Zone squad programme. He beat many National and Intermediate squad sailors at the recently held Optimist International team selection trials at Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy last weekend to gain a place in the GBR team at the French Nationals. Matthew Deacon Smith was second overall and Rory Jones third. At 11, one of the youngest competitors Ross Moreton was thrilled to finish sixth overall and is now hopeful of a top result in the juniors at the Optimist National Championships in the summer.

It was good to see a full team of sailors representing Northern Ireland in the large Topper fleet. For the Toppers the first decision was whether or not to sail with a reef in the sail. Many decided this was a sensible option but this gave the Race Officer Ralph Tingle a headache as it meant it was difficult to read the sail numbers at the finish! In the first race, after a general recall, the Toppers went off under a black flag. Andrew Joseph (Wales) won and with a fourth and second in the next races he took the overall victory. Chris Penney (Northern Ireland) proved the long journey worthwhile winning the second race and placed second overall whilst Tom Weatherhead (East Zone) was third overall.

Like the Toppers, the Mirror’s got off under a black flag and then the whole fleet sailed to the wrong mark. Eventually, and after much debate, a result was given for this race and with only three races the Toppers and Mirrors could not have a discard. This proved expensive for South Zone competitors, Rebecca Kalderon and Lisa McDanell who, despite winning the first two races, a disastrous capsize in the final race meant they finished fourth overall. Fellow females Lilly Carlisle and Beck Wallbank were the most consistent so they won with fellow North Zone sailors, Philip Benn and Oliver Townsend second.

RYA Junior Racing Manager and Event Director, Duncan Truswell was extremely impressed by the standard of sailing exhibited by the juniors coming through the Zone Squad programme in such demanding conditions. He expressed thanks on behalf of everyone to the Eric Twiname Memorial Trust for their continued support in financing the event, which is free to enter and welcomed Bruce Aitken, Chairman of the Eric Twiname Memorial Trust who had come to support the event and give out the prizes. Rutland Sailing Club were superb hosts and provided an army of volunteers without whom the event could not have run.

RYA High Performance Manager for the South and South West Zones, Chris Atherton was delighted to win the Eric Twiname Shield as well as the Dinghy overall in the South, and the Windsurfing in the South West. The result was a fitting testament to the dedication and long hours of training over the winter of all the squad sailors. The “Beautiful South” had also won the Human Table Football which was simply the icing on the cake.

Overall Results

Mirror
1 Lilly Carlisle and Becky Wallbank (Ripon) (N)
2 Phillip Benn and Oliver Townsend (Ripon) (N)
3 Josh Prichard and Francis Harvey (Mounts Bay) (SW)
4 Rebecca Kalderon and Lisa McDanell (Itchenor) (S)

Topper
1 Andrew Joseph (Mumbles) (Wales)
2 Chris Penney (Carrickfergus) (NI)
3 Tom Weatherhead (Haversham) (E)
4 Joe Hothersall (Redesmere) (W)
5 James Spencer (Mudeford) (S)

Optimist
1 Jonathan House (Poole) (S)
2 Matthew Deacon Smith (Warsash) (S)
3 Rory Jones (South Staffs) (W)
4 Henry Lloyd Williams (Lymington) (S)
5 Ben Robinson (West Kirby) (W)

Cadet
1 Phillipa Horne and Anna Whitford (Frensham Pond) (S)
2 Chris Smith and Andrew Smith (Lymington) (S)
3 Josh Haslam and Bethany Bridge (Lymington) (S)
4 Robert Henderson and Arthur Henderson (Tamesis) (S)

Dinghy Overall
1 South
2 West
3 South West
4 East
5 Northern Ireland
6 North
7 South East
8 Wales
9 Scotland

Windsurfer
4.5m
1 Callum Stewart (Astbury) (W)
2 Jack Brooks (Hythe and Saltwood) (SE)
3 Sam Latham (Aqua Sports) (SE)
5.5m
1 Andrew Petts (Hythe and Saltwood) (SE)
2 Gemma Harris (Grafham) (E)
3 Izzy Hamitlon (Upper Tamer) (SW)
Techno
1 Sam Sills (Roadford) (SW)
2 Alex Smith (Grafham) (E)
3 Finlay Forest-Davies (Astbury Mere) (W)
MJOD
1 Tom Eskdale (Croft Farm) (SW)
2 Jonathan Gibbs (Fairlop Waters) (E)
3 Ryan Taylor (Grafham) (E)
Windsurfer overall
1 South East
2 West
3 North
4 East
5 South West
6 South

Best Zone/ Home Country Team overall
1 South
2 West
3 East
4 South West
5 North
6 South East
7 Wales
8 Northern Ireland
9 Scotland