Young Connor Bainbridge takes a break from Race training...

Northern Sailors Training hard for 2007

The 2006 UK competition season may be over, but training for 2007 has begun in earnest. It is a credit to a small group of dedicated windsurfing coaches and parents that youth and junior sailors can continue to develop their skills all year round, without the need to invest in windsurfing holidays to sunnier climes.

Of course, continuing to windsurf through the dark, cold months does require a high level of commitment and the ability to deal with harsh wind chill levels, which see the majority of the UK population wrapped up in thick coats, hats and gloves, when they risk the weather for a quick 30 minute walk. There is however one big benefit - the wind is generally in much greater supply than the summer months and with a good wetsuit, hat and boots there is some excellent windsurfing to be enjoyed.

Connor Bainbridge, a 13 year old windsurfer, who is sponsored by Ezzy Sails and RRD Boards through Seasprite Sports, has been taking advantage of the various coaching courses on offer to Junior and Youth Sailors in the North of England.

At West Pennine Windsurfing club, high on the moors above Rochdale, Mark Kay has been pushing up to 25 young sailors to new heights of performance with his no-nonsense style. The focus of Mark’s 2 day courses has been on fine tuning absolute board speed as well as gybing and tacking skills. Each weekend has seen more than 8 hours on the water, with classroom and video feedback to fine tune skills and technique. Marks courses will be running every 2 or 3 weeks throughout the winter so contact him to book a place.

It will have escaped no ones notice that the Techno One Design Race class is now dominating the Youth and Junior scene, as it is the designated board for national and international racing, and is the required board for the RYA squads and the UKWA recognise it as a separate race class.

Clare and Rob Strange have already organised and managed weekends of Techno Open Training, which have been very successful, and have allowed aspiring young sailors from the RYA squads and also from the many T15 clubs to gain additional high quality training.

Ian Roberts, who runs the North and West Zone Squads has also been investing time in coaching and developing Techno sailors from the region, so you can expect the standard of racing from the Northern Sailors to be very high in 2007.

Of course the windy winter months shouldn’t just be about heavy duty race training, so on the few ‘free’ weekends it’s important to do something else. However, the new generation of UK windsurfers only seem to be happy on the water, so Rhosneigr and West Kirby are the destinations of choice for Wave and Speed sailing.

If you want to know more about how it feels to windsurf through the winter for Juniors and Youths in the North of England, please visit Connor’s web site at www.rednemesisdog.com. To take advantage of Mark Kay’s coaching weekends, he can be contacted at surfdude365@hotmail.com. For Techno Open race training email  technosupport@ukwindsurfing.com. Ian Roberts can be contacted at iangbr1117@hotmail.com. Connor is personally mentored by Jem Hall and sponsored by www.Seaspritesports.com

Bainbridge Brothers bring home the medals…

This year's Youth and Masters event, which was held at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy on Portland Sound, was an exceptional event. Many of this years UK racing events have been low wind affairs, so with winds averaging in excess of 25 knots and gusting over 50 knots all weekend, this was going to be an event to remember.

With over 170 sailors attending and the biggest Techno Fleet seen at an RYA event, day one became an exercise in stopping kit from flying across the rigging area into the sea, with gusts pushing over 60 knots. After an attempt to get the Techno and RSX fleets racing, the safety boats then spent the best part of 2 hours collecting sailors and ferrying them back to base as they were blown towards the harbour wall.

Racing was called off mid-afternoon on Saturday after a very brave slalom event for the Formula Youth and Masters fleets with only 6 Sailors making it around the course.

Sunday started very much as day 1, but without the rain, and it was decided to hold a series of Slalom races for the main fleets and 'wait and see' for the smaller fleets.

In the Techno 6.8 metre fleet, the sailors opted to wait in the water until the last minute of the start sequence rather than risk the high winds on the start line. Rather than the usual One Design sails, everyone had opted to change down to something more manageable resulting in a plethora of brands and designs. The racing was fast and furious, with scenes of carnage at the gybe marks as the young sailors battled with the strong winds.

Connor Bainbridge, GBR 678, age 12, who is sponsored by Seasprite Sports and Surfstore for Ezzy Sails and RRD Boards managed to complete all 3 races dropping only one gybe, giving him 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and an overall first place. It was a close run competition with Sam Latham and Sam Sills taking 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

Having moved from T15 to Regional UKWA events to National racing this season, this was a wonderful result for Connor who has moved up the rankings in the Techno 6.8 fleet during the season. The conditions were definitely in Connor’s favour, as he prefers higher wind events.

In the 3.5 metre open fleet race, which was held in the slightly less windy area in front of the Sailing Academy, Kai Bainbridge, GBR 679, aged 11, raced well in what was a very crowded event and after 3 races he placed 3rd Boy and got a bronze medal to prove it. Connor and Kai both sailed on Ezzy wave sails

In the 7.8 metre Techno fleet, Jacob Brubert won Gold.

Thanks and admiration must go to the organisers and especially the Safety Crews, for turning an event, which could have been a disaster into a very exciting competition.

Connor Bainbridge is sponsored by Seasprite Sports and Surfstore for Ezzy Sails and RRD Boards and is mentored by Jem Hall. For more information on how it feels to windsurf in Youth and Junior events and for fun across the UK, then please visit www.rednemesisdog.com