RS200 youths all travelled to Rutland Sailing Club for Gul RS200 Youth Championship last weekend. An impressive turnout of 31 boats was met with a pleasant wind of 10 knots coming off the dam with some savage 30 degree shifts.

The first race unfortunately had to be chucked out due to the majority of the fleet not sailing around the spreader mark. This was particularly sad for Tom Gillard and Oliver Wright who had sailed a great race and finished in first.

In the second race James Boyce and Sarah Hornby won the favoured pin end of the line and led by 15 boat lengths around the first mark. The shifty gusty conditions meant that downwind was a lottery with the lead changing several times, Sam Littlejohn and Matt Giles scraped through to win the race, with George Yeoman and Georgie Akin-Smith in 2nd and Boyce/Hornby in 3rd.

In the third race, Littlejohn/Giles led round the first mark having hit hard right, closely followed by Yeoman/Akin-smith who had gone hard left. Gillard/Wright played the gusts downwind, often getting on the plane first and sailed through from 6th to 2nd but could not quite get Littlejohn/Giles who went on to win the race, with Yeomon/Akin-Smith coming in 3rd.

Racing on Sunday was cancelled due to no wind – a good and popular call by the Race Officer. The event therefore went to Littlejohn/Giles.

Andrew and Ian Gill (12th) won the Gul Merit Prize for sticking to their guns, being one of the few boats who sailed the correct course in race 1, their best results of the weekend.