News - 2014

16:57 Monday 4 Aug 2014 Sue Pelling/CWLUnder 25 Trophy series attracts bumper entry

Shoreham Youth Team battle it out in the Sonar class – photo Rick Tomlinson

A total of 21 teams from a range of different classes have signed up for the Aberdeen Asset Management Under 25 Trophy series, which makes it one of the largest entries to date.

Following the success of this youth incentive scheme, which was introduced in 2012, Aberdeen Asset Management extended it support of young teams at the regatta this year by funding the entry of the first 20 teams to sign up, which was an increase of an extra five boats on last year.

The first 20 teams, of crews under the age of 25, to enter the regatta were offered free entry and crew kit courtesy of Aberdeen Asset Management.

One of the first to sign up for this year’s event was the Shoreham Youth Team sailing a Sonar. The crew, led by Alex Gooch the skipper, are all under 20 and have sailed the Sonar for two years. At the age of 18 in 2012, they came third in class in and finished third in the Young Skippers’ Trophy series.

Due to a clash of dates with the Sonar world championship in the USA last year, Shoreham Youth Team were unable to compete at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, but are back with a vengeance this year and currently lying in 5^th overall in the Sonar fleet after three days on the water, 7^th in the Under 25 Trophy, and 6^th overall in the Young Skipper series.

Chatting about their best result of the week, a second in today’s race, Alex commented: “I have a great team which makes all the difference. To be honest it is really tough out there and we’re finding it difficult, everything we know in theory seems to be out the window this week. We suffer a bit in the heavy winds because we are so light. Tomorrow we’ll be working on getting a good start. The first day we were OCS which has scared us off a bit, so we have to be a bit careful.”

Commenting on the Under 25 Youth scheme Gooch added: “Fantastic. It is a great way to encourage more young sailors to this event. If we get a chance, we’ll be back for sure.”