2nd September 2016
Crews from South Devon schools were involved in the ASTO Small Ships race from Dartmouth to Gosport last week to celebrate the 150 year anniversary of the Royal Dart Yacht Club (RDYC).
South Devon College entered their two yachts, Endeavour and Aspiration. They were skippered by South Devon College Marine Academy lecturers Dave Peart and Andy Wright who were supported by their 1st mates; Yacht Operations FdSc first year students Lucy Rees and Charlie Sinclair-Walker. The crews for the yachts were made up of 14-16 year olds from Torbay schools, including Cuthbert Mayne, Torquay Boys Grammar, South Devon High School, and South Devon College.
The crew participated in a practice race on Sunday 21st August in an ‘around the cans dash’ in windy force 4-5 conditions. The race lasted about 3 hours and Endeavour was placed 1st in class ‘D’ – a fantastic result, which was celebrated at the prize-giving hosted by RDYC that evening!
On Monday 22nd August, the race started following a parade of sail, at which point the wind was SW 4, with a forecast to drop to SE variable later in the night. Aspiration got a good start and hoisted her spinnaker just after the start line, which she flew until the early hours of the morning. Both Aspiration and Endeavour decided on a Southerly route, in order to take advantage of the SE winds as they were rounding St Catherine’s Point and making the final approach to Portsmouth.
Aspiration managed to get ahead of Endeavour and the final result was 3rd in Class for Aspiration and 5th in Class for Endeavor, which made the boats 4th and 6th out of 18 boats overall.
The crews spent a day in Gosport, participating in crew parades and sports, followed by a prize giving ceremony and a hog roast, before departing Gosport the following day, stopping in Swanage for a well-earned swim!
Thank you to ASTO for organising the race, The Royal Dart Yacht Club for hosting the event and providing generous hospitality and the race officials and South Devon College for the support of the yachts and staff (Andy and Dave) who enabled us to enter the race.
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