RSC Youths successful at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championship

Published 15:12 on 12 Aug 2022

Carys Atwell at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships, Houston, Texas

Carys Attwell (17) and Terry Hacker (18) travelled to Texas at the end of July to represent GBR. The venue was Houston Yacht Club in Shoreacres, with the race area on Galveston Bay. The Yacht Club has a superb outdoor pool, mini outdoor basketball court and a fantastically engineered boat wash arch between beach and lawn. Temperatures averaged high 30s and it was extremely humid.

The bay generally offers a consistent southerly breeze building from 15 knots at 2pm (first warning signal time), which is what the competitors got for the first 4 days of the competition. Day 5 was stormy with no breeze building afterwards, so final day 6 started earlier to get 3 races in.

In the Women's fleet of 50, Carys had a very consistent regatta, with most results in the top 8. A capsize in the last race might have cost her 5th, but she was extremely happy with 6th overall and top GBR Female. Catch of the week was a jellyfish she scooped into her hull over the bow downwind; luckily only a minor sting!

In the Men's fleet of 156, with a 3 day qualifying series in 3 fleets of 52, Terry gave a strong performance with most results in the top 15 of his fleet, even with a couple of quick capsizes on day 1! This secured him a spot in Gold Fleet for the second half of the week where he sailed extremely consistently 21,24,21,24 and a final regatta race PB of 19th, therefore 29th overall and top GBR Male.

A fun time was had by all at this friendly and welcoming venue, and they even managed a trip to Houston's NASA Space Centre and saw the actual control room used during the first Moon landing.

Terry Hacker at the ILCA 6 Youth World Championships, Houston, Texas

Last updated 11:33 on 29 October 2022