South West Sailing

The weather is a topic of conversation dear to the heart of nearly every Brit and sailors are no different with the too much wind and rain ruining the peak sailing months of July and August.

Come September of course and the reverse is the case with the RYA Zone championships being held across the UK in 7 different venues all being badly affected by little or no wind.

At Weymouth Truro windsurfer Nick Sylvester won the 3.5 fleet taking 3 wins in the limited racing completed on the Saturday, Adam Grayston also from Truro repeated the feat in the 5.5 fleet and Saltash sailor Louis Morris came good in the 7.8 fleet.

Chew Valley Sailing Club was the venue for the South West Zone dinghy regatta but a complete lack of wind meant that no racing was possible on either Saturday or Sunday.

Despite a lack of breeze frustrating many of the 1000 youngsters taking part in the Zone championships selection for Zone and Home Country squads will not be seriously affected as criteria such as open training, key competition and performances over the summer will be taken into consideration.

After the disappointments of the round Britain solo attempts by Hilary Lister and 16 year old Jonny Moore I am delighted to report that Jack Daly sailing Padiwak a 1985 vintage Corribee Mk II has finally made it back to Ramsgate the port he left on 21st June.

Daly celebrated his 17th birthday on Friday arrived home last Saturday after an epic 12 week circumnavigation of the UK and enters the record books as one of the youngest single-handed sailors to complete the voyage.

The youngster is raising money for the RYA Sailability charity and if you are so minded to donate to this worthy cause visit his web site www.sail-the-dream.co.uk

Padiwak visited Falmouth a couple of weeks ago and I sadly missed the opportunity to meet this remarkable teenager but I can only applaud a wonderful achievement.

Truro Laser sailor James Tilley is the RYA Champion Clubs Liaison Officer and the programme originally launched in 1997 has just under a revamp and major relaunch via a new web site at www.rya.org.uk/vcc.

The site offers a multitude of best practice tips, downloads and case studies of some of the 143 current Champion Clubs in the UK.

The principle aim of the CC programme is to encourage young sailors and windsurfers to learn how to sail and develop their skills through quality RYA race training programmes run by participating sailing clubs.

The benefits of applying to become a Champion Club include increased revenues, membership and a hopefully full access to training programmes to the benefit of all members.

All clubs need to attract new members in order to survive and continue and the RYA Champion Clubs programme is designed specifically to encourage youngsters to sail and youngsters are the lifeblood of any club.

Speak to James and get on board if you as a club haven’t already joined.

The third and final RYA ranking event took place at Weymouth last weekend and it brought further success to Andy Walsh and Ed Barney in the Tornado class.

The pair went into the weekend tied on points with the other two leading UK Tornado crews McMillan/Howden and Wilson/Bulkeley. McMillan was on usher duty at a wedding on the Saturday so Olympic 49’er helm Chris Draper stood in on and showed that there is no substitute for skill winning the opening race of the 6 race 1 discard series.

Andy and Ed finished 2nd in the opening race and went on to win Races 3 and 6. Wilson/Bulkeley also posted 2 wins winning Races 2 and 4 to underline just how competitive the racing is between these 3 crews.

Draper only raced on the Saturday and McMillan returned on Sunday and although not winning another race posted 3-x top 3 finishes to win the regatta by 1 point from Andy and Ed.

Wilson/Bulkeley finished 3rd equal on points with Walsh and Barney but losing out on countback in Race 6, which had been won by the West Country crew.

The change of helmsmen meant however the Draper/McMillan/Howden crew could not win the overall RYA rankings and so victory went to Andy and Ed from Wilson/Bulkeley.

Mylor ‘s Tom Phipps and Marcus Lynch finished 4th overall at the weekend counting 2 podium finishes and finished 4th overall in the final rankings.

Phipps/Lynch and Walsh/Barney now face an anxious couple of weeks as the Olympic Organizing Committee has decreed that for 2012 the sailing events will be reduced by 1from 11 down to 10.

The ISAF will have to make a recommendation on which class gets the chop and there is a distinct possibility it could be the Tornado. Both crews would then have to decide whether to continue their Olympic ambitions and if the Tornado goes in which class?

Ed Powys and Will Morgan continue their learning curve in the 49’er fleet and finished 12th overall counting an 8th as their best result. Ed and Will finished 8th overall in the RYA 49’er rankings behind the Exmouth pairing of Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes the current World Champions.

It will be interesting to see how they progress next year given the tough competition in the UK 49’er fleet.

Finally Ben Ainslie made a rare appearance in the Finn class as he prepares for the 2008 Melbourne Finn Gold Cup and a showdown with Ed Wright for the UK Finn berth at the Beijing Olympics.

Ainslie sailed the wrong course in Race 1 on Saturday then won the next 4 races with Wright posting 2 x 2nd places and finishing a disappointing 5th overall.

The overall RYA rankings show youngster Scott Giles in top spot with Wright in 6th spot and Ainslie in 8th but Melbourne will determine who goes to Beijing and you can’t really see anyone mounting a serious challenge to Ben.

He has already won 4 Finn Gold Cups more than any other sailor and I would not bet against him winning number 5 in Australia after almost 12 months absence.

Awesome.