Posts Tagged ‘Manic Monkeys’

Silver Success for Manic Monkey

Monday, May 16th, 2011

Alexei Murphy represented the Manic Monkeys and the East Zone at the 2011 RYA Eric Twiname Champions over the 7/8th May weekend. The windsurfing Zone Squads have been working hard all winter with 6 weekends of intensive coaching. Hosted at Rutland Water Sailing Club, the Championships are the pinnacle of the racing calendar for the Zone and Home Country squads as the nine squad teams go head-to-head over two days for the prestige of picking up the coveted Eric Twiname Shield and being named top RYA Zone. It was an impressive regatta with 325 sailors taking part, including entries from 62 windsurfers.

Alexei competed in the 5.8m class with a great start on day 1 to lead the field with a 2-2-1-3 series. The light winds of Saturday were replaced by demanding gusty conditions on Sunday but the young windsurfers battled on for two more races. Alexei finished with equal top points for the competition (10) with Isaac Bradley Baker (West Kirby Warriors) but Isaac took the crown in the class on countback of first places. Windsurfing at ET ChampionshipsAlexei was delighted to be in the silver medal position at his first ET Championships.

It was the RYA West Zone who were triumphant in the overall competition and they were crowned 2011 RYA Eric Twiname Champions, taking home the ET Shield. The North took overall honours in Windsurfing.

Contributed by: Noel Murphy

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A Manic Monkey takes up the challenge

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Alexei Murphy competed for the Manic Monkeys at the RYA Volvo South Zone Championships at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy over the weekend of 25/26th Sep. A total of 36 windsurfers turned up and over 200 young sailors competed in all at the event. With a triathlon also taking place at the venue it was a tough job getting a spot to rig up! Being a championship, the format was much more stringent than the more relaxed T15 events.

The box and outer loop courses were demanding in 16 knots and choppy conditions but the young windsurfers survived well and demonstrated tremendous skill. Racing rules were strictly applied (what does that yellow flag with the black dot mean again??). Alexei found himself penalised 5 points for being more interested in lunch than tallying on time (I blame the parents!). The racing took place quite a distance from shore so not much fun for the spectators struggling to see what was happening through binoculars in that cold northerly breeze!

Alexei had a mixed series in the 4.5m class finishing in 6th place overall. He struggled a bit getting it right on the upwind legs but did manage a first place in race 2, good going to get a bullet in his first time in such an event. It was a great experience and, with 6 races being completed over the two days, well worth the long trip to WPNSA. Hopefully we will see more Manic Monkeys at next year’s Championships!

Contributed by: Noel Murphy

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Posted in Bray Lake Community, Team 15 | Comments Off