WYA Squad Newsletter
Summer 2014
The Scorching summer & hurricane bertha
It’s been a busy summer with sailors competing Nationally and Internationally representing Wales and Great Britain. A big contrast to the winters training with light winds and Mediterranean temperatures but the tale winds of
Hurricane Bertha caused some difficulties. Take a look at what’s been happening
RESULTS THIS SUMMER
OPTIMIST
Optimist Selections— Worlds Team Will Hall (3rd) Hatty Morlsey (4th) Rhys Lewis (5th)
Development Team Christopher Jones(18th)
Flanders Team Matthew Leary (27th)
Optimist Inlands—
Dutch Youth Regatta—
Rhys Lewis (1st) Hatty Morsley (4th) Will Hall (7th) Kai Wolgram (1st under 10yr old)
Hatty Morsley (23rd gold) Rhys Lewis (12th Silver) Will Hall (27th Silver) Matthew Leary
(27th Bronze) Hannah Roberts-Straw (52nd Emerald) Tom Dawson (62nd Emerald) Phoebe
Roberts (66th Emerald) Maddie Leary (59th Pearl) Elodie Edwards (27th Ivory)
Flanders Regatta—
Hatty Morlsey (4th) Rhys Lewis (6th) Will Hall (8th) Matthew Leary (27th)
Kai Wolgram (10th silver) Callum Davidson-Guild (25th silver) Emily Hall (31st silver) Maddie Leary (50th silver)
French Nationals—
Minimes D1—Hannah Roberts-Straw (27th) Chris Jones (75th)
Benjamines - Kai Wolgram (9th) Jamie Cook (12th) Tyler Green (63rd)
NationalsWill Hall (1st British Boy and 1st Welsh Senior), Hatty Morsley (6th British Senior and 6th Senior Girl (including
the international boats) Ciaron Jones (14th Brit), Chris Jones (15th Brit) (both joint on 206 points), Kai Wolgram
(top 10yr old 9th Brit), Jamie Cook (1st Welsh Junior 7th Brit), Elodie Edwards (6th Junior Girl (including the
international boats)
Irish Nationals—
Callum Davidson-Guild and Kai Wolgram went as part of the GBR Irish Nationals Team, Callum was 10th
Junior, Kai 11th Junior
National Ranking so far— After a great year Will Hall is currently ranked No.1 Hatty Morsley No.2, Rhys Lewis No.8, Ciaron Jones No.11
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
LASER
Laser Europa Cup WPNSA—Matt Whitfield (12th) Merrick Stanley (19th) Frankie Dickens (24th)
Laser Standard Europeans— Micky Beckett (22nd Silver Fleet)
Laser Nationals—
Radial—Aled Goddard 15th, Jack Shephard 2nd in Silver Fleet
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
420’s
ISAF’s—
Mari Davies & Sarah Norbury finished 10th
Europeans–
Mari Davies & Sarah Norbury 3rd Females and 12th Overall
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
29ER
Dutch Youth Regatta— Huw Edwards & Josh Dawson (23rd) Chelsea Jackson & James Guinnan ( 31st)
29er Europeans— Rowan Edwards & Daniel Blight (17/184) Tilly James (58/184)
Grand Prix 3—
Rowan Edwards & Daniel Blight (4th) Tilly James & Alice Masterman (7th, 1st girls)
Huw Edwards & Josh Dawson (14th, 2nd Juniors)
Grand Prix 4—
Huw Edwards & Daniel Blight (3rd) Alex & Tom Joesbury (4th) Huw Edwards & Josh
Dawson (5th)
NationalsAlex & Tom Joesbury 14th, Huw Edwards & Josh Dawson 21st
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
TOPPER
Topper Inlands—Tom Renny (6th)
Nation wide 4— Tom Renny (5th), Callum Elwin (17th)
Nation wide 5— Tom Renny (2nd,) Alex Whitfield (20th)
Irish Nationals— Tom Renny (15th) Alex Whitfield (17th) Nina Tilley (26th) Jago Strong-Wright (33rd) Ben Roberts (34th)
Evelyn Jones (45th) Eabha Strong-Wright (48th)
NationalsTom Renny (10th)
Topper Worlds—After Three days of postponement due to Hurricane Bertha the World’s finally got underway. Callum Elwin
7th, Tom Renny 14th
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
FEVA
Feva Nationals— Tom & Amy Bale (10th Silver) Ewan Luke & Daisy Lee-Browne (15th Silver)
Squad Applications
Applications are now
LIVE Click Here
Daniel Jones chosen for Challenge Wales Experience
In June Daniel Jones (WYA Laser Transitional Squad) won a competition to go onboard Challenge
Wales; a past round the world boat. They set sailed from Milford Haven and sailed to DerryLondonderry to watch the start of the Clipper Round The World Race. A fantastic opportunity with
many new skills learnt. Challenge Wales has many opportunities and competitions, visit their website
for more Challenges
Mari Davies at the ISAF’s
Congratulations to Mari Davies & Sarah
Norbury who competed at the ISAF Youth
Worlds in Tavira, Portugal in July finishing
10th overall in the female 420 fleet.
Congratulations to Optimist Head Coach Kate Williams
who got married in July
Welsh Championships
Laser Radial—1st Edward Higson, 2nd Matt Whitfield, 3rd Oliver Davenport.
Laser Standard—A battle of the coaches; 1st Sean Evans, 2nd Stevie Beckett, 3rd John Ling
Topper—1st Tom Wallwock, 2nd Alexander Hughes, 3rd Tom Renny
The UNIT’s new gym renovations are complete, take a look at where this winters fitness training will take place…..
Dates for the diary
WYA
Events
CYRC’s
Bala OnBoard Festival and Acorn OnBoard Regatta 6-7th September Click Here for more info & to enter
Welsh Zone Championships 27-28th September Pembrokeshire Yacht Club, Click here for more info & to enter
North
West
South
20-21st September - Clywedog SC
13th September—Fishguard YC
4th October—Dovey YC
Open
Training
IOCA training— 13-14 Sep Holyhead
CBYC will once again be running an extensive winter open training programme. Ask at your local club to see
what training is available in your area
COURSES
RYA First Aid Course dates:
Cardiff Bay Sea School—3rd Sep, 3rd Dec—£99.00
Plas Menai—1st Nov, 22nd Nov—£100.00
Navsar—27th Sep— £95.00
RYA Dinghy Instructor Course Dates:
Plas Menai- 27-31 Oct—£350.00
PPSA—15—19 Sep— £300.00
RYA Safety Boat Course Dates:
Plas Menai—11-12 Oct—£260.00
Commonwealth Batten Relay
Mari Davies was a torch bearer in the Commonwealth Batten Relay,
receiving the batten at Plas Menai from BBC Oneshow presenter
Alex Jones. The batten was then passed onto Eryri Harriers who ran
with the batten down the cycle track to Caernarfon in a 5km race.
SPEED & SMARTS
Elodie Edwards won Gwynedd’s Primary School Girl of the
Year 2014 representing Ysgol Llanfairpwll and Sailing. Mari
Davies was runner up for Gwynedd’s Secondary School Girl of
the Year 2014.
These are amazing newsletters written
by Dave Dellenbaugh, winning America’s Cup Tactician. The newsletters are
packed with tips to improve your racing
performance and have some great diagrams . You will need your login to view
the newsletters but well worth the
Welsh Optimist's Dominate the GBR Optimist Selection Trials
Will Hall, Hatty Morsley and Rhys Lewis selected for the GBR Optimist Worlds Team
Optimist Selections May 2014
This weekend saw 82 sailors travel to Weymouth to compete in the Optimist World and European Selection Trails. 23% of the fleet were made up of
Welsh sailors.
Friday
Racing today was in the harbour. The breeze was Northerly around 6-8knots. Hatty Morsley kicked off her regatta with a race win but Chris Jones had a
rd
th
storming day with a 3,1 taking the lead overnight #chrislad #kingchris. Chris was followed closely by Rhys Lewis in 3 with a 9,5 and Will Hall in 9 with
a 5,3. Race three was started and abandoned twice due to large wind shifts; Chris Jones was leading one race and Will Hall the other doh!! After 9 long
hours on the water it was home time for food and bed.
Saturday
Another light wind day. Today saw one race in the harbour and three races in the bay. The Welsh sailors had a mixed day but plenty of top 10 finishes.
Will Hall (3,1,6) Hatty Morsley (3,3) Rhys Lewis (9,10,1) Chris Jones (5) Gethin Owen (7) Kai Wolgram (5)
Sunday
Long postponement on Sunday morning due to the Cadet’s pinching our race area in the harbour and not much wind in the bay. At around 12:30 the
fleet launched and were towed into the bay where they were greeted by light sloppy conditions.
With three races today the Welsh conquered the fleet with more top 10 finishes:
Will Hall (10,7,6) Hatty Morlsey (3,3) Rhys Lewis (5) Chris Jones (3) Matthew Leary (11) Gethin Owen (8)
Monday
The penultimate day of racing and finally some wind. 11 knots and racing in the harbour with a southerly breeze. The Welsh sailors had all to play for
today, with Will and Rhys in the top 5 and Hatty and Chris in the top 10. Wales had a high chance of seeing sailors in the Worlds and European Teams.
Will Hall had a solid day with a 9,1,7,1 Hatty Morsley was loving the 2’s with a 2,22,2,2 Rhys Lewis had a 16,10,4,15 Ciaron Jones finally got to sit on
th
the side and scored a 11,3,16,5 Mathew Leary lead around the windward mark and held off a tough fleet to finish 6 Gethin Owen discovered he
could start again and scored a 6,9
With a second discard coming into play after race 12 the coaches kept track of the score to ensure the sailors knew where they needed to be. After
th
race 12 Will Hall, Hatty Morlsey and Rhys Lewis were comfortably in the top 5 with a 20 point cushion on 6 place and as long as they stayed intouch
th
th
with 6 and 7 place they would get a Worlds place.
Chris Jones had a tough day, with the fleet spreading out and banging the corners it was difficult to know which side to defend.
We saw some spectacular starts on the last day. Iago Davies performed x2 pin end flyers crossing the whole fleet both times (though some consolidation in the middle may have helped his scores). Phoebe nailed the pin end in race 1 only to be too nervous to tack and cross the fleet.
st
th
The final race became a lap of victory with Will Hall. Hatty Morlsey, Vita Heathcote, Benno Marstaller rounding the windward mark in 1 -4 place with
Rhys Lewis not far behind.
Two little specs in the distance cause some confusion. Two naughty boys decided they wanted to finish their last ever optimist race in style. With a
glint in their eye the warning signal sounded for the last race. With 4min till start time Gethin Owen and Iago Davies sheeted in and started sailing
upwind. “Surely they are just doing a tuning run??” Nope they continued upwind and around the race course 4min ahead of the fleet for their final lap
of honour. Of course they were black flagged and the race officer Adrian Stoggall bellowed over the radio to “get them off the race course”
#twolittlemonkeys
So after a tough four days racing, some ups and downs, the Welsh sailors did us proud. Some exceeded their expectations and some gained experience
for future selection trials.
Worlds Team
Will Hall, Hatty Morsley, Rhys Lewis will be joined by Benno Marstalla and Vita Heathcote. The World Championships will be held in Argentina in
October. Now the hard work begins
Development Team
Chris Jones was selected for the Development Team who are off to the South of France. Had three races not been abandoned where he was in the
top 5 his result may have been different!!
Flanders Team
th
Matthew Leary exceeded all expectations and his own goal of top 40 to finish 27 and be selected for the team that competes in the Flanders Regatta in July.
Ciaron Jones was also selected for the Flanders Team.
Congratulations to all the Welsh sailors the coaches were very impressed and proud of your performance. Special well done to Kai Wolgram who
was the youngest sailor at the Selections (only 10 year old) and it is believed has the best result for the 10 year old age for the past 10 years finishing
th
in 44 .
Farewell to Gethin Owen and Iago Davies who will now be staring their 420 career, they have been an inspiration to younger optimist sailors and a
joy for the coaches to work with.
To view all the results click the link below:
http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/sel2014os.html
Written by Sarah Williams with help from Kate Williams and Ollie Green
TOM RENNY
WYA Topper National Squad
Firstly, what an amazing year! I had a great winter training with the Welsh Topper Squad in Pwllheli, Plas Menai,
Fishguard and Cardiff Bay. I was also lucky enough to be part of the Topper UK Squad where we trained in Weymouth, Rutland, Hayling Island, Plymouth and Pwllheli. Quite a few miles in the car from West Wales!
My first event of the year was The Winter Regatta at WPNSA; unfortunately breakages and not waking up meant I
achieved my worst result of the year, 46th out of 148. A couple of weeks later my family and I travelled down to
London for the first National series event at Queen Mary SC. It was a good event and I gained a lot of confidence
receiving a 3rd in the last race which later turned out to be a black flag! I finished a credible 26 out of 140. After
that black flag I never looked back.
After a day of hanging around waiting for the AP over A to be lifted at the Inlands in Grafham due to light winds,
we had a long day of four races on the Sunday in light and shifty winds. I was extremely pleased to receive two
3rds , a 9th and a 4th and to finish 6th overall out of 171. The next event was the first squad qualifier in Paignton. Unfortunately there was only one day’s racing with only 2 races, I finished 5 th out of 156 sailors.
Later that month I received an email inviting me to be part of a team of 10 sailors to represent GBR at the Irish Nationals in Waterford Harbour. Flying with the team and staying in a hotel with them was a great experience and I
made some great friends. The sailing was great, 15 kts and 2 metre swell consistently and I finished 15 th out of 56.
The next week I felt like I had a point to prove at the last national series of the year in Derwent. I had some good
results and finished 2nd out of 131 although one place higher would have been nice!
The nationals in Pwllheli were brilliant. I had a good qualifying series finishing 12 th in gold and I felt I had to do
something special to improve that position. With every race I lost places because of my boat speed, but I couldn’t
work out what was the problem until Paul and Alistair came up to me on the start line to give “some guidance” on
what was the problem. They were right. That next race I had a brilliant race finishing 3 rd which pulled my overall
position up to 10th out of 204. My goal had been top 10, phew!
After a three day gap and two days of no sailing at the World championships in Pwllheli we finally got some racing
in. The conditions were brilliant but extremely tiring for smaller sailors. I qualified for gold in a credible 19 th position. Like I did at the nationals I pulled my position back up on the last race, I finished 14 th with two good last races.
Now to the new season and hard winter training, I hope to be one of the first sailors selected for the British national squad and I hope to have another great winter with the Welsh Squad at Plas Menai.
Dymuniadau dda i’r gaeaf ac i’r tymor newydd,
Photos by Mick Renny
Hatty Morsley’s Summer of Adventures
Hatty has had a fantastic year so far have a read of her adventures
In preparation for the British Selection Trials in May I went to the Opti Springs and Brassermermeer
(however you spell that!) - both in the Netherlands. These were both very disappointing events as I got 2
black flags in both, however I overcame this disappointment for the British Selection Trials. I only got numbers on my score sheet instead of letters (BFG)! The selections was a key event to keep stress free and I believe I did this quite well by sticking to routines and having a bit of fun. Conditions at the event were mostly
light which suited me as I am tiny and I finished 4th overall qualifying for the Optimist World Championships
in Argentina in October.
Due to me being selected for the Worlds this year I have been going to many foreign events to help get as
much experience as possible. In June I travelled with the team to the Dutch Youth Regatta, which brought a
high level of competition. I finished the event in 23rd and 4th girl out of 453 sailors. It was an event which
gave us the chance to do some Team bonding with fellow Welsh sailors Will Hall and Rhys Lewis and fellow
brits Benno Marstalla and Vita Heathcote. I recently went to Flanders in Belgium, it was an event which the
Team wanted to have a better understanding of travelling without parents and being as independent as possible. Flanders brought a variety of conditions for us to race in, we had two very windy days with big swell
and also two light wind days and a sloppy sea state. The last day was cancelled due to gale force winds. I
ended up 4th and 1st girl out of 106 sailors.
My favourite event so far has to be Flanders because the conditions helped me move forward with both my
heavy and light wind sailing. Also, I got to know the team a lot better and our coach Alan Williams. Jen Williams was a brilliant house mum too. And of course, the waffles at Flanders were the best.
Sadly, on the way back from Flanders Sheila (my oppie) fell off the roof of Alan's car on the M40 (she decided she could fly). Luckily she wasn't badly damaged and we managed to get her to Cardiff in time for Chris
Pain to repair her before the Nationals in Weymouth. Cheers Alan!
My goals for the worlds is not to come last in the team racing and to enjoy my last event in an oppie. After
oppies I plan to go into 420s and hopefully do as well as I've done in the oppie!!
Hatty is currently ranked 2nd in Britain behind Welsh sailor Will Hall in 1st after the British Nationals last
week.
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