RYA Youth Nationals 2023 – Team Riders Report
Annabelle Vines and Maddie Bilbrough –Girls’ Youth National Champions
This year’s RYA Youth Nationals at WPNSA brought lots of wind and waves. We found this challenging but quickly got into our ‘groove’, having done a few days of training before the event in a variety of conditions. The 1st and 3rd days of the event were blown off, having a maximum gust of 70knots on Wednesday! Throughout the 2 long days of racing, we kept each other motivated and driven to achieve. We accomplished our goal of Girls’ Youth National Champions, so it was an amazing start to the racing season.
Our Typhoon kit kept us very warm and agile through the tough weather conditions.
Charlie Hopkinson and Rachel Harper – Mixed Pair Youth National Champions
2 days of training in champagne conditions with blue skies and 10kts of breeze the weather that appeared when racing was due to start was a big change! Day 1, 3 and 5 were all cancelled due to excessive wind – a 70knot gust was measured during Wednesday!
By the end of day 2 (after 4 races) we were in 13th place overall, and first mixed boat. Day 4 arrived (2nd day of racing) and after 4 further races we were only 2 points from a top ten finish – after a very close 5th race that’s how the scores finished – 12th overall but only 2 points from being in the top 10, and 13 points clear of the next mixed boat.
Day 5 dawned with big wind again and the AP went up, and never came down.
We were really pleased with our performance and our Typhoon kit performed brilliantly.
We are now looking forwards to the Nationals and The Worlds – both at WPNSA in August.
Also, a massive congrats to the Typhoon boys’ pair – Alex and Max Sydenham, who were 10th overall.