Killyleagh Yacht Club had the honour of hosting the finale of the Strangford Lough Youth Series on Sunday afternoon. The sun shone down on race officer Scott Rodgers and his team as they got under way hosting the last of this five-leg event.   Now in its eighteenth year, the series attempts to instil team spirit and camaraderie in the young sailors of tomorrow and offers a chance to develop a sense of fair play in a relaxed, but still competitive environment.  

The previous four legs of the series saw over 70 junior sailors in total compete, some for personal glory but for others to help their team in the race to win the coveted Strangford Lough Youth Series Shield.  Coming into the final day Killyleagh Yacht Club were dominating the large Topper class, Strangford Sailing Club the Laser Handicap class and Strangford Lough Youth Club the Optimist Class.   

In the Laser Handicap class, SSC’s Sam McLernon took first position on the day, just ahead of EDYC’s Rose Kelly in second.  Ronan Hodge from SSC landed a third, leaving McLernon in first overall, with Hodge in second and Kelly in third.  In the ILCA4 class, Anna Fitzpatrick maintained her consistent performance, putting her first overall, while a first on the day placed Ben Groves from EDYC in second, ahead of SLYC’s Tilly Scott in third from KYC entered the final day equal on 7 points each.  

Throughout the year 25 young sailors have competed in the ever popular Topper class but going into the final day KYC’s Cormac Dickson had a 10 point lead over SSC’s Mai Lawson, with Eliza Ashe representing KYC in third.  With the biggest fleet comes the biggest points in this series so it was all to play for on the day and having reached the top of the leaderboard, Team KYC were determined to make the last day count. 

Cormac Dickson threw down the gauntlet to the rest, with a first in race one, but the SSC sailors were equally determined with Erin McGirr claiming a second and newcomer James McCallion in third.  In her best performance of the year however, Emily Duggan sailed the race of her life to lift her first ever first, putting her in third position overall.  A second for Dickson and a third for Ashe made it a KYC one-two-three, so the KYC Topper dream team gained a commanding series win for Dickson, ahead of Ashe in second and Duggan in third.  

Meanwhile in the smaller Topper 4.2 class, SLYC dominated the entries, leaving no challengers for the majority of the races in the series. In a SLYC battle, George McIlveen and Arthur Lusty each took a first and second in the two races, with Lusty claiming first on countback, with McIlveen in second, however, a third from Sarah McCance was just enough to leave her in first place overall, with McIlveen in second and Lusty in third.   

In an interesting move, SLYC entered a fleet of Optimists this year, with one visitor from RNIYC providing the only external competition for the competitive SLYC only group.  With straight firsts in every race, SLYC rock star Hugh Williams was untouchable and straight seconds across the series meant club mate Olivia Wijkstra took second overall. With a low entry in the class at all but the SLYC leg of the series, consistency was key for Danny Martin and a third and two fourth places left him in third overall – in his first year competing, definitely one to watch in the future.

Going into this final round, Killyleagh Yacht Club knew they had the Topper points in their favour, but sole dominance in the Topper 4.2 and Optimist classes meant Strangford Lough Yacht Club were racking up uncontested victories and they were determined not to give up without a fight.  Having had the Shield for so many consecutive years, they did not want to let it go!  In the end however a scorching performance from Dickson, Ashe and Duggan for Team KYC clinched the Shield in the closest countback ever, with just three points between a delighted Team KYC and SLYC.  SSC claimed a third overall, just one point ahead of EDYC in fourth.