Sailors Take To The Waters For Autumn Series
Sunday was another hugely successful day on the water for the sailors taking part in Bermuda’s inaugural Autumn Series for Youth Sailors. The RBYC’s Hardy Autumn Series for Junior and Youth sailors started in September and has already seen 37 Optimists and 21 Lasers &/or Bytes come to the start line.
With the Optimist sailors taking a break after the RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup, it was a day purely for the older youth sailors. PRO Jay Hooper and his team set challenging courses in the Great Sound in moderate breezes; the strongest breezes seen so far in the Series. Five races were sailed during the course of the afternoon which saw Benn Smith win the day in his Byte and Ceci Wollmann win the day in the Laser Radials. As has been the case all autumn, some of Bermuda’s more experienced sailors such as Malcolm Smith, Rajae Woods, Sean Evans and Steve O’Reily all took to the water to offer their help and encouragement to the Youth sailors.
The Optimists had a frustrating start to the Series losing 2 days due to poor wind conditions, but after 7 races, leading the Hardy Autumn Series is Adam Larson, 2nd is Tayte Stefaniuck, with Campbell Patton 3rd. Following the top 3 are George Buckley [4th], Mikey Wollmann [5th], Joe Arrowsmith [6th], Matilda Nicholls [7th], Florence Nicholls [8th], Adriana Penruddocke [9th] and Jordan Etemadi [10th] round out the top end of the fleet. To date the Series has been sailed in light winds, and the larger Optimist sailors are looking forward to the second part of the series when the traditionally stronger autumn winds begin to build.
RBYC Director of Sailing, Tom Herbert-Evan, said he has been particularly impressed by the improved sailing of some of the Island’s youngsters. “Adam Larson went away this summer with the Ontario Optimist Team for regatta racing/training. He has clearly learned a great deal and it is a message to all aspiring sailors that there is no substitute for regatta experience when learning to race. Tayte Stefaniuck has also stepped up after his summer of training. I am also pleased to see our 10 year olds Flo Nicholls, Leyli Walker [14th], Rian Geraghty-McDonnell [16th] and 9-year old Christopher Adderley [19th] doing so well.”
Ben Nicholls, representing the event sponsor Hardy Bermuda Limited commented, “it is great to see Junior and now Youth sailing continuing to flourish in Bermuda. The enthusiasm of the Coaches from all Clubs for encouraging kids to go sailing is tremendous and after all the inspiration the Optimist sailors received from the BART Clinic with Sir Ben Ainslie, these kids have everything they need to continue to enjoy this fabulous sport. Hardy is pleased to be associated with something so positive and life enhancing for these kids.”
Racing continues this Sunday for both Junior [Optimists] and Youth [Lasers & Bytes] classes.
For more information contact the Sailing Office at 294-6716 or email at sailingoffice@rbyc.bm.
Photo Credit: Sean Evans
Great to see so many up and coming sailors. The fine sport of yachting is alive and well in Bermuda.
Commodore. I agree. We need to encourage the youth to partake in yachting. It is our heritage and we need to ensure our club has future members. We need SEPs to join our yacht club as well.
We need to adopt the very positive approach of the RBYC. It is obvious these guys know how to get kids sailing, we need to embrace and learn form their approach. Can you have someone meet with them…?