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British Youth Sailing Recognition for Whitstable Yacht Club

This achievement reflects the excellent work done by the Whitstable Yacht Club (WYC) Training Team and Cadet Committee to deliver youth sail and race training at the high standards required by the RYA. The RYA works in partnership with sailing clubs through the British Youth Sailing (BYS) Recognised Club Programme to help them enhance their junior race training. BYS Recognised Club status allows junior sailors to develop their sailing and racing skills, and encourages young sailors at grassroots level to stay in the sport. The RYA said: “The key challenge for our sport is to encourage more young people to start participating in sailing and progress into racing. This is best done at club level and a successful junior and youth training and racing programme will enable a club to flourish. The BYS Recognised Club status distinguishes those sailing clubs with a commitment to the development of junior and youth racing and race training, which is delivered in a safe and fun environment.” Despite the restrictions imposed related to Covid-19, WYC developed new ways of working to keep it safe and fun, and has continued its support of young sailors through 2020 wherever possible. We were also able to train and award RYA certificates to over 40 youngsters between the age of 8 and 18 in the shortened season. The highlight of the year was CadetFest, the club’s annual fun week with a long distance sail to the Isle of Sheppey, a Pirates’ Day, the chance to fall off a windsurfer, kayaking, a mini-Olympics and a raft building and racing completion! In December we were excited by the announcement that seventeen-year-old member Harry Newton had won the Barton Marine Rising Star Competition, and will be the Barton Marine Brand Ambassador for 2021. Harry was a member of the RYA Topper London & South East squad in 2017/18 and ITCA National Squad in 2018/19. He’s now switched to Lasers, racing in the UKLA Laser Series with a goal of achieving a place on the National Squad. All this happens with the expert guidance of a group of fully qualified instructors, young and old, including Harry who has a host of qualifications including RYA Race Coach Level 2, and helps out between events to pass his skills onto the upcoming sailors at the club. Parents join in too, and cheerfully accept that helping to launch and recover the boats means getting feet wet, sometimes all the way up to the waist. We are currently planning our 2021 training and sailing schedule, which includes (Covid-19 restrictions permitting!) a Topper Class Association (London and SE region) Traveller weekend on 10 & 11 April and a KSSA Youth Training event on 6 November. We’re also looking forward to seeing the young sailors compete at youth events around the country.

A Wild Ride on Britannia

Hunt for GB mixed offshore pairs commences

The RYA has launched its search to find sailors to represent Great Britain at the 2021 Offshore Mixed Doubles European and World Championships. Interest has been growing in mixed doublehanded offshore racing since 2019 when the discipline was put forward for inclusion at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Since then, the RYA has aimed to encourage participation in doublehanded keelboat racing and wishes to select and develop a mixed team with the potential to win international events. Details of the European and World Championships have not yet been released due to the uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the RYA wants to publish their intentions in order to help prospective teams plan their season’s ahead. With the support of RORC, selection will be based on an extended version of the RORC Channel Race, scheduled to start from Cowes, Isle of Wight, on July 24, 2021. The selection policy will be used for both the European and World Championships, and can be downloaded here. The RYA’s selection committee will comprise of Ian Walker (RYA Director of Racing), Stacey Clark (World Sailing Council member), a representative of the RYA’s Olympic Steering Group and a representative from RORC. “This is a great opportunity for any mixed crews to come forward and show us they have what it takes to represent Britain,” said Walker. “While we still don’t know where, when or even if these championships will go ahead and if Offshore Mixed Doubles will be in the Olympics for Paris 2024, we know that a lot of teams are setting their sights on these events, so it is important that they know now how we will select teams when the events are hopefully announced. “2020 was a difficult season for most sailors but we actually saw a growth in double handed offshore racing as it is, by its very nature, more socially distanced. Many new partnerships have been formed and we hope to see more new pairs coming together in 2021, especially with the largest ever entry of boats in the Rolex Fastnet Race on the horizon.” RORC racing is IRC rated and not one design, so in order to best reflect the criteria of the new Olympic equipment, the RYA selection for the Offshore World Championship will only be open to fixed keel monohulls within an endorsed IRC rating band between 0.990 and 1.055, aligned with the new UK Double Handed Offshore Series. Crews wishing to express interest in selection for either the 2021 Offshore Mixed Doubles European or World Championships must do so by emailing full names of each sailor and details of boat to keelboatracing@rya.org.uk. The cut-off is 1700 on June 30, 2021. For more information about the selection process, contact Jack Fenwick, Keelboat Development Manager, on keelboatracing@rya.org.uk.