Youth Nationals at Wiggleswade Dam, Eastern Cape

Point Yacht Club

Youth Nationals

Wiggleswade Dam: 13 – 18 December

The Festive holidays are about to get off to an enthusiastic start for Point Yacht Club’s youth sailors as they head down to the Eastern Cape to Wiggleswade Dam for the Youth Nationals.

The six day event that starts this Sunday will have a strong contingent from Durban participating. The fleet of youngsters includes 29er sailors, Benji Daniel (Thomas More College) and Chad Stevenson (uMhlanga College) who should be heading to Langkawi at the end of the month for the ISAF World Youth Championships. The 29er team have been pushed to their limits in their training by fellow 29er sailors, Michael Dickenson and Rob Tarboton, who have been instrumental in preparing the team.

Joining them will be the Oppie gang, with four optimist sailors representing the club. Lead by Callum Gaughran (Kearsney College) and Liam Fennessy (Northwood) who competed in Poland recently. The South African sailors will be joined by the two Bowman lads, the experienced and talented Iain and his younger brother, Scott who will be racing in the novice fleet both from Hillcrest Christian Academy.

The two Hannahs will add a bit of flair to the team, with Hannah Fokkens (Danville) taking on the Laser 4.7 sailors and Hannah Tiedt (Kloof High School) racing in the Laser Radial fleet. Joining Tiedt in the Radial class are Ross Gaughran (Kearsney College) and Sam Lombaard (Michaelhouse).

Sean Hurter (Clifton College) will be sailing in his favourite class and taking to the water on his Dabchick. Rounding up the team are Dylan Albert (uMhlanga College) and James Butler (Westville), regular faces in the catamaran fleet. They will be taking down the only multihull from Durban racing on their Hobie 16, armed with a spinnaker.

Rear Commodore for Youth Sailing, Nik Albert stated, “We have an incredible bunch of kids heading down to the Eastern Cape. We have almost every class covered with our team. It is exciting times for our team as this is one of the strongest teams we are sending down. Our youth are doing remarkable things on the water, with a number of them travelling to Poland, Wales, Langkawi to name but a few places that we have been fortunate enough to participate at.”

Continuing, Albert said, “Good luck to the guys and girls, we hope they fly the PYC flag high and sincerely do the best that they can do! We are very fortunate as a club to have a host of fantastic, dynamic sailors who have been willing to pay it forward. I would like to thank Michael Dickenson for his awesome and fun training, and to the McNeill brothers who have kindly imparted their valuable experience from their experience of their Olympic campaign onto our youngsters.”

Concluding, the Rear Commodore mentioned, “Watch out sailing world, here come the Point Yacht Club’s team!”

Working hard behind the scenes, Trevor Gibb, the stalwart of youth sailing is down every Saturday, come rain or shine, to take and mould new youngsters wanting to join the Point Yacht Club junior programme. Gibb’s relentless in his persistence to get these little ones to learn to sail. If you would like to discover more info about this, contact Amanda at the club.

For more info, visit www.pyc.co.za or contact Amanda at the club on 031 301 5425.