Sailing at summer's ending

Sailing the Solent in September :)

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Filey and Ripon join forces for inter-club youth regatta

A sunny day in September saw Ripon and Filey sailing clubs collaborating to bring their youth and junior sailors together for a regatta on the North Yorkshire coast, with fun racing on the water and safe social distancing on shore. The Inter Club Youth Day was hosted by Filey SC and gave Ripon SC’s younger members a chance to sail on the sea, with each club organising its own competitors, who then met on the start line. Having had to cancel its open events this year, and limited as to what was possible under the shadow of the Coronavirus pandemic, Filey SC was aiming for a simple, easy and fun day so that young sailors from the two clubs could experience sailing and racing together in Filey Bay. Filey SC club secretary Carol Milner and Ripon SC youth and junior secretary Fiona Spence worked together to enable the day to happen, with each coordinating their home club’s sailors and parents. There were no entry fees for the event, a zoom briefing was held the night before, Ripon had its own designated area of the beach and everyone brought a picnic. Carol said: “We are all under pressure this year and sometimes you need to take the pressure off and just have some sailing. As many clubs are experiencing - especially volunteer-run smaller clubs - many members are not able to come sailing never mind volunteer. We love to host and put on a good spread of food and cake and serve beer and tea but when it comes down to it - it’s about the sailing and sometimes it’s about facilitating. By coordinating club-to-club rather than individuals it all became possible with minimum complications and safe distancing.” Young sailors with a range of abilities took to the water and although there were results, the day was more about enabling personal progression through racing rather than performance. Ripon’s Fiona Spence commented: “Filey’s invite came at an opportune moment and was too good to say no to. I am immensely grateful for their can-do attitude and support. Ripon has a lot of young sailors who have not experienced sea sailing and it was great to be able to bring some of our newer #teamripon members along to experience an event at a different venue with a supportive race team and safety crews. It was a day of firsts for several members – first time towing, first trip away from Ripon, first time on the sea.” Both Filey and Ripon believe inter-club cooperation can provide opportunities for members of all ages and abilities to participate and develop their skills, not only through high profile events but also informal and relaxed occasions providing a fun and varied environment for learning. Fiona continued: “The racing at the front of the fleet was pretty fierce with some renewed rivalries from the Youth Traveller Series. It was great to see the sailors at the front of the fleet revelling in the conditions and competition whilst supporting the less experienced members as they rigged and set sail. This is what sailing is all about – the camaraderie, friendship and support as well as a great day on the water. We look forward to hosting Filey at Ripon as soon as possible.” Carol added: “Everyone's resources are under pressure this year and we wanted to share our venue and create club collaboration to give the Ripon youngsters an opportunity on the beach. As a smaller club we are looking at ways to increase collaboration in the region and share resources. Clubs can be stretched holding events and it’s good to work together and sail together.” Fantastic conditions in Filey Bay as youth sailors launch for the regatta, credit Ripon SCRegatta report Conditions for the Filey & Ripon Inter Club Youth Regatta saw a glorious sunny September day with a neap tide and offshore winds keeping the sea flat and the surf very small. The winds were SW and changeable with some gusts up to 33 mph. It was an inverted P-course with handicap racing using average lap time for two races before and two after lunch. Seventeen dinghies set out - 10 from Ripon SC and 7 from Filey SC - although due to the strong winds not all raced or stayed on the water. For some of Ripon SC’s members it was their first time on the sea. The youngest leaving the beach was Molly Wilson, aged six (FSC, Tera) but due to wind strength she had to retire early. Danny Whitehead aged 9 (FSC, Tera) fought through all four races. Harriet Newcombe, Rebecca Newcombe, Sophie Gates and Keira Cowell earned special mention for their tenacity and perseverance. Tom Moss and Henry Smith ferociously battled the elements and George Spence, Ollie Lumb, Theo McGonigle, Hamish Steel and Ben Whitehead had a blast. After four races the final results were: 5th Alex Horsman (Byte, RSC); 4th Finn Goodman (Topper, RSC); 3rd Tommy Whitehead (RS Tera, FSC); 2nd Liam Boyce (Laser 4.7, FSC); and 1st Tom Bates (Laser 4.7, RSC). Carol sums up: “At the end of the day there were grins all round and everyone had learnt something. It was a great day – Simple, Easy, Fun. Thank you to all the parents who supported.”

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America’s Cup: UK Team in transition

Ben Ainslie, Team Principal and Skipper of the America’s Cup challenger INEOS Team UK, provides an update as the British squad transitions from their headquarters in the heart of Old Portsmouth to Auckland, New Zealand. The COVID pandemic has thrown a number of challenges our way over the past six months, as it has been for everyone around the world. The circumstances we found ourselves in focused us to slow down and think long and hard about our priorities and how we make the most of the time we have left before the 36th America’s Cup. This meant the last three months have been a very positive period for the team. We have achieved a great deal and I’m proud of how we got through it together as a team. It has been an especially positive period on the water. In fact, I can say we’ve probably had one of the best summers of sailing ever as a team in the UK. Being forced off of the water for a few months was, of course, frustrating. As they say in the America’s Cup the one thing you can’t buy is time. However, from May through to August, we had a brilliant sailing period. Getting out on the water regularly has been so valuable to us as a team because the learning curve on these brand new AC75 boats is so steep that every time we went out, we learnt a huge deal. The British summer really turned it on for us! We have now finished sailing in the UK and are currently halfway through relocating our entire team to New Zealand. Our first AC75, Britannia I, is already on her way to Auckland on a ship. Our second AC75, Britannia II, is currently being fitted out before she too goes to Auckland on an Antonov cargo plane at the end of September. Many of the team are already in New Zealand. Others, including myself, are due to head out in the next few weeks. As you would expect, when relocating this many people halfway across the world, it’s a very busy period and there’s a lot of pressure now on the team to get everything in order before we all head out but equally, we are all very excited to head to Auckland and take this next big step in our America’s Cup challenge. Once we get to Auckland, and through the mandatory two-week quarantine period, we are aiming to be out on the water in our new AC75, Britannia II, in October. That will give us a two-month period of productive sailing before we head into the Christmas regatta (Dec. 17-20), which will be the first time all these teams have lined up together in a race environment. That will be a fascinating period and will be met with a lot of intrigue. Given this is such a new class of boat, there may well be some big differences between the teams when we first line up against each other. For me, however, this Cup feels a lot like the 34th America’s Cup in 2013 in that the key to winning will be how quickly each team can develop and keep developing throughout the competition period. We can’t wait to set sail in the Waitemata Harbour. New Zealand is such a beautiful country and Auckland is fantastic place to sail. Ultimately, however, we are there for only one reason – to win the America’s Cup for Britain. It won’t be easy, but we’re looking forward to the challenge ahead.

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8 BOATS COMPETE IN THE FIRST COWES SONATA RACE IN OVER A DECADE

For the first time in over a decade, a Hunter Sonata Class sailing event was held in Cowes at the weekend. Unfortunately, the Goodall Roofing Sonata Nationals 2020 were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic but a local open event managed to go ahead with 7 boats from Cowes competing alongside a mainland boat, JOEY travelling from Chichester. 2 boats arrived from North East England to new owners in Cowes just a week before the event; SONIC owned and helmed by Robin Leather and DICK DASTARDLY owned and helmed by Dawn Bee. With an equinox tide and strong current in the Solent on Saturday, Island Sailing Club Race Officer Rich Palmer positioned the windward-leeward race course on the Bramble Bank and got the fleet away in 17-23kt NE breeze with teams having to make the tough call on the choice of Genoa or Jib. Typically the Genoa is held to 23 knots however the lighter crew of just 3 for the event meant teams were easily overpowered with the Genoa and many teams opting for the Jib. After 3 windward leeward races the pecking order was establishing with MINIM, JOEY, ARAYA and LITTLE SCARLET making up the podium spots. For the fourth and final race of the day, the race team set the fleet off on a 11nm ‘round the cans’ course finishing off Cowes Harbour. With a very strong westerly going tide of 3kts, at times the fleet made slow progress around the course before finishing after 2 hours. MINIM took the lead on the second windward leg with JOEY taking 2nd and ARAYA in 3rd. Sunday’s weather greeted the fleet with kinder conditions than on Day 1, a decreasing NE breeze established with the race team working to get the fleet away on time. A 40 degree wind shift occurring during the start sequence threw a slight spanner in the works for the ISC race team having to go under a short postponement to adjust the course. Finally underway, the fleet had a clean start with MINIM, ARAYA, JOEY, LITTLE SCARLET & MAVERICK all vying for the top spots over the 3 windward-leeward races. The local team of MINIM managed to hold on to their overnight lead on Saturday having been tested by JOEY, ARAYA and LITTLE SCARLET. Sunday’s racing all seemed to go MINIM’s way with a string of bullets to take the event on 7 points from 7 races after 1 discard. Mark Angell, event organiser and MINIM owner, commented: “It’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point but it makes it all worth it seeing boats lined up on the water, new boats coming to join the Cowes Sonata Fleet and everyone having such a great time! It was such a shame to have to postpone the Nationals to 2021 but we felt COVID 19 restrictions didn’t allow us to run a National level event responsibly. Having then organised the Cowes Sonata Open we were forced to postpone to this weekend due to storm Ellen, however, the wait was worth it!” Island Sailing Club Sailing Secretary Ben Ferris commented: “I remember sailing a Sonata badly over thirty years ago, so it was a huge pleasure for the Island Sailing Club to be asked to host this event. The fact these boats are very affordable, and sailed in such good spirit (everyone was smiling each time they passed the committee boat) makes them the fleet to be seen in for the future. “Congratulations to all the competitors for making it to an event in 2020 which we were unsure of being able to run several times. Can’t wait until next year, a bigger fleet and more great racing.” Final Results: 1st – MINIM – 7pts 2nd – JOEY – 15pts 3rd – ARAYA – 18pts 4th – LITTLE SCARLET – 21pts 5th – MAVERICK – 27pts 6th – WASP – 30pts 7th – SONIC – 39pts 8th – DICK DASTARDLY – 44pts