Abersoch North Wales
April 14th saw a splendid day of sunshine and more than 20 junior ribsters from the north west (all under 16 years of age) on the water for the inaugural selection competition as the precursor to the National Honda/RYA Youth RIB Championship heats.

The competition was the brainchild of Jonathan Geddes, 2nd in the 2006 Honda/RYA National Youth RIB Championship. Jonathan was the inspiration and force in organising this exciting event. He secured sponsors and adult helpers to ensure that his event ran successfully.

The course was set up at Abersoch, North Wales, courtesy of the South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club, and with a very close competitive edge from all the participants, a great day of fun was had by all. The competition comprised three timed runs (the best of the day to count) on a course set up to provide a fast turn buoy, slalom, garage parking (in reverse), another slalom, man overboard and a 360 degree turn followed by a final sprint across the finishing line.

All piloting the same RIB, a 5m Humber with 50hp Yamaha, the competition was very closely contested, with the field including three competitors who were qualified RYA Level II Powerboaters! Just two seconds separated the first four positions in the 13-16 years old category and the overall fastest time was remarkably from the 8-12 years old category.

Prizes for the winners comprised a session on 'Black Jack', a 7.8m Prosport RIB powered by a 250hp Suzuki outboard engine, for further training under the supervision of Ian Greenwood, owner and RYA Instructor. General sessions on 'Black Jack', plus event 'T' shirts and hats. The 1st - 3rd finishers in each category are also put forward for the Honda/RYA National heats.

A fantastic number of top quality photographs were taken by John Wormald and these professional photographs are available for purchase by visiting http://www.photoboxgallery.com/minxpix.

John can be contacted from his photogallery of the event at: MinxPix or by emailing john@minxpix.co.uk, if anyone should require any enlargements or special requests.

For the help and support given to them the organisers are indebted to:
Mitchell Mazda and Lexus
Peninsula Ribs
RNLI - West Kirby
John Wormald MinxPix
HotRIBS.Com

If you are interested in finding out what junior ribsters are all about, visit: www.juniorribsters.com

April 2007