McCoy's gold shows he's on course to realise Olympic dreams

From the start of the event in Warnemunde, Germany, the Emsworth ace was at the helm of the junior fleet, sailing an excellent series against strong competition, with many former Olympians among the 103 Finn sailors from 28 nations.

He won gold, beating Jake Lilley (Australia) who finished second, and Lennart Luttkuss (Germany), third. McCoy finished 23rd overall.

At the Finn Junior Silver Cup in Lake Garda, Italy, McCoy was fourth, narrowly missing a podium place. He recognised he needed to take his sailing to the next level at Warnemunde to match the proficiency level of the senior sailors.

Wind conditions varied throughout the week with a good mix of strong and light, shifty winds challenging even the best sailors.

McCoy started Finn sailing in March last year. With the support of his founder sponsor Credo and his local sailing club, Emsworth Slipper, he purchased his first Finn - having competed in the Laser previously.

He said: “It has been a steep learning curve progressing from the Laser to the Finn class. The Finn is both a very physical and technical boat to sail, with pumping allowed downwind and sail changes permitted between races all adding to the challenge of maximising boat speed.”

With the support of the RYA coaching programme, McCoy is aiming is to gain further international experience with the British sailing team and his goal is to to represent GB at the Olympics. His next event this year is the Finn Worlds in Estonia.

To follow his progress online, search Peter McCoy Sailing.

THE target for the organisers of the 12th St Wilfrid’s Hospice Nab Challenge - to be held on Saturday, August 31 - will be to exceed the

record amounts of money raised for this worthy charity year on year.

So far this popular and unique event, organised by the Inn-Shore Cruising Club and sponsored by Chichester-based boiler distributor ATAG Heating UK, has raised more than £150,000 for the hospice.

The organisers will be hoping to inspire and encourage more competitors to take part in this year’s challenge and raise contributions to the hospice even higher.

The race itself offers competitors a great day’s racing, which is fun, safe and something the whole family can enjoy. The challenge takes place over a 12-nautical mile course from a start line just outside Chichester Harbour, around the Nab Tower and back and attracts entrants from sailing clubs throughout Sussex and beyond.

“Plans are well advanced for this year’s event,” said ISCC spokesman Patrick Doyle. “We are keen to attract as many entrants as possible and have started leafleting local yachting clubs to raise awareness and drum up support.

“There is a nominal entry fee of £20 per boat and entrants can get any number of people and organisations to sponsor them and their crew,” said Patrick. “With on-line facilities for making contributions, we have made it as easy as possible to make donations.’

Donations can be made on-line at www.justgiving.com/stwilfrids

The hospice, which provides specialist palliative care for people suffering from cancer, motor neurone disease and other terminal illnesses, has annual running costs of £5.8m, with only 14 per cent of this funded by the NHS. Contributions from the Inn-Shore Cruising Club and other local support groups are vital to ensure that it continues to provide this important service to the local community.

For further information on how to participate in the race, contact Patrick Doyle on email at [email protected], via www.swhcyc.wordpress.com or on 07801 819884.

DELL QUAY

A strong wind gusting force five to six greeted competitors to the sixth race in Dell Quay’s Evening series. Race officer Chris Wood set a course with a long upwind section, testing the legs of the racers, followed by fast offwind reaches which left grins on everyone’s faces. 

The RS400 of Rob Corfield and Tom Dobbs led the fleet round the course, followed by the Laser of Ben Chrystall and Bill Dawber in his Solo.  However, after the handicap calculations were applied the results were Dawber first, Chrystall second and Corfield and Dobbs third.

On Saturday the 6th race of the Longmore series was dominated by Ben Chrystall in his Laser, who lead from the start. John Purdy in his Solo was holding second place until the late arrival of Roger Francis and Peter Campbell in the Graduate, who carved their way through the fleet to take second place before the windward mark. Conditions proved tricky in a force five with strong gusts but the result stood firm from the first windward mark with Chrystall first, Francis and Campbell second and Purdy third.

The Trophy is still wide open with the final race on September 1.

Beautiful conditions tempted sailors afloat to the last five races in the short race series on Sunday, with a brisk force four wind, gusting six at times. Only the fourth race caused any problems, when a single boat over the line highlighted the uncertainty of half the fleet who returned back to start again unnecessarily.

Conditions were lively with fast, exciting reaches entertaining spectators, but the safety boat wasn’t kept too busy. Ben Chrystall won all five races showing excellent boat handling in his laser, followed by Roy and Beryl Dyton in their 2000 for three of the races and Sue Manning in her laser 4.7 for the other two. Andrew and Nikki Buchanan each secured a third-place win in their Lasers.

Overall the series was very close with Jean and Liz Sagues taking series honours in their Lymington Scow, with Manning second and Chris and William Lynus third in their Heron.