David Campbell-James� Report on the RYA ET Junior and Youth Sailing Championships at Grafham Water SC on 6/7 November, 2004

The event attracted sailors from a broad spectrum of the sailing community � clubs entered teams, schools entered teams, the junior and youth classes had representations and then there were teams of friends who had got together. This year saw a record 38 teams and 228 sailors competing.

Saturday morning saw perfect team racing conditions with a steady breeze of 10 to 15 knots.�� Whilst Sunday was very light and fairly foggy and racing had to be delayed to allow the little breeze there was to fill in.

For the Youth Championships, sailed in Fireflies for sailors under 19, boats had been loaned by Cambridge University, West Kirby SC and Sevenoaks School.

The Youth Championships had school teams sailing representing Sevenoaks, Canford, Radley, Uppingham, the Nationals Schools Sailing Association and the Lancashire Schools Sailing Association.� Only Sevenoaks were seriously in with a chance but whilst others achieved fewer wins over the weekend it was a steep learning curve for all.�

After 81 races for the Youths using the �Swiss League� scoring and scheduling system the two clubs steeped in traditions of team racing, Spinnaker and West Kirby had teams through to the semi finals alongside one of the Sevenoaks School teams and �Team Musto 29er� who had not done much team racing but had been doing the RYA Youth Match Racing which uses many similar skills.� The team to miss out on the semis on the tie-break rules was one of the other Sevenoaks teams.

Both semi finals went to 3 races.� The Sevenoaks team Bough Beech had a tough battle against Spinnaker who needed to win the 3^rd race to reach the final.� In the other semi final, the Musto 29er were against West Kirby who lost in the 3^rd race.� The final between Spinnaker and Team Musto 29er again saw Team Musto 29er only needing 2 races to take the Youth Championship.

For the Junior Championships, sailed in Fevas for sailors under 16, the boats had been provided by the ET Trust, LDC Racing Sailboats and Sevenoaks School.

Rivalry between the junior classes was intense with a number of teams of Optimist sailors, 2 teams of Cadet sailors, and one team of Mirror sailors with other club teams representing an assortment of classes.� Again the Schools had sent teams, which was pleasing.

In the first round Hayling Island SC were put up against Grafham Gremlins � both teams made up most of the top Optimist sailors in the country � so it was a tough start which Grafham Gremlins, the pre-event favourites won comfortably.� The Grafham sailors had all been selected for the World or European Optimist Championships, whilst the Hayling sailors were headed by the Peters family who had also been to the Optimist Worlds and Europeans.�

�The Southerners� were all Cadet Sailors who had been in the RYA Zone Squad.� One of their key opposition was the �UK Cadet Class team� and they came up against each other for the final race on Saturday evening. Each had only 1 loss so far � The Southerners won the battle, their practice session the previous weekend in the ET Fevas paying dividends � fortunately the teams made friends again immediately afterwards to enjoy a pleasant evening together.

The Itchenor team were all Mirror sailors with much prowess and they too had been practising.� Poole had 2 junior teams.� Fairly quickly it became evident that Grafham Gremlins were the team to beat and the most likely people to do this were the Itchenor, Norfolk and the 2 Cadet teams.

After 80 races for the Juniors, Grafham Gremlins still had a 100% win record, whilst The Southerners, Itchenor, the Nofolk Dumplings and the UK Cadet Class teams were all on 6 wins and 2 losses.� The tie break was again called into play and the UK Cadet Class team were the losers this time.

The semis were exciting, again best of three races.� Norfolk Dumplings could not match the speed of Grafham Gremlins who won 2 straight races to go through to the finals.� The battle between the Mirror sailors from Itchenor and the Cadet sailors from the South went to a third race after both teams had won one race, with The Southerners reaching the final.� However they couldn�t match the pace of the Gremlins who went on to maintain their 100% record and to win the Sevenoaks School Trophy

The race management had set off races continuously at 3 minute time intervals, with on the water boat changes after each race throughout the weekend.� The army of personnel needed to run the event had worked tirelessly all weekend � umpires, ferry boat people, starters, finishers, results people, beach masters, and bosuns.� All ensuring the large numbers of races went as smoothly as possible.� Grafham had fed and watered a huge number of people and were friendly and helpful all weekend but the success of the event should really be judged by the number of smiling, laughing faces of young sailors as they came off the water � win or lose they all had a tale to tell.

Overall

Juniors � The Sevenoaks School Trophy

1^st Grafham Gremlins (Claire Lasko, Matthew Rainback, Tim Saxton, Imogen Stanley, Ben Saxton, Hannah Diamond)

2^nd The Southerners (Jenny Lennon, Molly Bridge, James Rusden, Ed Impey, Ben Muskett, Tom Kinver)

3^rd Itchenor (Rob Struckett, Tom Hodkinson, George Yeoman, Jack Yeoman, Andrew Shaw, Edward Fitzgerald)

4^th Norfolk Dumplings

5^th UK Cadet Class

6^th Sophies Mates

7^th Hayling Island SC �X�

8^th West Kirby

9^th Poole Jnr 2

10^th Bowmoor �Belles�

Youths

1^st Team Musto 29er (Simon Wheeler, Tom Peel,� Justin Visser, Nick Hollis, Dylan Fletcher, Edward Chapman)

2^nd Spinnaker (Richard Clay, Edward Steele, Chris Moseley, Izzy Gill-Taylor, James Clay, Felix Newall-Smith)

3^rd West Kirby Youths 1 (Greg Moore, Ursula Moore, Andy Jacskon-Sumner, Fred William, Patrick Armstrong, Katie Robinson)

4^th Bough Beech

5^th Sennockian

6^th Team Dave

7^th Chiddingstone

8^th Guy�s team

9^th Betties Buddies

10^th Poole Youth 1