Young windsurfers at Kielder 

Young windsurfers from clubs throughout the north east sailed into Kielder on Sunday 15th June to take part in round 2 of the RYA Team15 Youth Windsurfing Championships.

The second Team15 Interclub event of the year for the North Borderlands region attracted teams from the Coquet Shorebase Trust at Amble (Coquet Crushers), Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club (Derwent Devils) and the local Kielder Kestrels from Kielder Water Sailing Club. 

The winds were light and conditions dull and often drizzly, but this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the young sailors as they sailed out to race.  The 3.5m fleet raced nine races and with a line-up of 8 competitors, the start was fairly crowded.

First place in the 3.5s was taken by Maya McGarvey of the Coquet Crushers, with Jonathan Dodd of the Kielder Kestrels a very close second. Third was Olie Pirt of the Derwent Devils, showing that all 3 teams have strong contenders in the junior fleet. 

The 4.5m, 5.8m and 6.8m classes raced 7 races together in the middle of the lake on the same rectangular course, but with the 2 larger classes sailing an extra “sausage”.  

The 4.5m fleet comprised 7 racers, and Archie Dodd of Kielder Kestrels came first in every race, repeating his feat of 2 weeks earlier in round 1 of the Championships. Second place was taken by Jordan Pirt of Derwent Devils, and third by Bailey Charles-Jones of Kielder Kestrels. 

In the 5.8 class Jane Vallance, the Kestrels’ team captain, won 6 out of the 7 races to take first place.  Second was Nick Pike, also of the Kestrels, with Joseph Palmer and James Davis of the Derwent Devils taking third and fourth place. 

The 6.8 racing was won by Philip Heywood of the Coquet Crushers, taking first place in 4 out of the 5 races, with Aaron Hobbs second and Leonardo Takiguchi third, both also of Coquet. Alistair McLane of the Kestrels was fourth. The team trophy for round 2 was won by the Kielder Kestrels. There were some great performances also from some of the other competitors, including young Ewan Davis of Derwent Devils, who, having found he wasn’t doing as well as he’d hoped in the morning, went out for some extra practice at lunchtime and managed to come first in the first 3.5m race after lunch. 

"That sort of commitment is what we like to see," said Roger Mole, Team15 instructor at Derwent Reservoir Sailing Club. "We had 15 new windsurfers at our half term training, some of them showed great potential and the club has bought 3 new Techno boards for use in Team15." 

"As a joint Team15 Academy with Kielder, we are looking forward to hosting our first Team15 event of 2014 at Derwent Reservoir on 6th July." 

"We have some great youngsters coming through in the Kielder Kestrels," said Brian Coates, windsurfing coach at Kielder Water Sailing Club. "We have a fleet of 12 out today and this is the first ever race meeting for 4 of our young windsurfers." 

The Coquet Crushers fleet were very competitive at Kielder, taking the first 3 places in the senior 6.8m class. "3 out of 6 in our Crushers team are training in the RYA North and West Zone Squad this year," said Alex Hodge, Chairman of the Coquet Shorebase Trust Windsurfing Section. "The youngsters train as much as possible throughout the winter." 

"3 members of the Coquet Crushers are competing in the Techno World Championships in July. It's a fantastic achievement for the youngsters to get to World Championship standard within their first 4 or 5 years of windsurfing. Plus, we have only just heard that Gustavo and Leonardo Takiguchi have been made Team15 Ambassadors, as a reward for their commitment to the sport." 

The 3 young windsurfers making their way to the World Championships at Brest, France in July are Gustavo (16yrs) and Leonardo (14yrs) Takiguchi from Morpeth and Aaron Hobb (14yrs) from Whitley Bay. 

Gustavo Takiguchi, who at the age of 16 has now moved out of RYA Team15 competitions, is a fan of Team15 as he explains: "Team15 is a great way of building up confidence and matching your standard against other competitors of the same age. It is a gateway to RYA Zone Squad selection and onward if you want to take it further." 

"We need more youngsters in our Crushers team," said Trevor Hobb, committee member at Coquet Shorebase Trust. "We have done really well at Kielder but sadly we cannot field enough competitors to qualify for the team competition. We would encourage any youngsters who want to take up the sport to visit the RYA website or the Coquet Shorebase Trust website. We would love to see you at a training session."