North East Youth Travellers' Series concludes at sunny Filey!
by RYA North East 3 Aug 2018 11:41 UTC
North East Youth Travellers final event at Filey © Ian Smith
Overall victory in 11-venue series for Derwent Reservoir SC Optimist sailor Liam Boyce
Ninety-seven young sailors took part in the 2018 North East Youth Travellers Series, with Optimist sailor Liam Boyce claiming the top spot overall following the final event at Filey SC.
The Derwent Reservoir SC sailor won at Beaver, Pennine and Scammonden Water, and finished second at Ulley, to take the series win counting just 5 points, and also the accolade of first North Zone sailor.
Other clubs visited by the Trident UK-sponsored series were Derwent Reservoir, Scaling Dam, Ripon, South Shields, Tees & Hartlepool, Kielder, and Filey for the finale, providing a great range of both inland and coastal venues and allowing the series to be divided into a North and South Zone, enabling sailors to compete for series prizes at clubs closer to home or further afield.
Second overall and first South Zone sailor was Laser 4.7 helm Henry Redmond (Covenham), counting a win from Ulley and three second places; third overall counting 12 points was club mate Harry Nikkells sailing a Laser Radial. These two not only travelled out of their home region to compete in the series but also had to try doubly hard to keep ahead of the game that comes with the average lap time handicap racing which enables the series to encompass a wide variety of classes.
Fourth overall was Optimist sailor Daniel Curtis (Kielder Water, North Zone), with the Topper of Tom Moss (Ripon, South Zone) in fifth. The RS Feva XL of Olivia Yates and Emma Jansen (Yorkshire Dales, South Zone) took sixth place overall as the leading doublehanded boat, netting them two trophies into the bargain.
Seventh was Erin Young (Topper 4.2, Scaling Dam, North), with James Catterall (Optimist, Derwent Reservoir, North) eighth, George Spence (RS Tera Sport, Ripon, South) ninth and Georgina Chard (Laser Radial, Tees & Hartlepool, North) 10th.
Seven different classes made it into the top 10 and the series - accessible for all youth and junior classes - also included Pico, RS Quba, Mirror, Topper Taz, RS Tera Pro and RS200 sailors. Full results for the series can be found here: www.yhysa.org/Results/2018/YHYSA_2018.htm
The RS Tera Sport provided an equal number of entries (19) to the Optimists, with George Spence, Tom Bates and Daniel Smith all sailing their first series of open meetings. In all the series had 85 entries, including 12 doublehanders, and 16 entrants qualified for the overall series by sailing three or more events.
RYA North East Regional Volunteer Team chair Ian Smith said: "The aim of the series is primarily to encourage youth and junior helms to take part in racing and to encourage them travel to other local clubs. Interestingly, most of the entrants compete in their home club event in the first season then venture out to other clubs in their second season. As a bonus, the youngsters also make new friends from other clubs and begin their integration into the wider sailing community."
He added that the series, which is now run under the wing of the RYA NE Regional Volunteer Team, had many clubs now eager to be a host venue; the team also hopes encourage more parents to support the series and is keen to hear from anyone who would like to help.
"Although the team consists of enthusiastic sailors it lacks the great feedback and input that was once provided by parents to make sure that the series reflects the wishes and needs of the youngsters taking part," said Ian. "We are about to embark on setting dates and venues for the 2019 season - please send us your comments so that we can try to make the 2019 series even better than 2018!"
If you can spare some time to support the organising team with results management, event feedback or management, or in any other way, please contact Ian Smith, RYA NE Regional Volunteer Team chair, via the contact form on the RYA North East website hub: www.rya.org.uk/rya-regions/north-east/contacts/Pages/contact-us.aspx