No play on day four
Racing proved impossible with poor visibilty
Poor visibility in Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay postponed racing and eventually cancelled it for all classes at 16.10 on day four of the RYA Youth National Championships (Thursday 9 April).
Visibility was reduced to less than 30 metres at times, a disappointment for all sailors who were eager to get racing on the penultimate day of the Championships at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy.
Principal Race Officer, David Campbell-James, explained the situation: “The whole thing is disappointing. We woke up this morning with 8-10 knots, and a similar wind direction to yesterday. We released the 420s and Spitfires for their racing in the harbour, we then released the Lasers who set off across the harbour to the Northern bay entrance.
“We postponed the 29ers on the slipway as we realised the visibility was worsening. We stopped all the boats going into the bay and returned all sailors safely to the shore. The safety boats did a great job.
“We now look forward to tomorrow and have increased the number of scheduled races that the classes can sail, with a final warning signal cut off point of 2.30pm.”
Karyna Manuel, leading the Laser Radial girls’ by 12 points, expressed her disappointment with the day but looks forward to racing tomorrow: “It’s frustrating, as it’s such a nice day and we finally have some good wind. It would have been nice to have had three races. I guess there is nothing anyone can do, as it’s a safety hazard. We are all just a bit shocked as we weren’t expecting the visibility to be like this.
“Going into the final day, I am just going to do the same as always and hopefully we will have three races in good breeze.”
Sarah Norbury and Mari Davies lead by one point over Katie Davies and Grace Summers in the 420 fleet, and Norbury is looking forward to the final day: “We are not taking anything for granted. It has been a really good regatta so far, we are just hoping for good racing tomorrow!”
With the discard still not in play for the 420 fleet, the leader board could see a real shuffle if all scheduled races are completed.
The warning signal for the first race tomorrow is at the earlier than scheduled time of 10.00am for the 420 and Spitfire. You can watch the live streaming from the Harbour course on the sportsXstream and SailRacer website. GPS tracking will also be live for all courses.
For further information please visit the RYA Youth National Championships website. You can follow the event build up and see the action unfold on the British Youth Sailing Team Facebook page and on Twitter at @RYAyouthracing. Share your preparations and comments with us using #RYAYouths.