Teddy Dunn wins race at Worlds!

Manx Sailor Teddy Dunn won the last race at the RS Tera World Championship yesterday, putting him in 6th place overall after two days of racing.

The RS Tera Sport fleet of 88 boats has been split into two qualifying rounds to decide Gold and Silver Fleets later this week. Teddy Dunn (age 13) has had a great week so far, starting the series with a 2nd place in the first race. He has sailed the first six races very consistently and at present is discarding a 7th as his worst result.

An increase in breeze yesterday saw Nickolas Ellis move up the fleet with an 11th and a 13th. He has moved up the fleet to 43rd. Archie Dunn, at his first World Championship is 53rd.

Oscar Jackson, sailing in the Pro fleet for the first time is getting to grips with the much tougher level of competition in the more senior fleet and is in 60th at the moment.

Huge thanks to sponsors Appleby Capital International Group Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

MYSS compete at RS Tera Worlds this week

Four members of the 12 strong Manx Youth Sailing Squad are competing at the RS Tera World Championship in Weymouth this week.

Racing in the Sport Fleet are Teddy Dunn, Archie Dunn and Nickolas Ellis. This is familiar territory for Nickolas who raced at the Worlds in Carnac, Brittany in 2017. Last year the youngster had some excellent starts and showed heaps of potential. He will be looking for a big improvement on last year’s 38th place. Another year older, wiser and more experienced Nickolas could be one to watch this year.

Teddy Dunn has been training with the GBR RS Tera Squad throughout the winter and so far has had an excellent season finishing 3rd overall at the National Championship and 9th at the Inlands. Teddy has been with the Squad for three years now and has put a huge amount of effort into his training and events scheduled. Hopefully he will be on top form for the Worlds this week.

Archie Dunn gets his first real taste of big fleet racing at this championship, making the leap from the dozen or so boats in the Regatta fleet for the really young sailors, up to racing in the full 60+ boat Sport Fleet. Archie finished 1st place in the Regatta Fleet at the Nationals, we are looking forward to watching his progression in the big fleet.

Oscar Jackson, now in his second year with Squad, has moved into the Pro rig this season, so this will be his first major championship in the Pro fleet. This will also be Oscar’s first World Championship event.

The Manx Youth Sailing Squad would not have been able to provide the training, equipment and support to these young sailors without the generous sponsorship from ApplebyCapital International Group and the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company

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Sail away to Aldrick

Yesterday was pretty awesome. The Day Sailing group planned an outing down to Aldrick. They enjoyed fantastic sailing conditions down the coast and back. Piglet even came for the trip so we could get ashore. We anchored the boats off the beach and the crews had fun rowing to and from the shore. We stopped there for a picnic lunch, it was a real treat.

There was a lot of plastic on this beach. In just five minutes our sailors cleaned a boat load of plastic off Aldrick beach.

We talked about the Great Pacific Garbage patch (I was surprised how few people had even heard of this), we talked about Rowan Henthorn’s trip across the Pacific researching the impact of plastics in the oceans. We talked about the global problem and future implications for marine life, bird life, human life and the planet.

We can see the same here, on a smaller scale, outside of our bay is a gyre, plastic just keeps going round it in circles. Our boat load full is just a tiny sample and no doubt more will appear on Aldrick tomorrow. We will continue to pick up plastic we find on beaches and in the oceans. But we need to stop it at the source.

#turnthetideonplastic #stoptheplastictide #onourdoorstep#unescobiosphere #oostwestthuisbest #visitisleofman #porterin #piglet#firstyouhavetorowalittleboat #sailingisliving

Youth Sailing Week #3 More girls than boys!

Youth Sailing Week #3 and what a week. It started with the beach being closed due to a diesel spill caused by a visiting boat. Not to be deterred we managed to run a session from the jetty, away from the slick, using the boats we already had on moorings in the water.

On Tuesday lunch time the Coastguard and Commissioners declared the beach open again. There we were, our boats lined up like super cars waiting for the Roads Open after TT races, just waiting for the nod. What followed has been a superb week of sailing with near perfect sailing conditions.

I’m pleased to say that the girls have outnumbered the boys, there have been 15 girls sailing here this week!!! #thisgirlcan#welldoneizzysharpe

We’ve some new additions to the Instructing team, Luke Crowe and Annis Williams both passed their DI course last week and this week have run a text book Stage 1 and 2 course between them, with help from Ealish Green who has joined us from across for a few weeks. Ealish has spent much of her sailing career at 7th Wave and got her DI ticket here last year. She has been teaching sailing at Budworth SC and now here, she is a welcome addition to the team. Finally it is wonderful to have Ffinlo Wright back in the fold too. Ffinlo was our first ever ever sailing customer back in 2006, I took him on a Taster Session in a Tera, he was five years old!

#homegrownteam #porterin #proudofyouall #sailingisliving#alwaysachallenge #nothingeverstraightforward

 

Blowin’ a hoolie this weekend

Well after the last few months on sunshine, this weekend is looking more like a regular Manx summer – wet and very windy!

Thus:
Saturday Sailing for Juniors CANCELLED
RYA Dinghy Level 1 for adults POSTPONED
Taster Sessions CANCELLED / POSTPONED
Manx Youth Sailing Squad training GOING AHEAD
Kayak hire UNLIKELY
Bodyboarding PROBABLY!

First day in the job…

Youth Sailing Week #3 Introductions this morning… Instructor “Tell us about your sailing and a random fact about yourself”… Student “I’m doing Stage 4 and my random fact…. I beat that Instructor (points to Luke) in a race in Ramsey last week”

Izzy Sharpe – your #thisgirlcan Race Training weekend was a huge success! And this moment made me smile 

Dolphins!!! Loads of dolphins…In Port Erin

Well, I’ve seen some incredible things in life, but this was something else. Port Erin bay has delivered yet another scene right out of Attenborough’s Blue Planet. Yesterday we were treated to forty or more dolphins chasing what must have been a mighty good feed of something. They were in the bay for a good half hour at just after midday and then, they came back for around an hour between 2.30 and 3.30pm.

RYA Coach Assessor Alan Jones and our Dinghy Instructor candidates had front row seats. “Seeing the dolphins playing under and with the boats was the most amazing thing I have seen in my life” said trainee Instructor, Sarah James.

In the afternoon our Stage 3 sailors had their own little show as the dolphins swam to within a few hundred yards of the beach.

From the surface I watched them swimming round their food source, making tighter and tighter circles, then the ones in the middle of the fray would breach or tail slap the water before the whole group would dive as one. They kept repeating the same pattern from Bradda Head to the middle of the bay to Traie Meanagh.

I have never seen anything like it, never seen so many dolphins, never watched them hunting…. and all of this happened on our doorstep, in our bay!!!

#visitisleofman #inthemenu #porterin #dolphins#ohmygodthereareloadsoffish #oostwestthuisbest #unescobiosphere#bestplacetobe #luckytoliveontheisleofman

Rudderless!

Last week saw the first of this summer’s Youth Sailing Weeks, we had 24 young people here ranging from Stage 1 sailors right through to our trainee Instructors.

The rudderless sailing bar was raised significantly by Luke, Nathan and Charlie who sailed the Wayfarer back on to its mooring, first time, first attempt – no rudder!

On Friday we witnessed a textbook RYA session, led by the trainees, overseen by our Instructors. Very proud of watching these young people grow up and we wish them well for the Dinghy Instructor course this week.