Charlotte Dobson, from Helensburgh, Scotland, returns home from the Laser Radial Youth World Championships – contested at Vilanova near Barcelona – with a slightly unexpected but very well deserved bronze medal to cap an excellent overall performance from young and promising sailors from the Team GBR Volvo RYA Youth Squad.

Breezes were predominantly gentle with the exception of the final day which saw a settled 18-22-knot gradient breeze arrive to re-shuffle a form book established over the four previous days of competition. Best placed of the boys was Lymington’s Dominic Hutton who finished in 11th place, while Manchester’s Andy Brooks finished 13th overall and in 15th overall Nick Thompson of Lymington completed the Team GBR Volvo Youth Squad tally of four young sailors in the top 15.

Overnight into the final day’s racing Stephen Broom, from Ringwood, Hants was lying ninth having excelled himself with a very consistent and mature 5,3,16,6,6,3 scoreline but in the brisker winds of the final day he suffered with a 37,48,42 to finish 23rd overall. Over the course of the whole regatta Charlotte Dobson, Guidford’s Joe Henry and Andrew Brooks all scored individual race wins.

As New Zealand’s Michael Bullot won the overall Youth Laser Radial title to lead the Kiwis to an overall win in the team event, the sailors from Team GBR squad finished second nation.

The conditions here were marginal. Indeed, so light were the winds that the scheduled fourth day of racing was lost to near complete calm. Only on the final day did a more serious 18-22 knots of gradient breeze return to give some more physical racing.

“Overall this has been an excellent showing from a very young team,” said team coach Ian Clingan. “Charlotte’s result was way beyond our expectations but she is a fantastic prospect and sailed exceptionally well and, with the ISAF Youth Worlds being sailed in Byte dinghies next year, I can foresee some excellent racing between her and this year’s bronze medallist Natalie Lloyd as they compete to represent GBR.

“Otherwise there have been some very promising performances from our sailors here, most of whom are very young and will do very well with more international championships experience,” added a delighted Clingan. “It has been a very difficult championships for some of them with a lot of sitting around in the dinghy park waiting to race, and even more milling about on the water, so they have done very well indeed.”

Laser Radial Youth World Championships, Vilanova, Barcelona, Spain
Overall results:

• 1. M Bullot (NZL) 29pt
• 2. G Iason (GRE) 37pts
• 3. A Monteau (FRA) 48pts

Other Team GBR results:

• 11. D Hutton (Lymington) 94pts
• 13. A Brooks (Manchester) 98pts
• 15. N Thompson (Lymington) 104pts
• 23. S Broom (Ringwood, Hants) 118pts
• 26. J Gray (Guildford) 128pts
• 32. E Green (Glamorgan) 140pts
• 34. J Henry (Guildford) 148pts
• 47. J Tilley (Restonguet, Falmouth) 179pts
• 58. C Dobson (Helensburgh, Scotland) 214pts

Girls’ results:

• 1. K O’Brien (NZL) 170pts
• 2. K Weir (AUS) 198pts
• 3. C Dobson 214pts