National Feva!

After competing at the start of the week in the RS Europeans in Italy two of the Royal Torbay Yacht Club RS Feva teams, Finn, Dan, Jess and Caitlin, made their way straight to Rutland for the RS Feva Nationals. They were joined by two other RS Fevas from Torquay crewed and helmed by Lauren, Tom, Ollie and Julia.

The racing in Rutland proved very different to the light wind conditions experienced in Italy with some strong winds during the event. These conditions really favoured Dan and Finn and they went off to an excellent start taking first position in their first 3 races. Day 2 brought much lighter winds to the day’s racing and the brothers sailed consistently to maintain 2nd position overall going into the final day. Sunday’s weather brought stronger winds and the boys took 4 first places to win the National title.

Meanwhile the all-girl junior crew of Jess and Caitlin sailed a consistent pace across the event and qualified for the Gold fleet on Sunday and finished 15th overall and excellent result for the girls – even more considering a cruel capsize just before the line on the penultimate race on the Sunday. Read more about their nationals from a post from their own blog post.

Well what (another) weekend the girls had. After 2 rounds of qualifiers (6 races) at the Feva National Championship they made the gold fleet with 45 boats in the Fleet. The girls 1st and 2nd race were good results, the 3rd race proved a little too much for tired girls and they capsized just before the finish line frown emoticon but eventually managed to right the boat and finish, and the last race of the day nearly had the same capsize but saved this one and finished 16th. They finished 15th overall and once again 1st junior girls (but no prize for that) and only junior girls to make the gold fleet. (Facebook)

Meanwhile the other Royal Torbay Yacht Club helms and crews were working hard in some strong windy conditions and their winter training has paid off as they finished well in the Silver fleet. Julia and Lauren sailed together and improved throughout the Nationals and we look forwards to them improving over the rest of the season. Julia’s brother Tom sailing with Ollie finished 12th in the Silver fleet taking a 2nd place in the 2nd race of the day on the Sunday.

Well Done to all of the Royal Torbay boats that completed and a special well done to the new RS Feva National Champions Dan and Finn Armstrong.