NEWS ARCHIVE

RYA Squad Coach of the Year 2006

Mark Rushall was announced as RYA Squad Coach of the Year at the recent  Coaching Awards presented at the 2006 RYA Dinghy Sailing Show.

The award comes after coaching Skandia Team GBR’s Paralympic Sonar team, John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas, to their second consecutive win at the IFDS World Disabled Sailing Championships in Perth, Australia.  Mark has also worked closely with the RYA youth programme, gaining podium positions at the Worlds and Europeans.

Mark, who is also a yachting journalist and feature writer, is an accomplished racing sailor in his own right with many championships to his name. In addition to RYA squad commitments, Mark has a talent for inspiring individuals to achieve their potential, at club, fleet and national level.

March 2006

Even on the Swan River, home to the famous “Fremantle Doctor”, we heard the classic local’s comment “the weathers not normally like this!” One of our training sessions took place in torrential rain, one day’s racing was abandoned due to 50 k storm warnings, and only 5 from 10 races were sailed in the classic sea breeze conditions we had come to expect. But the racing was close and fair, and host Royal Perth Yacht club remained super friendly while efficiently running terrific series both for 2.4m and Sonars.

The Sonar team of John Robertson, Steve Thomas and Hannah Stodel, coached by Mark Rushall, showed their form in the sea breeze early with 1, 2 on day 1: they held this advantage for most of the regatta

After the penultimate race, after checking our addition 4 times, we gave the Brits the good news: “Congratulations: you can’t be beaten!”….. “Should we sail the last race?” “Yes: protests may change the points differences: just keep your nose clean, and get a top six place!”

 John, Steve, and Hannah don’t seem to possess a second gear though: with the wind now around 20 knots they led the final race from first mark to finish: becoming the first sailors to successfully defend the championship, winning by a convincing 12 points with four race wins.

Lake Garda was the venue for this exciting championship, which Mark attended as coach to the British team.

The last day had coaches from 3 nations huddled by the finish line, scarcely daring to watch events unfold through the gaps between their fingers! The French overnight leaders had finished 15^th in the day’s first race. First and second place to the British team (Richard Mason and Dan Shieber), and the Irish team  gave them a joint lead, 12 points ahead of the French.. The French survived the pressure to pull off a terrific start in the second race of the day: the finale of the championship. But an X flag was flying… who was OCS? Certainly not GBR or IRL who had poor starts from which neither recovered: both had to discard their last result and watch the drama ahead unfold. At the last windward mark, FRA held 2nd place to GER. The coaches on the race course hastily compared notes; finally agreeing that this would give the French the championship by one point. However the Israeli boat squeezed past close to the final leeward mark. With a short reaching leg to the finish, this result would give Mason the championship on count back!

  “Yes” Irish and British coaches exchanged a clenched fist! But a poor spinnaker gybe allowed the French back into second place and a provisional championship win: ecstasy to agony in ten seconds! The French sailors and coaches had to hold their breaths until the OSC list was posted ashore. In fact they had a clear start, while both German and Israeli teams were judged premature starters. France had won the last race, and the 420 Junior European championships by 2 points!

Richard and Dan were joined on the medal podium by Hannah Mills and Peggy Webster: 6th overall and runaway winners of the girl's event.