The last of yesterday’s windy weather passed through at 1300 as sailors launched on day four of the RYA Youth National Championships (2-8 April) at Plas Heli.
After racing was cancelled for most classes on day three, all fleets had an extra race scheduled and the Race Officers motored through the day completing 34 races.
Tomorrow (Friday) will see competitors’ race in front of a Royal audience as HRH The Princess Royal will be on site greeting sailors in the boat park.
RS:X
Andy Brown (Largs) maintains his lead in the RS:X with a 3,1,3,2 score line, three points ahead of Matthew Carey in second and James Hatcher (Bristol Corinthian), a further three points behind, in third.
In the girls’ RS:X Emily Hall (WPNSA) leads the charge with a seven point lead over rival Lily Young.
“It was quite a tough day,” said Hall.
“You had to pick your side right and I think I did alright, consolidated on what I had to do, kept in the gusts as much as possible and on the lifting tack, sometimes I made some mistakes but I did pick it back up again.
“I feel quite confident going into tomorrow, I just need to keep relaxed and know what I am doing.”
Laser
Ellie Cumpsty (CVLSC) ruled the girls’ fleet, winning all four of her Laser Radial races.
“It was very good, I had good starts, good racing and managed to win all my races.
“The weather forecast for tomorrow looks medium, picking up to be a bit breezier in the afternoon, so should be good and I’m really looking forward to it
“I’m just going to fight hard and get the wind shifts like I did today, and see what happens,” concluded Cumpsty.
Clementine Thompson (Guernsey) has jumped up the leader board to second but six points still separate her and Cumpsty, Chloe Barr (Stokes Bay) completes the top three.
Laser Standard sailor Anthony Parke (WPNSA) moved into the lead, after double race wins today but was disappointed he didn’t have a straight firsts: “Pretty sick, I got a 1, 2, 2, 1. I’m a bit annoyed it wasn’t four firsts, but can’t get much better than that.”
The second discard for Lasers comes in at race 9 but Whaley would prefer it to stay as it is: “I wish there wasn’t discards, but it’s still pretty close. Sam’s pretty close behind. I’m confident but not overly happy.
“It was pretty breeze on out there, so basically I had good pace and the right hand track seemed to work well and my downwind was pretty quick as well.”
Yesterday’s leader Sam Whaley dropped down to second posting a disappointing 15th in last race today, Harry Blowers’ first and third put him in third overall.
Four firsts for Jamie Calder moved him right to the top of the Laser Radial boys’ fleet on joint points with Jake Farren-Price in second. Milo Gill-Taylor is just another four points behind so it’s all to play for on the
29er
In the 29er class Crispin Beaumont and Tom Darling (HISC) extended their lead with a 1,3,1,1 score line, they are confident as the final day approaches said Darling: “It’s really nice to have some consistent results, we haven’t used our discard yet so that’s in the bank. So really happy, looking forward to tomorrow, see what is has in store.
“Hopefully we will do the same again tomorrow as that was our preferred conditions, but it’s not looking likely. Nailed today really happy with how we performed.”
Beaumont and Darling have a big lead over Nick Robbins and Jake Todd in second and Arran Holman and Nathaniel Gordon in third.
Phoebe Connellan and Sophie Otter (Grafham Water) maintain their girls lead. Edward Norbury and Charlie Hutchings (Warsash) lead the 29er silver fleet.
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Jenny Cropley (Royal Lymington) and Emma Baker (Weir Wood) four top five results today jumped them right up the score board to second, just one point behind Isabel Davies and Gemma Keers (Itchenor).
“We had a really good day today, we won two out of our four races,” said Cropley.
“It was really nice wind, we felt really in phase with the shifts of the day and excited to go into tomorrow.”
Alex Smallwood and James Scott (Datchet) are third, ten points behind Cropley and Baker and first boys.
Spitfire
James King and Jack Butters (Parkstone) had another stunning day on the water, however their straight line record of firsts has been disrupted by Sophie and William Heritage (Gurnard SC). Caleb Cooper and Megan Smith (Grafham Water) are third.
Racing is scheduled to start at 10.25 on Friday.
Full results online here.
Follow all the step-by step-action on our event blog that will go live every day. You can also follow the action straight from the water online here.
For further information please visit the RYA Youth National Championships website. You can follow the event and see the action unfold on the British Youth Sailing Team Facebook page and on Twitter at @RYAyouthracing. Share your comments with us using #RYAYouths.