The RYA Eric Twiname Team Racing Championships. Over the weekend of 19-20th October the Flying Spinnakers team competed at the RYA Eric Twiname Team Racing Championships. The team consisted of 6 sailors under the age of 15. Dan Atherton, helm. Daniel Burns, crew. William Bedford, helm. Kieran Young, crew. Milo Gill-Taylor, helm. Adele Young, crew. Milo, Daniel, Adele and Kieran are currently sailing Optimists, William has recently moved into Laser 4.7s and Dan A into 420s. The team had only one afternoon at Spinnaker in Fevas, with no official team racing training. New team member this year is Kieran Young. We left Ringwood at 6.30am and headed to the Farmoor reservoir near Oxford. On arriving we were blessed with breaking cloud and a fairly steady breeze, which was a relief after standing around all day last year waiting for wind which never arrived. We got registered and to the teams delight they were issued with bright pink bibs. Racing started at 9am sharp and we had to wait until race 20 for our first race, there was a lot of pacing up and down the reservoir by Milo and the 2 Dans, whereas William, Adele and Kieran just relaxed on the bench awaiting their race. Race 1, oh dear! Milo and Adele and the Dan and Dan boats were a long way in front of the start line at 1 minute to go. Something to do with their watches! They nearly pulled it back, however lost the first race of the day. After that they went on and won the second race easily. After 2 races they came ashore to regroup and argue amongst themselves, which they seem to do quite well but still dont seem to get upset with each other or fall out. Other teams seem to have pre-race talks etc; they just have pre-race arguments which were quite amusing to listen to! Milos tactic for the weekend was to be nice to the other teams whilst onshore, much to Wills amusement. As soon as they were in the boats everything changed; they were sailing the other teams off the line and basically putting them exactly where they wanted them. It was great to watch on the one hand and a nightmare on the other! They won the next 2 races easily. They then sailed against a team of girls from Royal Lymington YC (Sailing Sisters). They are also top Optimist sailors, or recently moved out of the class so well known to the team. This was undoubtedly the best team racing of the day. Most races lasted 6 minutes, this race lasted 11 minutes, with many protests and turns being carried out amongst the two teams. We couldnt see from the waters edge who had won as they were all on the finish line, and then the jury boat raised his flag to signal the Sailing Sisters needed to do turns, our team crossed the finish and had won. That was one of the top teams beaten. They then had another easy race before coming up against the Hayling Island team who are all Feva sailors, so it could also be a tough race, however they won this one easily too. Their main rivals and also good friends sailing in the name of Team Heathcote were next. This team was made up of top Optimist sailors, Robbie King one of the helms had sailed with our team last year and his brother Alex had been in the team that we beat in the final last year so the pressure was on. There was a lot of jostling for position sailing each other off the line prior to the start, then it was GO! Will forced the opposition to tack and almost capsize, and causing them to hit their teammates mast slowing them down, and protesting him into doing turns. This turned out to be a great move as their main sheet got tangled and we were away, winning the race fairly easily. 3 of the top teams beaten. We ended the day winning 9 out of 10 races and joint 2nd on points with Team Heathcote, with the Sailing Sisters also on 9 out of 10 races in the lead with a lower points count. Day 2 Dan Burns The 2nd day started disappointingly as there wasn’t the forecasted 30 knot gusts; however we quickly began the first race of the day in group gold A against the Sailing sisters. We anticipated that it would be a difficult race however we believed that we could win it, and it was going well off the start with Will immediately giving one of their boats turns, and so we rounded the windward mark in 1, 3 and 4. The downwind leg could have been very difficult, but fortunately for us the Sailing Sisters boat in second tried to mark trap us but hit the mark! From then on it was plain sailing to victory. We then had a short break ashore before returning to race Team Heathcote. This was another brilliant race and Will kept us in it with some great team racing on the first leg and we managed to clinch victory. However our celebrations were short lived, as after receiving some turns after the start, we could not pull ourselves back to beat HISC Hotshots. We came ashore again with only two races remaining in the group. But then we had a 40 race wait, which took 2 hours! Two bowls of chips and a few heavy downpours later, we were ready. We had been hiking for most of the day, but unfortunately the wind had dissipated completely, so it was another long wait. By the time we were on the water, we had our focus, and a fair bit of wind, back. So our fourth race of the day was against Sevenoaks A, and we felt confident and determined. Milo’s scare them at the start tactics definitely worked, and we managed to win the race with a solid 1 2 3 combination. Then it was time for our last race in the group. Bowmoor Blasters- the team which had beaten us in our very first race of the event. To say it was tense would be an understatement. Good starts were required. A few seconds before the start, Will managed to force a boat to tack off and gybe around, causing them to fall into dirty air. Then Dan A and I managed to sail one of their boats into a lagoon, which we had wanted to try from day 1. From then it was all about boat speed and we rounded the mark in building wind. Rounding the final mark we had a solid 1 2 3 again. This was emphasised when we all finished at the exact same time. So we had won the group, and therefore had an easier semi-final. The wind was really up by then and even Dan and I, with a joined weight of 110 kg and probably one of the heaviest pairs there, had to work hard to keep the boat flat. We breezed through the race with another 1 2 3 because of good starts and keeping our boats flat, however as we sailed back to the start for our second race of three, the race between Team Heathcote and the Sailing Sisters was hit by an enormous gust which caused leeward mark mayhem! This was too much, the race committee decided, and sent us in. This meant that because we had won Gold A, we could claim the title for a second year running!
Posted on: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 17:46:41 +0000
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