Manx Sail Racer

The Isle of Man Youth Dinghy Championship for the Tomlinson Trophy was held at the Isle of Man Yacht Club last weekend.  With very light winds the conditions were very challenging for competitors and the race officers. Eight boats took part and competitors, aged from ten to eighteen, had travelled from all over the Island to compete.

A total of five races were held, three on the Saturday afternoon and two on the Sunday morning.  The first race was a P course in light but steady breeze, despite favouring asymmetric boats, the race was dominated throughout by the Lasers with Ben Swindlehurst first, Ali Hinds second and Izzy Sharpe & Hannah Howitt (Laser 2000) third.
In race 2 the wind was dying & shifting testing the patience of all competitors. The choice of sailing the RS 400 paid off for Chris Hill & Joe Stockman as the lighter breeze favoured the large sail area of the RS resulting in their first race win in the boat.  Ali Hinds again finished second and Ben Swindlehurst third.
Race 3 was set under testing conditions as the breeze shifted repeatedly. Once again the light & shifty conditions favoured the larger asymmetric boats giving a second win to Chris and Joe. Once again Ali Hinds was second and Izzy Sharpe & Hannah Howitt third.

After a 45 minute postponement, due to extremely light and variable weather conditions, racing finally got underway on Sunday around 11.15. Sadly this saw the loss of one contestant Ali Hinds as she was also competing that day in the “Young Musician of Mann”.

Once the wind had settled down there was a constant 8 to 10 knots from the south west. This allowed for a nice windward leeward course after a day of shifty reachy conditions on the Saturday. Chris Hill and Joe Stockman in the RS 400 were first to the windward mark in race four with Ben Swindlehurst close behind in his Laser Radial. This proved to be the format for the race with Chris and Joe taking first and Ben second. Impressively taking third was Ffinlo Wright who sailed consistently throughout the race in his RS Tera.
Race Five got underway with a slightly less 5 to 6 knots of breeze and a more noticeable tide which caught Ben Swindlehurst and MS&CC team of Connor Christian and Theo Leach out by pushing them over the line at the start. Ben managed to re-start the race and finish first on corrected time. Sadly Connor and crew were unaware that they were over and were disqualified from that race.  Chris & Joe finished in second place and Amie Shute sailing her RS Tera finished in third.

The prizegiving was held in the clubhouse after the barbeque.

Overall results were:
1st Chris Hill and Joe Stockman, (RS 400); 2nd  Ben Swindlehurst (Laser Radial); 3rd Ali Hinds (Laser Radial); 4th Izzy Sharpe & Hannah Howitt (Laser 2000); 5th Amie Shute (RS Tera); 6th Ffinlo Wright (RS Tera); 7th Tom Howitt & Jack Lakeman (RS Feva); 8th Connor Christian & Theo Leach (RS Feva).

Report by Cathie Ashurst