North East & Yorkshire Youth Sailing Association Open at Ripon Sailing Club

Ripon Sailing Club took its turn hosting a round of the North East & Yorkshire Youth Sailing Association travellers series on Saturday 27th April.

With entries ranging from Laser 2000s to Optimists the race officer was never going to have an easy job. It was made even less easy by the wind speed and direction limiting course setting to the end of the lake nearest the club house, but the RO did an excellent job getting the course set and the fleet away for the first race right on time at 10.30. As the first boats approached the windward mark the wind started to drop so that the leading Lasers sneaked round the mark leaving the leading Toppers stranded and the rest of the fleet drifting in to add to the chaos.

NEYYSA Youth & Junior Open at Ripon - photo © Lucy Priest

Fortunately, the wind never died completely and soon started to fill back in, leaving the committee boat calling for reinforcements to help record lap times. Ethan Wild (Ripon SC) never lost his lead in that first race but was pushed all the way by Hannah Marks (also Ripon SC). The places were tight on the water but even tighter on handicap with Henry Blades (Scaling Dam SC) in a Laser 4.7 and Sebastian Vials (Derwent Reservoir) in an Optimist splitting the two Laser Radials in the final results with the Toppers of George Spence (Ripon SC and Kyla Baxter (Covenham SC) in 5th and 6th.

NEYYSA Youth & Junior Open at Ripon - photo © Lucy Priest

The second race was run back-to-back on the same course and this time it was Hannah who got away from Ethan and held on to take the win, with Henry Blades again splitting the two radials on handicap. Fourth place was taken by another Radial with Oscar Trenholme (Ripon SC) pushing himself hard to stay with the two leaders on the water while Aleks Svietek (Ulley SC) in his Tera took 5th. With two good races completed the race committee sent the fleet ashore for lunch.

NEYYSA Youth & Junior Open at Ripon - photo © Lucy Priest

While the fleet was ashore the wind changed, leaving large areas of wind shadow on the lake and making the Race Officer's job even harder than it had been in the morning. The race committee finally got a course set that looked sensible, only for the wind to swing again during the start sequence, leaving a very biased first beat. Those who got the start right generally did pretty well in this race and the top of the fleet didn't see much change, although Henry Blades definitely had a race to forget and several of the regatta fleet sailors pulled off some very good results.

NEYYSA Youth & Junior Open at Ripon - photo © Lucy Priest

The wind direction swung a little more during the race and then settled, allowing the Race Committee to change the course again for the final race of the day. On the water the battle again appeared to be between the Laser Radials, with Hannah initially taking the lead but eventually being overtaken by Ethan, who made some good tactical decisions at critical mark roundings. However, the final win was eventually taken by George Spence, chased all the way by Oscar Manning (Ripon SC) who took 2nd place. Ethan finished 3rd, with Henry taking 4th and pushing Hannah back in to 5th place.

NEYYSA Youth & Junior Open at Ripon - photo © Fiona Spence

The prize-giving was held in the club house, with recognition for the Rookie fleet sailors. The Endeavour award went to Hazel Wright (Ripon SC) and club awards went to Noah Gaunt (Yorkshire Dales SC) and Curtis Armstrong (Ripon SC). First place in the regatta fleet went to Callum Priest (Ripon SC) with Freddie Price (Covenham SC) in second and Joshua Wright (Ripon SC) in third. The event winner was Ethan Wild (Ripon SC) with Henry Blades (Scaling Dam SC) in second and George Spence (Ripon SC) in third.

Overall Results: