Topper triumph for Paignton sailors at Nationals

Junior members of Paignton Sailing Club recently took part in the Topper Nationals held at Weymouth & Portland Sailing Academy.

After the event, sailor Tayah Gilboy said: "The Topper Nationals is such a great experience, it's great to learn loads and have so much fun while racing.

“I love the Topper Nationals, as you get good competitive yet friendly racing and you get to meet new people, make friends and expand your sailing abilities. I sailed in the 5.3 fleet, so the first three days of racing are called the qualifiers where you get randomly split into four fleets and race against one other fleet each race, so that it's fair.

“For the first three days during qualifiers, the wind was between 10-15 knots, which is a nice consistent breeze. After the first three days, the fleet split into half the top half called gold and the bottom half into silver.

Sadly, I missed out on gold fleet by one point, which was disappointing, but it meant I was leading going into silver fleet the next day. The last three days, the wind picked up to around 20-25 knots, meaning that sadly on Thursday the silver fleet, regatta fleet and the 4.2 fleet weren't allowed to launch.

“Gold fleet went out and managed to get one race in. Paignton sailing club members Tom Semmens and Victory Montgomery went out and fought the brutal conditions when it picked up to 35 knot gusts.

“After all the racing had finished on Friday, I had managed to hold onto my 1st position, gaining a 30-point lead over the person in second and 5/6 wins. Overall, it was an amazing event and sadly it was mine and many others last event before we move on to the next boat on the pathway."

At the end of the week, Thomas Semmens finished 4th in Gold Fleet with Victory Montgomery achieving 38th. Tayah Gilboy came 1st in Silver fleet with Isabel Williscroft achieving 18th. The Topper class also ran a fun Regatta Fleet for the younger sailors, which is a week of fun and games with some competitive racing and Grace Montgomery came 3rd.  PSC Race Coach Mark Ripley also attended the event and helped to support the 4.2 sailors

Nick Ripley (Sailing) from Paignton SC added: “Congratulations to our PSC junior sailors, the sailors all had a fantastic week and will now be looking forward to hosting a weekend event at Paignton SC in June next year.”