Fantastic turnout for Schools' Regatta

THE Cornwall Schools' Regatta event took place last Wednesday at Restronguet Sailing Club in Mylor Yacht Harbour, organised by Tracey Boyne of Mylor Sailing School and Truro College.

The event was another great success. The wind was a Force 3-4 North-Westerley with some hefty gusts coming through and taking a few by surprise, so some challenging conditions for many of the pupils.

This year it was run in conjunction with the Cornwall Sports Partnership and it was part of the Cornwall School Games with the run-up to the Olympics in 2012.

Chosen

Cornwall was one of nine counties chosen to be part of the School Games for the Olympics, and sailing was one of the chosen sports.

Cornwall Sports Partnership donated all the medals, glass trophies for the winners and a t-shirt for every single competitor which was a great memento for all the pupils who took part this year.

New trophies for the winner of each class were also donated this year by Mylor Sailing School, Elemental Watersports, Loe Beach Watersports, Roseland Paddle and Sail, Seasalt and Mylor Yacht Harbour.

Truro College donated a new 'Overall School Winner' trophy for the event.

There was a fantastic turnout of 90 boats and more than 130 pupils competing from many schools in Cornwall including Archbishop Benson, Cape Cornwall, Falmouth School, Fowey Community College, Hayle School, Helston School, Humphry Davy, King Charles School, Looe School & Sailing Club, Mounts Bay, Mylor Bridge, Penair, Penryn College, Penzance Sailing Club, Richard Lander, Roseland School, St Hillary, St Ives School, St Mawes Sailing Club, Richard Lander, Threemilestone, Tregony, Truro Prep School, Truro School, Truro High School and Wadebridge School.

The Isles of Scilly Sailing Centre made it again this year. They make the huge effort and expense of bringing their young sailors to the event.

Although Tracey Boyne is the main organiser of the event, it really is a team effort from lots of very kind teachers, parents, grandparents and other volunteers to bring the whole day together to make this event completely free of charge to everyone.

Every year it has an overwhelming amount of helpers who volunteer their boats, services and help to keep this event going and accessible by as many schoolchildren as possible.

The race officers were Craig Brown from Mylor Sailing School and Mark Belshaw from the RYA Onboard Scheme, which is volunteer-based to get youngsters into sailing and keeping them there.

Training

The event mainly consists of the pupils bringing their own boats, but there are also many dinghies loaned to pupils to enable them to get on the water.

Laser and RS Boats came to the event with some of their boats for the pupils to use.

The Hardiesse, Falmouth's Sail Training Ship, anchored off Restronguet Sailing Club again this year with skipper Chris Stone, and took tours on the boat.

There are many dinghies and rescue boats loaned from a number of the local sailing schools in the area, including Mylor Sailing School, Truro College, Bob Warren from Roseland Paddle & Sail, Mike Croft from St Mawes Sailing Club, Dany Duncan from Elemental Watersports-Swanpool, Liam Hope from Loe Beach Watersports.

Charles Warren from Warren Flowers is also a key helper every year in the Race Office with his great wealth of knowledge of racing over the years and Anne Webb, who co-ordinates the results on the committee boat.

Also a big thank you to Mylor Sailing School's staff who gave up their day to help out. This was all vital help needed to enable the pupils to take part.

Tracey would also like to thank Restronguet Sailing Club for allowing the use of the facilities to host the event and to Roger Graffy of Mylor Yacht Harbour for supplying free car parking again to everyone for the day.

Last, but by no means least, a huge thank you to all of the other volunteers who worked very hard on the day with rescue cover, entries, photos. This includes lots of parent and teacher support.