YDSC Easter Regatta

Easter weekend saw the final event of the RS200 Youth Squad at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club. Good Friday was our last training day before the Easter Regatta on Saturday and Sunday.

The forecast looked horrendous with extremely strong winds over the weekend but the wind for Friday looked the best so we made the most of it by getting lots of time on the water. Our focus was improving starts; this included picking the right end, holding position and trigger pulls. We did activities like 9, 6, 3, Go which gave us lots of practise starts and a few short races. Friday night was the final social with most of the squad staying down to enjoy one last meal together. It is safe to say that we have all bonded and made some great new friends this winter. Some of the squad already attended the first Northern Tour event at Delph SC and hopefully we will see each other at future events.

Saturday’s wind was not as bad as the forecast and we got a fantastic race away before lunch. The wind was strong but sailable and very shifty at the windward mark by the dam wall. Martin and Tom Penty took the win after remembering how many sausages to sail to the finish line after! The strong wind picked up even more after lunch and although two races were planned, only one race happened. By the afternoon, the size of the fleet had dramatically decreased as people stayed on land or returned to shore after numerous capsizes. The key to success in that race seemed to be ‘Don’t Capsize!’ as many boats chose to wear round rather than risk a gybe. In some gusts, you could see both sails flogging and helm and crew hiking for dear life just to survive. On Saturday night there were many tired sailors with achey muscles.

The plan for Sunday was to catch up on the race we missed by squeezing in four races. However, Storm Katie had other plans…

In the morning we managed two great races with lots of position changing. It was close at the top with the results still very open. The battle of Youth Vs. Experience continued with the Youth Squad pitted against the more experienced Martin Penty and Keith Escritt. The wind was shifty around the windward mark again which made for some lively mark roundings with many boats caught out by gusts or lulls and going for a swim! It was fantastic wind for racing and some great pictures were taken by Paul Hargreaves of boats screaming along downwind.

After lunch, the wind had picked up and a huge black cloud was approaching. The sailors waited warily on shore wondering whether to go or not. We watched a Phantom mainsail get torn in half and a Laser mast snap but few brave boats went out to test the wind and a wise Mike Saul came back in to say it was too windy (if only we’d listened!) Then there was a lull and the decision was made that a race would start in 5 minutes so nine boats ventured out, but not for long. The black cloud descended upon us, Storm Katie had arrived. As I sat on my upturned hull shielding my face from the hail behind the centreboard, I could just make out the hulls of most of the fleet and only a couple of upright boats. Four boats that had been lucky to be upwind when the storm hit were able to make it in safely, 5 were turtled and two of us ended on the rocky shore. The safety team were out in force; they picked up sailors who had made it ashore and brought them back out to help those who hadn’t. As the waves crashed boats onto boulders the size of people, the hail stung our faces. However, credit must got to the safety team at YDSC that weekend because miraculously, no one was hurt and only minor damage was done to boats. Thank you to everyone on the team!

Once everyone was safely back ashore, boats were packed up and the results worked out. It was close at the top with only a few points between the top 3 boats. The winners were Oliver Groves and Esther Parkhurst, one of the Beaver SC boats who claimed 1st to 5th.

Thanks to everyone for a fantastic weekend including the competitors and the people at YDSC for organising the event and making it such a success.

Finally, on behalf of all the squad, a huge thank you again to Erica Caswell for all her hard work making this squad happen, we are all very grateful.

Report by Rachel Grayson