RYA eSailing Youth Nationals

RYA eSailing Youth Nationals © Mark Jardine

The RYA eSailing Youth Nationals took place this weekend (18th-20th April), 153 entries from all corners of the country logged in and took to the virtual waters of Portsmouth, UK. The real life Youth Nationals has been rescheduled to take place in October so the RYA decided to host a virtual one in its place to ensure all the sailors from around the UK stayed connected and had the chance to test their racing brains.

Qualifying involved eight group of eRacers all completing six races with two discards. After some seamless race management on Saturday the sailors experienced perfect courses and steady winds of 15-20 knots, with four sailors from each qualifying group progressed to the Semi Finals on Sunday.

In the Semi Finals we were also bless with some champagne sailing conditions and the sailors completed three races with one discard. Some very tight racing was had by all the sailors, some fell foul to dodgy Wi-Fi signals, others had varying control of their thumbs, but it was great to witness such good racing had by all.

After the Semi Final dust had settled we were left with ten teams to vie it out to be crowned the 2020 eSailing Youth Champion!

RYA eSailing Youth Nationals - photo © Mark Jardine

The Final was Live streamed on YouTube with the World Class Commentary team of Mark Jardine and Luke Patience. Race Officer Jonny McGovern kept the fleet in order and three races unfolded. The format was designed to test the adaptability of the finalists, with the races held in a different classes, J/70 49er and F50 foiling catamaran, and no discard was applied so it had an "all or nothing" feel. The fleet didn't disappoint and after some intense racing and questionable rules at times a champion was crowned... Terry Hacker is the new eSailing Youth Champion!

Here are a few quotes from the racers:

Terry Hacker, 2019 RS Feva National Champion: "I would like to thank the Race Officer for setting great courses, my parents for taking me to the event, the club for hosting and all the organisers."

Mike O'Donovan, Scottish RS200 Champion: "Thanks for racing everyone, it was good fun!"

Blake Tudor, top RS Tera sailor: "Gotta love the random penalties, all a good laugh. Thanks to the galley for the food."

Ted Lane, 29er National Squad member: "Cheers all, it was good fun, gotta watch out for the shifts next time!"

Finals Day Results: