Page 17 - Masthead - Salcombe Yacht Club 2019 Yearbook

FEVA RACERS
Having trained and raced with each other for the past few years in single handers Will James and I decided to try sailing together in an RS Feva for a bit of fun. We borrowed a club boat and headed off to Paignton to join the newly formed South West Sailing Academy Feva group.
After the first weekend, both of us were really enjoying the new challenge. We tried swapping places in the boat but found
that I was happiest crewing and Will was the natural helm. During the winter we
did six weekends between Chew Valley and Paignton. We will never forget having to smash the ice from the inside of the boat and carefully unfolding the frozen spinnaker! Will and I soon got to grips with the new boat and regularly found ourselves at the front of the fleet just behind Fin and Quin who are in the National squad. During the last weekend of training, our coach suggested that we should aim for the National Junior Squad qualification towards the end of the year.
We decided it would be good to see how we would do at a large event so entered the Nationals at Weymouth. 106 boats with crew age ranging from 11 to 50, we were both 11 and some of the other sailors looked very big. Last year George and Ru qualified in the Gold fleet so that was our aim. The first two days were F 1-2 which suited our lightweight and during the qualification races, we did better than we had hoped to end up 26th
with the best result being 7th. The next two days were windy, and our lack of weight meant we were struggling a bit, but our results got better as we battled the wind. The next month we went to the Inland Championships at Chew Valley. 20 of the top 25 crews from the Nationals were
there and it was windy again, but we still managed to get into the top 20 which we were pleased about.
During the summer we both sailed
RS Teras with Will coming second at
the Nationals and missing out on being world champion by just one point, I sailed at Salcombe and came home with lots
of trophies from the regatta and junior Saturday sailing.
This winter we would very much like to get a place in the RS Feva National Squad but we know this will be a real challenge
to achieve. The first qualification event was at Draycote and once again it was windy! But we fought hard and are understanding more about sailing the boat in windy conditions. With 32 boats entered our best race result was 7th and we ended up in the top half - just! Our next event was the RYA Regional Junior Championships at
Weymouth and then the second squad qualifier at Hayling Island. We were praying for a bit less wind, so we could show off our sailing skills rather than our survival skills.
We once again travelled to Weymouth this time for the RYA Junior Regional Champs, it was great to be joined by
six other SYC boats who also made the journey, the winds were light and there were over three hundred boats in total. There were a few boats in the fleet we recognised and especially the National Squad sailors from Chew Valley. In race one we made a good start and found ourselves at the right end of the fleet managing to round the first windward mark in the lead. We went on to win the race and got a third in race two leaving us in second place overnight. On Sunday there was a bit more wind, we had amazing boat speed and managed to win three out of the four races and bag our first Gold medal!
Ben Meek
WE WILL NEVER FORGET HAVING TO SMASH THE ICE FROM THE INSIDE OF THE BOAT AND CAREFULLY UNFOLDING THE FROZEN SPINNAKER!
Fleet Reports 15