Rutland Sailors retain another National Championship
20 Rutland sailors took part in the RYA Youth and Junior Team Racing National Championships this weekend against over 280 young sailors from around the country. Our Rutland Team came out victorious once again. This means they are unbeaten in this competition since their first win in 2019, and Jamie Tylecote and Freya Pembery have been in every winning team.
There are lots more photographs here: https://www.rutlandsailingclub.co.uk/page/photos-from-the-eric-twiname-youth-junior-team-racing-championships-nov-2022
The iconic Eric Twiname Youth & Junior Team Racing Championships, organised by the RYA in conjunction with the Eric Twiname Trust, saw youth & junior sailors come together for a weekend of high-octane team racing. Unlike conventional fleet racing regattas, the Eric Twiname Youth & Junior Team Racing Championships sees groups of young sailors sharing RS Feva and Firefly dinghies, carrying out on-water changeovers. The event was hosted by Oxford Sailing Club at Farmoor Reservoir on 8th & 9th October 2022
The success comes because the sailors work together, and race in different combinations, practicing in all conditions. Without the second team, the first team would not have won. Without our amazing juniors, the two Firefly teams wouldn't have been able to practice the weekend before. The picture of them all on the shore after the win shows the camaraderie of the sailors. It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a squad to win a championship.
Back to the details!
The sailors came from clubs, classes and schools and included past and present world champions, GBR representatives from various pathway classes and children of Olympic and world medallists. It was a top-class field.
The racing was split into 2 competitions.
Junior champs Is for 16 and under and is sailed in Fevas whereas the Youth Championships is for those under 19 and is sailed in Fireflies.
The first stage in each is a round robin with teams sailing a selection of opposition teams. At the end of Saturday each team had sailed 10 races. A total of 285 races across the 2 courses. The officials came ashore for a rest!
The Junior competition was tough, with a lot of National Feva sailors taking part.
The two Rutland teams were made up of some of our younger juniors our youngest crews being only 9 years old.
At the end of the first day, no teams remained unbeaten. The teams were then split into 4 leagues. Our two Rutland teams narrowly missed the cut for the Gold league having 7 wins each. Royal Lymington topped the table with 9 wins.
Racing commenced on Sunday in stronger breeze with tight competition and at the end of the gold league there were 3 of the 6 teams tied on 4 wins each.
In the second league Rutland teams were performing well with one team still on no losses going into their match against RIBC. It was a great race, but RIBC performed well in the breeze to take the race and therefore get the opportunity to sail off for the last spot in the semi-finals. Our Rutland teams finished 8th overall out of 28 which was an amazing result for such a young team. In the end it was Royal Lymington who won the Junior event.
In the youth fleet at the end of Sunday Rutland Raiders were lying 3rd overall and Rutland Squad in 7th. Two teams were unbeaten in the youth division - these being Royal Hospital School and Ryde School who were also tied on points.
The teams were then split into 4 leagues with the top 6 in Gold A. This meant Rutland Squad narrowly missed the Gold fleet and had to sail with a loss to stay in the game. For Rutland Raiders it meant a clean sheet to start again.
Sunday came with more breeze and a great level of competition.
Rutland got off to a rocky start with a tight race against Ryde and then a loss to West Kirby and National Fireflies. It was time to dig deep and keep believing. The beat RGS and their last race was against old rivals from RHS. This race would mean the difference between finishing second in the league and fourth the risk of fourth being a 2 race sail off against the Rutland Squad you never want to race your own team! The race was tight, but Rutland narrowly took the win and for Rutland this was the point in the competition where they felt they might win. At the end of the round no team was unbeaten West Kirby SC topped the league with 4 wins, Rutland, Ryde and RHS on 3 wins and RGS and NFA both on one race each.
Now Rutland squad, unbeaten that day met RHS. The team Harry Rowlands, Harry Burge, Solomon Wilby, Harry Bristow, Will Fearn and Ethan Mitchell Clarke put in a great performance but in the end it was RHS who won to go through to the semi-finals.
The first semi was between West Kirby and RHS. A good battle but in the end RHS won in 2 straight races.
In the second semi-final it was Rutland vs Ryde. At mark 2 it looked like Ryde had the upper hand in a 2,3,5 combination but a great mark trap at mark 3 saw Rutland convert to a winning combination to take the first race. In the second it was another battle. Ryde looked good until a starboard gybe back, and a Ryde - Ryde collision put Rutland into a secure 1,2. However, the umpires thought the Rutland boat had gone outside 2 boat lengths and gave them a red flag. This was closely followed by a black and the spectators were left wondering. There was a long pause as the captains of both teams were taken out of their boats for an on the water protest hearing. After quite some time they were delivered back to their boats and a third race was needed. Rutland having been given 10 points for the foul. This time Rutland left nothing to chance and won the race outright to progress to the finals.
In the finals it was tight. Rutland had first but with RHS in second and third it was still very open. At mark 1 RHS leading, round mark 3 it was Rutland, but leaving mark 4 it was RHS IN 235 with the slight advantage. Rutland took1, RHS waited to see if they needed to help their teammate, before going for the line and it was left to the back 3 boats to decide the race. Rutland in 4,6 we're not looking strong. Boat 4 covered but didn't block. Rutland finished in fourth the 2 last boats bow to bow for the line and victory. It was impossible to tell from the shore. The juniors cheered always believing in their team; the adults thought it was an RHS victory and had to be informed by those watching online that they had in fact won it! The online results showed that they had just got bow out on the finish to secure a 1,4,5 win.
In the second race Rutland got off the line in a strong position and held it to win the race and the competition.
This was a great victory for the team led by Jamie Tylecote with teammates Freya Pembery, Dylan Beatty, Tom Onions, Isabel Leetch and Georgiana Caldecott. Jamie and Freya have now won this event 3 times unbeaten since 2019. Dylan and Georgiana were still eligible to be sailing in the junior competition. Rutland team racers are RYA Youth, BSDRA, NSSA double handed and NSSA singles handed under 16s National champions as well as RYA women's national champions.
What was fantastic to see was that the whole Rutland Squad were delighted with the team victory. All the sailors and parents made their way to the hard to welcome the winners into the shore and to celebrate with them. It was a Rutland SC victory.
Last updated 11:33 on 29 October 2022