Cymraeg 
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Optimist Camp 26th-28th May 2009. More information available here
Gwersyll Optimist yng Nghlwb Hwylio Pwllheli Mai 26ain-28ain 2009. Manylion llawn.
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The first Club Youth Racing Circuit (CYRC) event of the year was held at Pwllheli sailing club on April 4th. The CYRC is designed for young sailors to get their first experience of dinghy racing in a friendly but competitive fleet.
21 hardy sailors ranging from 9 year olds to 17 year olds from sailing clubs right across North Wales including Shotwick , Penmaenmawr and Felinheli. Pwllheli sailing club made up most of the entries with 7 of the 11 Optimist sailors , 3 of the 6 toppers and 2 of the Laser sailors were from the host club.
After 3 exciting races in breezy and sunny but very cold weather 1st place honours went to Mari Davies (Pwllheli) , 2nd Place to Emlyn Wiliams (Felinheli) and 3rd place to Gethin Owen ( Pwllheli) in the Optimists Gold Fleet.
Josh Dawson (Felinheli) won the Optimist Silver fleet closely followed by Jordan Lee (Pwllheli) and Indeg Owen (Pwllheli). Jordan Lee was unlucky in not gaining line honours as a badly timed capsize pushed him staright to the back of the fleet.
Tom Williams (Shotwick) dominated the Toppers but Iolo Bryn (Pwllheli) and Mathew Butterworth (Pwllheli) had close racing throughout the day with Iolo eventually claiming 2nd place in the Toppers.
Calvin Kopec from Penmaenmawr won the Laser class.
The Laser Radial fleet was a much tighter competition with a thoroughly justified 1st place going to Siwan Roberts from Pwllheli beating the other competitors from Pwllheli Robert Foreshaw and Wiiliam Filby who were 2nd and 3rd . This win for Siwan shows that the National squad place she gained was thoroughly justified and the extensive coaching she has had over winter has helped her sailing immensely.
The sailing was followed by a popular disco and an Easter Egg hunt.
Pwllheli sailing club won the 2008 junior section shield and after this superb turnout looks set to win the 2009 Welsh Yachting Association shield again this year.
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" Welsh National Laser Radial Team sailors Aimee Saracco-Jones and Siwan Bryn Roberts of CHPSC are 17th and 21st girl respectively at the recent RYA Youth Championships and Trials at Largs over the Easter Holiday. Congratulations to them both having sailed against the top 94 girls and boys youth radial fleet in the country. .....''
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RYA Volvo youth national championshipand trials 2009, Largs sailing club.
By Siwan Bryn
We arrived Thursday morning at Largs sailing club as we had 2 days of welsh squad training. It was a wet, windy day and the sea was at a choppy state. We rigged partly and decided that it was too windy to train, and so did a bit of boat preparation. In the afternoon we studied the sailing instructions and the venue in detail.
Friday was also very windy but we decided it would be beneficial to train and had a short morning session. Downwind sailing was very hard and the boats were rocky and so we had a few capsizes. But we got in some good training and got to know the venue better.
As we hadn’t trained on the Thursday we thought to try sailing on the Saturday after registration and measuring. Registration and measuring was scheduled for 1:00pm but we went down to the club at 10:30am and it had been moved forward. We were both registered and measured before lunch time. The conditions were very similar to the Friday and so we decided not to train as we were hoping for light wind training. Because of this we decided to try training on the Sunday but only if it was light winds.
The Sunday was a very light winds day and perfect for our training we got out early and did a bit of training. The wind was very shifty and coming from the south westerly and veered to the right while we were out. We didn’t stay out to long as we didn’t want to tire ourselves out before the racing.
Monday was the start of the racing and we had a reasonable amount of wind and a sunny day. The first warning signal was scheduled for 11:25am. The radial fleet was released at around 10:30am. All the girls had been put into 1 fleet so that we raced against each other and so that there were the same amount of girls in each fleet. There were four fleets 3 fleets full of boys and the blue fleet was all girls. Our first race was the second start against the red fleet. There was a postponement on our course for a while with the first fleet start at 11:43am. The second start took a while and we started at 12:24pm. The conditions were very shifty and gusty with big gains and losses made. The race lasted about an hour. The girl fleet was second start again in the second race and we started about 2 o clock and at around 2:45 there was a 50 degree shift on all courses. The wind became very shifty and dropped a lot after the second race finished. At around 4:30 and AP over A was up and there was no more racing and we headed in.
Tuesday was much windier averaging around 22 knots and gusting 27. The radial fleet launched at around 9:50am and were the first off the slipway. The first race on our fleet was postponed for a while and we got our first start at 11:30am. The girls fleet was the first start along with the yellow fleet. It started raining in the middle of this race. We had the first start again in the second race of the day and started at around 1:00pm, and had another race soon after we finished. On the fourth race of the day there was a general recall and so in the next start sequence the black flag was raised at the 4 minutes. The girls fleet was second start this time and didn’t get a general recall. Aimee and I both had a very good race on the last race of the day. 
As we had completed six races the radial fleet was split into 2 fleets gold and silver for the final series for the Wednesday. Also visiting on the Wednesday was HRH Princess Anne with a very windy Largs waiting for her. The sea was very choppy with many white horses and wind at around 25 knots gusting over 30. An indefinite postponement was raised at around 10 o clock. The gusts were increasing throughout the morning with one of 41 knots. The wind then seemed to drop off a bit with the sea state calming. HRH arrived at around 10:30 and entered the clubhouse. Later she came out for a tour of the dinghy park and after talking to a few sailors she came around to where we were stood and asked us where our home club was. After she left the wind had dropped off a lot and so we rushed to get ready for launching. The radials were launched at 12:20pm. The gold fleet started at 1 o clock but had a general recall. The wind picked up greatly by now and seemed even stronger than this morning. Another ten minutes later and they had a clear start. The silver fleet started at 1:20pm and had very difficult conditions. Many were capsizing as strong gusts came down one of the three valleys funnelling the wind. Because of this the wind was also very shifty. Racing in the conditions was very difficult with gusts of over 30 knots. 15 boats retired from the silver fleet and there were many capsizes. I managed to capsize 24 times in one race, as I got round the windward mark the wind seemed to shift about 120 degrees for a while, I was later sent in up my second beat as everyone was going in but still got a position. Water spouts were forming on the sea and it was no racing conditions. Everyone seemed to rush to land.
Thursday was even windier but without HRH here there wasn’t such a need to send us out in terrible conditions. The day was a bit all over with very strong winds in the morning gusts of over 40 knots and then it seemed to drop and then pick up again with a lot of big shifts, and impossible to set any kind of course. Everyone was kept on their toes but finally at around 1:20 pm all races were abandoned.
Friday seemed more of the same of Thursday with racing very unlikely. It was very windy and the sea seemed more choppy than yesterday with many white horses. There were constant updates from the rescue boats of what the wind was doing. At around 9:30am a the committee boat for the 29ers was hit by a water spout. The courses were reporting gusts of 30 knots and the wind seemed to be coming from every direction 0 – 360 degrees. Largs seemed very unpredictable. At 12:30pm they seemed to give up and the AP over A flag was up and all the races were cancelled. We were free to leave!
Therefore Aimee and I were 17th and 21st girl respectively against the top 94 girls and boys youth radial fleet in the country. Our results seemed to improve throughout the week and so racing on the Thursday and Friday, wind allowing would have probarbly improved our results.
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Two members of Pwllheli sailing Club in top 10 in 
Optimist Inland National Championships
Five members of Pwllheli sailing club junior section recently travelled to 'the Musto Volvo National Optimist Championships' at Grafham Water in Northampton.
This is the first major event in the Optimist sailing calendar where rankings are needed to enter the Great Britain sailing squad.
The 5 young sailors who entered were Mari Davies 12, Indeg Owen 11, Jordan Lee 13, Iago Davies 10 and Gethin Owen 9.
The two girls competed in the Senior Fleet with 250 entries who had 2 days of intense racing in extreme windy conditions, the wind peaked at 38 knots in one gust and the best positions achieved were 50th by Indeg Owen and 66th by Mari Davies. The overall result saw Mari Davies in position 141 and Indeg Owen in position 142, with Mari Davies hopefully claiming one of the female places in an invitational Welsh Squad training weekend.
The 3 boys were entered in the regatta fleet with 100 entries. Sailing for this fleet was cancelled on the Saturday due to the extreme weather and 3 races were organised for the Sunday. Gethin Owen achieved 2 very impressive first places and a sixth, thus awarding him an overall 2nd in the whole competition. Iago Davies achieved a 3rd 6th and a 9th putting him in 8th position and Jordan Lee achieved a 6th in one race but due to a capsize in one race was pushed down to 33rd overall.
By achieving 2 top 10 places in a National event the Pwllheli youngsters are definitely putting Pwllheli Sailing club on the map in the youth sailing circles.
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