| SUCCESS FOR RTYC CADETS AT NATIONAL & WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS |
| RTYC Cadets enjoyed good racing at the National and World Championships held over 2 weeks at Pwllheli in North Wales. |
| With the Nationals being treated as a warm-up event for the following week’s Worlds by the 60 foreign competitors from as far afield as Australia and Argentina, there was a record entry of more than 160 boats. |
| After fierce competition, Edward Jaffa and Jemima Crossland in Crème de la Crème emerged as the leading RTYC team, finishing in the top third of a very hot fleet. Erin Clark and Lily Woollard in Challenger were some ten places behind, with Jamie Oaten and Ben Binmore in Harum Scarum, Myelie and Chloe Binmore in Awesome, James and Charlie Payne in Buoy Racer, and George and William Payne in Unique all taking mid-fleet positions. |
| The Unique boys deserve special mention. Having begun sailing together only a few months ago, George and William were the least experienced of all the RTYC crews, and improved hugely as the regatta progressed. |
| After a few days’ break, racing began again. With entry to the World Championship itself limited to seven boats per country, the other 123 boats competed in the World ‘Promotional’ Regatta. |
| With the fleet being divided into Gold and Silver fleets after the first 6 races, putting together a consistent set of results was crucial. Erin and Lily in Challenger were able to put together a pretty good series to make the Gold fleet cut, but Edward and Jemima in Crème de la Crème never recovered from a disastrous first day (which included a black flag disqualification). |
| However, it turned out that Crème de la Crème was joined in the Silver fleet by several British, Australian, and Belgian teams who were also held back by black flag disqualifications, which meant competition at the top of the Silver fleet was pretty strong. |
| Edward and Jemima threw down the gauntlet by winning race 1, and at the end of the first day, they were sharing top spot with the leading Belgian boat. |
| For Crème de la Crème, the overall ranking hinged on two incidents – in race 4, they were leading with the finishing line in sight, but then dropped to 5th after being baulked by tail-enders from the Gold fleet who were racing on the same course; and in race 6, with all their main challengers suffering black flag disqualifications, they could not quite press home their advantage to make up the points deficit that would have seen them take the top podium spot. |
| And so it was that the Silver fleet was won by one of Belgium’s top boats, with the runners-up spot being taken by Crème de la Crème. But after the disappointment of the first half of the week, Edward and Jemima saw that their black flag cloud really did have a silver lining! |
| Meanwhile, in the Gold fleet, Erin and Lily in Challenger finished a very creditable 50th overall which, given the quality of the fleet and their relative lack of experience, was a pretty impressive result. |
