Blog

Well, we’ve just finished our first training weekend with this years SIX brand new members!  Welcome to Charlie Whitbread (age 12), Peter Cope (age 9), Teddy Dunn (age 10), Henry Hotchkiss (age 10), Tom Whitbread (age 10) and Georgia Harding (age 10).  It is great to have so many new sailors and I have thoroughly enjoyed coaching them this weekend.  Already we are progressing in leaps and  bounds, after just a day and a half on the water we already have a really competitive little fleet!  The future is bright and I am really excited about the next few years for these guys.

They join Alec Cope and Ben Batchelor who have been in the Squad for four or maybe five years now.  Alec and Ben are both high ranked in the UK Tera circuit, Ben has been competing at the Tera Start of Seasons regatta in Northampton this weekend and has finished 8th overall.  I have high hopes that our new sailors will be in hot pursuit over the next couple of seasons.

I totally forgot in the list on the previous post, that we are celebrating our 10th year at Port Erin in 2016 too!!

Keep an eye here and on our Facebook page for news of pop up beach parties and picnics throughout the season.  They will all be short notice and definitely subject to the weather!  If it looks like a nice evening and a good sunset there is a good chance we’ll call on a gathering 🙂

April is on the doorstep, boats are rigged and on the boat park (well, almost all of them…) and our season is about to begin.

But it is still March, and I’m sitting at home with the fire lit, but I am excited.  I’m excited about all the events happening this year and by all the ideas associated with them.  My head is working faster than I can type, and as I try and write about one idea another one gets in the way….

We are doing the RYA Push the Boat Out Week in May.  That’s right, a whole week of events and activities on and off the water.  Each evening there will dinghies and RIBs, rowing boats, kayaks and a stand-up paddle board on the water for anyone to have a go, plus we’ll be working off the jetty in Port Erin, so you might not even have to get your feet wet!  Off the water there’ll be food, Manx new spuds and fresh mackerel, and cocktails at sunset.  I am especially looking forward to this week.  Anyone can join us, I’m hoping it will be a really social event and that we meet lots of new people.

We’ve got RYA Coach Assessor Alan Jones visiting again in July to run a Dinghy Instructor course.  We all really enjoy seeing our young sailors grow into young adults and take on the role of Instructor.

The Manx Youth Sailing Squad are on for an exciting year, with Ben Batchelor and Alec Cope both at the top of the RS Tera Pro and Sport fleets in the UK we will be following their regattas closely, whilst biting nails and crossing fingers and generally hoping for the best for them.  At the same time we’ve got five brand new young members joining us this season.  We love working with our new sailors as they make such rapid progress in that first season.  Our aim is to get them to the Nationals in August.

This season sees a new sailing program for adults, basically we’ll be on the water every Thursday evening from May through to September – come and join us.

On top of all that, our Youth Sailing Weeks are up and running again.  7th Wave Race Academy for juniors starts in May.  Laser training weekends, Saturday Skills Clinics, Powerboating and everything else it sure is busy!

And I haven’t even looked at Albert Penguin yet…

In our tenth season on the water at Port Erin we are delighted to have RYA Coach Assessor Alan Jones here with us this week training six of our sailors to become RYA Dinghy Instructors.  It has been a long week for the team with 9am starts and 8pm finishes, but it has also been a fantastic experience for them, seeing the world from the instructors point of view.  They have done loads of sailing, seamanship has come on in leaps and bounds having to consider tides, mooring Wayfarers, capsize drill in the big tubs and being placed in charge of on the water sessions.  This afternoon they are out looking at the single-handed method and tomorrow is moderation day, where an independent RYA Coach Assessor will be joining us to make the final decision on who will qualify as instructors.

It brings us much happiness (as well as a slightly aged feeling) that most of these trainee instructors started their sailing careers here at 7th Wave when they were young juniors.  We remember Jamie, Connor and Summer taking their first steps on the water many many years ago on our Youth Sailing Weeks.  It is a privilege to have been part of their childhood years and to watch them mature into young adults, hopefully by the end of tomorrow they will be instructors.

It is great to watch the 7th Wave family continue to expand, we look forward to helping these guys build the skills and experience they need to run parts of our summer programme next year.

Overall results for Port Erin Regatta 2015:
1. Ben Batchelor (3,1,1,1,2,2) Tera Pro
2. Alec Cope (4,2,6,5,1,1) Tera Sport
3. Patrick Cope (1,3,2,3,4,4) Tera Pro
4. Matt Perry (2,4,4,2,3,3) (Tera Pro)
5. James Arnold (5,8,3,4,5,5) Laser Radial
6. Rory Donegan (7,5,5,6,6,6) Tera Pro
7. Stephen Arnold (6,12,7,9,7,7) Tera Sport
8. Will Henthorn (8,7,8,7,9,8) Tera Pro
9. Ross Arnold (9,6,9,8,8,9) Tera Sport
10. Dylan Sewell (12,10,10,12,11,11) Tera Pro
11. Peter Cope (10,9,14,11,10,10) Tera Sport
12. Tim Chan & Patrick Rom (11,11,14,10,14,14) 420
13. Wilf Kermode (13,13,14,13,12,12) Topper Topaz

Well, we had a superb regatta over the weekend, 14 sailors in 13 boats took to the water in Port Erin’s typically gusty conditions on Saturday and lighter steadier breeze on Sunday. The challenge of sailing in these conditions meant the racing was incredibly close and positions changed frequently on each lap. Ben Batchelor was the overall winner, but Patrick Cope, Matthew Perry and Alec Cope really made Ben work hard for the win. Going into the final race on Sunday Patrick, Alec or Ben could have won the series. It looked like Patrick might have taken victory as he lead the fleet for the first two laps, with Matthew Perry chasing close behind. Ben had a lot of work to do, but found some boat speed and managed to break the close cover of Matthew Perry to sneak through the fleet before the finish of the race. Sunday was Alec Cope’s day, sailing his RS Tera Sport incredibly well, he won both race 5 and 6.

Planning ahead! 2015 course dates are now up to date on our website. Yachtmaster Theory in February and then back on the water at the end of March – yeay! It won’t be long now 🙂  Don’t forget to book your courses…

The Nationals saw light winds for the first two days of racing followed by some breeze for the final day event held at Derwent Water, near Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Equiom Manx Youth Sailing Squad members Ben Batchelor, Patrick Cope, Alec Cope and Tim Chan sailed in the Sport fleet which had 55 entrants. Erin Murphy and Matthew Perry competed in the 36 boat Pro fleet.

Sport Aid Foundation recipient Ben Batchelor sailed well to finish in the top ten in every race, with 3rd in Race 5, 2nd in Race 7 and the long sought after win in the final race of the series. Overall Ben finished on the podium in 3rd place.

Patrick worked his way up the fleet from 17th overall after the first day to a very creditable 12th overall. Patrick did well to sail consistently inside the top 20 and scored his best result, 5th in the final race.

Patrick’s younger brother Alec had a mixed bag of results from a 40th to 18th and 15th, but the youngster showing great potential and will now be looking to work toward achieving consistent results in the top 20 for next season.

Tim Chan was competing at his first every competition outside of the Isle of Man, having been invited to join the Equiom Manx Youth Sailing Squad at the start of this season. The first regatta is always a tough one and such a learning curve. Tim started with results in the 50s in the first couple of races but with each race his score improved evening finishing 34th in the penultimate race. Overall his finished in 49th place, a good effort from the newcomer.

With the Pro fleet increasing in size with each Championship the competition is getting tougher, lanes of clear air are hard to find and huge gains or losses can be made at marks. Erin Murphy was top Manx boat finishing in 23rd place. Matthew Perry was next in 29th place, both youngsters struggling to find their form in the light and shifty conditions. We’ve had such a breezy summer here I don’t think the Squad have trained in less than 12 knots of breeze all season. This pair have been on top form in training this summer and were flying in the wind and waves here a couple of weeks ago.

A couple of other Manx boats also travelled to the Nationals, Alasdair Kelly was 55th in the Sport fleet and Will Henthorn 36th in the Pro fleet. For Will this was his first ever major championship, he will have benefited from the experience and no doubt will have learned heaps. Alasdair has done a few events in the Fevas with older brother, a former RS Tera World Champion, James Kelly, but I believe this is the fisrt time Ali has taken the helm for a regatta. A huge well done to both Will and Ali for getting out there and taking part, the only way is up from here!

The Squad would like to thank sponsors Equiom for their continuing support. The team would also like to thank the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company for their assistance.