THE Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy has hosted the second of three Olympic National rankers. The winds were light and seven races were completed for the two-day event.

The British Sailing Team were out in force, Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign won the 49er ahead of Podium sailors John Pink and Stuart Bithell, James Peters and Fynn Sterritt finished just a point behind in third.

Kate Macgregor and Stephanie Orton won the 49erFX class, closely followed by Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth.

Winning half the races in the Finn fleet put Ben Cornish’s name at the top of the scoreboard, while Portland’s Megan Pascoe won all put one of the 2.4mR races to end her weekend in first.

Tim Riley and James Taylor won the 470 fleet on countback from Jess Lavery and Eilidh McIntyre.

Meanwhile, Olympic medallists and rising talents rubbed shoulders at the RYA/UKWA National Windsurfing Championships, where more than 190 sailors were in action at Grafham Water.

Light winds on the opening day saw racing delayed and eventually cancelled, but as the wind filled in on Sunday morning all fleets completed at least four races on day two of the Championships.

The National Windsurfing Championships are open to all, however the top two Team15 teams in each region were eligible to compete for the Champions Cup.

The teams were invited based on their performance at regional events that took place earlier in the year.

In the RS:X 8.5 fleet, which also doubled up as the second event of three for the RS:X class in the RYA Olympic Classes National Ranking Series, the British Sailing Team’s Bryony Shaw claimed three of the four races to win.

* Portland’s Alison Young finished 13th in the Laser Radial class at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Qingdao.

* The 2015 RYA Zone and Home Country Championships will be held in eight different locations around the UK with over 1,025 sailors competing. 


Sailors will be battling it out for Zone Squad places and championships honours, while others will be competing at a racing event for the very first time. 


Members of the British Sailing Team will be on hand at most venues to offer advice and expertise to the young sailors as well as handing out the prizes tomorrow. 


The biggest gathering of young sailors, over 245, will be at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy (WPNSA) for the South and Southwest Championships.

The largest class in the South and Southwest event will be the Optimist Class, last year’s South Zone winner, Henry Chandler (Emsworth SC) is back again to defend his title.

In the Southwest Zone, Topper sailor Mark Ripley (Paignton SC) is one of the strongest candidates in his field. 


British Sailing Team Podium Potential windsurfers, Imogen and Saskia Sills will be at WPNSA to offer their expert knowledge of the Portland harbour and Weymouth bay waters.

Flora Stewart and the 49er Junior Worlds silver medallists Chris Taylor and Sam Batten will be at prize-giving and on the water tomorrow.