New potential

Team Shaw wins Volvo RYA Youth Match Racing Championship in Weymouth

On Saturday morning, 26 August, nine youth teams headed to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy to show off their boat handling skills, rules knowledge and match racing tactics while fighting for the title of Britain’s best youth match racer at the Volvo RYA Youth Match Racing Championship.

Hosted by the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, the event brought together some of Britain’s best young sailors and future match racing potential. 2005 RYA Youth Match Race Champion, Simon Wheeler was on hand to try and defend his title, this time crewing for Sam Pearson, while some of Wheeler’s old crew teamed up with hot favourite Robbie Allam.

Day one of racing saw ideal conditions of 12 to 15 knots, allowing the young crews to get to grips with the J/80s. The race committee packed in ten flights giving everyone a lot of time on the water, as well as valuable experience.

Clear leaders after day one were Robbie Allam and Sam Pearson, both capping the day with six wins in six races. Ben Saxton and Andrew Shaw were also making their mark on the other teams winning four out of six matches.

Team Stephens had a very lucky race after receiving two penalties in the pre-start. The crew sailed well and fast and after making up for lost time won the race.

Team Kalderon also had a good showing, although they struggled to master the spinnaker on the first day, which was made especially difficult with the bowman, Pete Gray, unintentionally falling down the hatch by mistake.

Day two brought a fresher breeze gusting up to 18 knots. Each team brought a little extra on day two, producing more aggressive tactics leading to long discussions with the umpires in the debrief. At the end of the first Round Robin, Allam remained undefeated, however Pearson, had had a bad start to the day with two losses to Allam and Saxton.

The final day of competition brought an end of the second Round Robin with Allam clearly in first with no losses. Saxton, who had only lost one race in the second round robin followed in second, with and Shaw and Pearson trailing in third and fourth. With two Round Robins completed teams Rainback, Struckett and Kalderon where knocked out.

Both semi-final races went to a ‘sudden death’ third race. Racing was very close, with some teams pushing just a little too hard resulting in a penalty.

The finals saw Round Robin leader Team Allam pitted against Team Shaw. Team Shaw pulled out all the stops and managed to lead both races from the start, allowing him to stay clearly ahead for the duration of the race, leading to victory. The winning team improved immensely throughout the event and kept a cool head under pressure.

Team Shaw will now go on to compete at the RYA National Match Racing Finals, 6-8 October 2006 at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.

Results:

Pos	Skipper	Crew
1	Andrew Shaw	George Yeoman, Nick Belevins, Dan Schieber, Jack Yeoman
2	Robbie Allam	Tom Makey, Adam Richards, Chris Tiernen, Matt Pinner
3	Sam Pearson	Simon Wheeler, Alex Palmer, Elliott Parsons
4	Ben Saxton	Tim Saxton, Claire Clasko, Claire Walsh, Catherine Alton, Christian Birrel
5	Guy Stephens	Theo Hoole, Sam Goodchild, Tom Altmann, Oliver Bennett
6	Sam Brearey	Aaron Cooper, Chris Pope, Chris Proffitt, Chris Videlo
7	Matt Rainback	Kate Macgregor, Scott Terry, Tom Davidson, Tom Wright
8	Rob Struckett	Tom Hodkinson, Olly Sloper, Gareth Evans, Georgie Akin-Smith
9	William Kalderon	Sophie Knight, Alice Rook, Alice Currey, Pete Gray