Derbyshire Youth Sailing sailors prepare for series opener

Derbyshire Youth Sailing © Des Luxton

The young sailors of Derbyshire are in final preparations for the first of the 2015 Series Events that is to take place at Errwood Sailing Club on Saturday 9th May. This is the 15th year of the series and all the sailors will be hoping to make a strong start in search the title to become Overall Series Champions and take home the Derbyshire Shield.

Also up for grabs as the end of the series are the Ellen MacArthur Trophy for the best Junior sailor, competed for by those up to school year 6, the Ben Ainslie trophy for the series champion of the Intermediate age group for those in school years 7 to 9 and also the Andrew Simpson trophy winner will be the leading Senior age group sailor from those in school year 10 and above. The Saunders Cup will be awarded to the leading girl sailor in the overall series and Peak Dinghy Spares has generously decided to continue their support of the Derbyshire Youth Sailing Series and will once again be awarding the Peak Dinghy Spares trophy for the best improved sailor year on year at the end of the series.

Chair of DYS Melissa Wellbourn Hesp says "It's all about the sailors having opportunities" and that is borne out in their own views of the series events. "It's always great to go to DYS events and see all my friends again and meet any new sailors from the other clubs" commented George Coles. "The racing is loads of fun and I always do my best to get among the prizes" said William Gould. "The volunteers are friendly and it's nice to visit the different clubs and race on their water" noted Matt Luxton.

The Derbyshire Youth Sailing Peak Dinghy Spares Series is nine events from May to September and each competitors' best five event results will be used to decide the overall series prizes, which include small cash rewards for the podium places. The calendar of events and lots of other information is available on the Derbyshire Youth Sailing website www.dysailing.org

The Series Events are one day racing regattas with three races, weather permitting. Sailors count their best two race results on the day. Sailors should pre-register via the website and then plan to arrive at each event with their own or a borrowed boat, pay their discounted entry fee and be ready to race by the start of the briefing at 10:30am. Sailors who haven't pre-registered can still come but pay the full entry fee on the day. The first race is planned to start at 11:00am and then usually the sailors break ashore for lunch before going back out to compete in the remaining races. Prize giving follows as soon as possible after racing is completed. More details are on the website, as are contact details for further information.

Through the winter there have been learning opportunities, open to all sailors of any age in Derbyshire, with the first of the Winter Learning Events providing an insight into open event racing followed by the key topics of nutrition and hydration and finally an introduction to the RYA Pathway to Podium and the NSSA National Events. Early in the season in March, Derbyshire Youth Sailing also sent three teams to experience the NSSA Double Handed Team Racing event held near Oxford and they achieved some very creditable results against more experienced teams.

Derbyshire Youth Sailing events provide a great, fun opportunity for youth sailors from any of the ten sailing clubs in Derbyshire to compete together and learn from each other to take their racing sailing onto the next stages. Novice youth racers aged from 6 to 18 are welcome to come along and give it a go. Supportive coaching can be provided to those sailors at the back of the fleet to help keep them in reach of the rest and allow them to develop their skills. In time, the novices soon gain experience and will one day be challenging the front runners.