General

The Manx Youth Sailing Squad will travel to Alton Water S.C. in Suffolk this weekend for the RS Tera annual Inland Championship.

Tony Pitt (age 11) will experience his first taste of UK competition. He has worked hard over the last two years, firstly to achieve selection to the MYSS and during this season to raise his sailing in preparation for UK competition. Tony will sail in the ‘Pro’ fleet at the weekend, after upgrading from the Sport to the Pro rig only last weekend.

For Greg Kelly and Amie Shute this will be the fourth Inland championship they have competed at. Amie will sail in the Pro fleet and Greg will do his final regatta in the Sport fleet.

Ffinlo Wright and Matthew Petts, who won the IAPS UK schools regatta last May will sail in the Sport fleet, along with the team’s youngest member Ben Batchelor.

We will try and keep up-to-date results here as best we can. The first race starts at 11.30am on Saturday.

We found two guillemots in the bay today that were covered in oil and unable to fly. The MSPCA were straight down to collect them. Wish I had a photo of Jon defending a baby guillemot from seagulls whilst trying to catch it with a cardboard box. Thanks MSPCA for good advice and quick response.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-14730019

The final two races of the RS Tera World Championship we sailed yesterday with all four Manx sailors having a great day of racing.

Greg Kelly won the first race and finished third in the final race of the series. In the overall standings he finished in 4th place, but the results at the top of the fleet we extremely close with only two points difference between second and fourth! Greg finished in the top five in six out of eleven races and also had two more results in the top 10. This is an outstanding achievement for the youngster in what was a very tough and close competition. Well done Greg!

In the Pro fleet Amie Shute finished the series with two 2nd places in the final races which moved her up to 5th overall and 2nd placed girl in the fleet. Amie will be delighted with these results, which after years of commitment, determination and training, are thoroughly deserved.

Izzy Sharpe, also racing in the Pro fleet, finished in 8th place overall, a very credible result in this light airs regatta. Izzy (and all the Manx sailors) preferring to sail in stronger winds and big waves, conditions we are very familiar with here!

Ffinlo Wright, the youngest member of the Manx team, sailed in the Sport fleet and finished in 14th place overall, managing to score three top 10 results during the series. Every year we are seeing better and better results from him, let’s hope he continues with the same dedication over the next few years.

The Manx Youth Sailing Squad have trained intensively throughout the winter and summer months, for all their efforts they have once again been a credit to themselves and the Isle of Man. I cannot express how difficult it can be to sail in a big fleet in light winds and maintain consistent results, but on the whole they guys have done it. Their results really are outstanding at this World Championship.

After nine races at the RS Tera World Championship results for the Manx Youth Sailing Squad are….

In the Pro fleet Amie is 7th (4th girl) and Izzy is 8th (5th girl). With a couple of good races tomorrow they may still be able to move up a few places in the overall standings.

In the Sport fleet after his superb results today Greg has moved up to 7th overall and Ffinlo is currently lying in 15th place.

There are two more races to be sailed tomorrow to complete the World Championship series. Let’s hope there is a bit of breeze for them….

With more wind at the Worlds today the Manx are back on form with Greg Kelly scoring a win and two 2nds in the three races sailed.

Amie had a good day in the Pro fleet with a 4th, 6th and 7th, she may be lying first girl now but we are still waiting for confirmed overall results.

Ffinlo has had a steady day with a 12th, 12th and 15th in the Sport fleet. Izzy finished 9th, 8th and 17th.

I will post another update once we have more news.

Fingers crossed for more wind in Denmark tomorrow!!

Four sailors from the Manx Youth Sailing Squad are in Denmark to represent Great Britain at the 2011 RS Tera World Championship.

Sixty-five competitors from seven countries are participating in the event, open to sailors aged 18 and under. There are 26 boats in the Pro rig fleet and 45 boats in the Sport fleet.

The squad have taken part in a pre-championship training camp over the weekend to familiarise themselves with the sailing conditions in the sheltered waters of the Aabenraa Fjord.

The Championship will began on yesterday with the first three races. Izzy Sharpe and Amie Shute racing in the Pro fleet made a steady start to the regatta. Amie scored a 6th, 26th and 12th, Izzy 8th, 26th and 8th.

Only 6 boats finished Race 2. In the very light winds the race committee had moved one of the marks by 30 degrees which caused much confusion in the fleet resulting in twenty boats sailing the wrong course. Amie realised the error and corrected her course but was unable to finish within the time limit.

In the Sport fleet Greg finished 9th, 46th and 10th. Ffinlo 16th, 46th and 21st. Again the Sport fleet suffered the same confusion as the Pros and only two boats sailed the correct course.

Today has been another light airs day but there have been some good results from the Manx team. Izzy is currently lying in fifth place, and 2nd girl, in the Pro fleet after an 8th, 6th and 6th today. Amie is 3rd girl, 8th place overall after a 12th, 11th and 7th.

There are a lot of mixed results at the top end of the Sport fleet with the light conditions. Greg got a 14th, 4th and 14th leaving him in 9th place overnight.

Ffinlo came 12th in race 4 and 10th in Race 5 but unfortunately was over the line at the start of race 6 and scored the full 46 points for OCS. He will have to be more cautious for the rest of the week as he has already used his two discards in races 2 and 6. At present this puts him in 19th place.

Today we have fitted new, exciting asymmetric spinnakers to the Topaz fleet. This afternoon students were out flying them almost instantly. Brilliant!

The National 18′ class national championship started today at the Royal Cork Yacht Club. Two Manx boats have travelled to Cork for the event.

After Day 1 Anthony Ellis, Michael Wilson and Nige Collin are leading. Michael Kneale, Phil Hardisty and Don Edwards are currently in 15th place.

This year the RCYC have a record number of entries for the class with over fifty boats competing. It promises to be an exciting week of racing….

Five Manx sailors competed at the RS Tera National Championships held at Hayling Island Sailing Club last weekend. Racing was held inside Chichester Harbour where an understanding of the strong tides was crucial in the light winds experienced by the sailors. The ‘Sport’ fleet saw a record entry of 64 boats which made for some exciting and very close racing.

Greg Kelly had an excellent start to the regatta with top three finishes in the first three races and a 14th in Race 4 which left him lying in second place overall at the end of the first day. After a win in the first race the following morning he struggled to get clean starts in Races 6 and 7, but found his form again and finished fifth in the final race of the series.

Discarding races 6 and 7 left Greg with a 14th to count toward his total which put him in fourth place overall. This is an outstanding result in such a big fleet, where getting off the start line with any clear air is incredibly difficult.

Also racing in the Sport fleet were Ffinlo Wright and Ben Batchelor. Both boys scored some good results during the weekend with Ffinlo finishing sixth in Races 6 and 8. Ben’s best result of the weekend was 12th place in Race 6, an excellent result for his first time at the Nationals. Overall Ffinlo finished 16th and Ben 26th, at age 11 and 10 respectively, both showing great promise for the future.

The RS Tera ‘Pro’ fleet saw 24 entries including Manx girls Izzy Sharpe and Amie Shute, with both girls finishing in the top ten. Sports Aid Foundation recipient Izzy Sharpe had a good start to the series with a 4th, 5th and 6th in the first three races before suffering a broken rudder in Race 5. After discards Izzy had a top ten score in all her races, finishing as the top girl in the fleet in fifth place overall.

With her commitment and dedication to training paying off, Amie put in her best performance at a major regatta to date. She finished third in Race 2 and fifth in Race 8, and took an early lead in Race 6 only to be pipped at the post to finish in second place. Amie finished in a well-deserved 7th place overall and second girl in the fleet.

Both girls will compete in the Pro fleet at the RS Tera World Championship in Denmark this summer, while Greg and Ffinlo will sail in the Sport fleet. The light winds this weekend at Hayling Island have been a good testing ground for the likely light airs competition in Denmark.

Manx Youth Sailing Squad coach Rob Cowell travelled to Hayling with the team. He said “they have been a credit to themselves and the squad; they were very determined in tough conditions, kept their focus and they’ve achieved results to be proud of”.

It is the Sure Beach Party tonight in Port Erin, where there will be bands on the beach and plenty of activities too.

If you fancy getting on the water our kayaks will be available to hire and we are running a sailing taster session for juniors from 6pm – 7.30pm. If anyone would like to attend this session please contact us before 5pm today.