Win for sailor Elliot at Ogston
Warm weather and light winds on Saturday 7th June provided the 30 Derbyshire Youth Sailors who attended the Ogston Sailing Club series event with a fine day’s racing sailing. The competition was close and the quality of the sailing was high, as the contenders enjoyed the challenges of the race courses and sought out the best way to make the most of the gentle breezes.
At the front of the pack at the end of the day was Elliot Banks (17) from Carsington Sailing Club in his Laser dinghy. He was closely followed by Ogston member Ben Crossdale (15) also in a Laser dinghy and Jenny Saunders (16) of Staunton Harold SC in her Laser Radial dinghy. Elliot, the 2006 Derbyshire Youth Sailing Series Champion, finished third in the first race and won the next two of the three races to take the event win. Ben certainly gave Elliott a run for his money and Jenny was also pushing the leaders all the way.
Elliot said: “It has been some time since I competed in a DYS event and I found the sailing really enjoyable. I am delighted to have won but I had to work really hard to stay ahead and it seems that the level of competition has gone up at least a gear.”
Close behind the leaders in fourth came Callum Lambourne (13) of Swarkestone Sailing Club in his Optimist dinghy and the lead Junior sailor was Oscar Terry (10) of Trent Valley Sailing Club also in an Optimist who was 13th overall. The leading Topper sailor was Anna Blagden (15) of Carsington Sailing Club who was 15th overall and the fleet also included Albacore, Enterprise and Mirror double handed dinghies. The leading two handed boat was the Albacore dinghy sailed by brother and sister duo Matthew and Emma Metcalfe-Smith of Ogston SC in overall 7th place.
The first race of the day also saw a small second fleet of youth sailors from Ogston Sailing Club’s trainees have a separate start and use the same race course following on behind the DYS sailors. This experience of racing sailing was for some of them their first ever attempt at a race start and completing a race course.
In charge of the racing for the day was Don Spencer of Ogston SC, who was celebrating his 70th birthday with a day afloat on the race committee boat as the Principle Race Officer. Don is part of the proof that sailing is a sport for all ages as he also continues to enjoy sailing his own Laser dinghy and could likely have challenged the young sailors if he had been allowed to enter the race instead of managing it.
Glyn Rawson of Ogston SC said: “Once again it was fantastic to see such competent young sailors pitting their wits against each other and the conditions and having a great time while they do. It was an experience for the young trainees to be among that many boats and for some of them to take their first look at racing sailing.”
Photo used with thanks to Garry Crossdale.