A large contingent from Starcross Yacht Club travelled to Royal Torbay Yacht Club over the weekend of 17th/18th June for the annual RYA Regional Junior Championships, coming home with much silverware and some impressive sun tans.
This is always a fantastic event, and provides a wonderful, supportive opportunity for sailors who haven’t travelled away from their home club before, as well as competitive racing at the top end of the championship fleets.
Sailors travelled from all over the south west region, including Poole, St Mawes, and all points in between. With well over 100 sailors on the water, 25 were from Starcross! Winds were light, building during the day, and there were some challenging conditions, particularly on the Sunday in the championship fleets, with several restarts needed as the wind kept shifting. Well done to everyone for coping with these conditions.
There were three different fleets. The championship fleets and coached regatta fleets were on the water all day and racing 6-8 races out in Torbay; while the Rookie / OnBoard fleet was aimed at less experienced sailors, and had a lot of fun in a range of dinghies, ribs and paddle boards. The number of Starcross sailors in the Rookie fleet is particularly exciting, as it shows the strength of the younger and less experienced sailors who are now starting to develop their skills. That should stand the Club in very good stead over the coming years.
SYC won the Shield for the club with the biggest increase in number of sailors attending (an increase of 13, narrowly beating Exe Sailing Club, who had an increase of 12). SYC (with 25 sailors attending) was narrowly pipped at the post by Parkstone (with 26) for the Shield awarded to the club with the greatest number of attendees.
Racing was very competitive in the championship and regatta fleets. Well done to all who sailed, with some splendid results. Particular shout out to Polly and Jack in the championship Feva fleet, who, until one mark from the end of the last race, were lying in second place, but managed to pull ahead to win the last race and the championship.
A big well done to everybody who attended, and we hope you will be able to join again next year.
Full results:https://www.sailwave.com/results/rya/2023RJC/Dinghies-SouthWest-RoyalTorbayYC.htm
Images by C Farnell (OnBoard/Rookie Fleet) and Helen Scott (competitors at Torquay)