BRIGHTLINGSEA Sailing Club's James King has been crowned RYA UK Youth Multihull champion.

The 17-year-old, with his crew Jack Butters, struck gold at the RYA Youth National Championships in North Wales.

King and Butters dominated the Spitfire Multihull class. claiming overall victory following eight wins from the nine-race series.

They only missed out on winning the other race by half a boat length at the event, held at Plas Heli, the Welsh national sailing centre in Pwllheli.

The duo were in fine form, following on from their success for the British Youth sailing team at the Youth World Championships in Malaysia over Christmas and New Year.

But although they were dominant, the pair were chased hard by their RYA Youth squad team-mates.

The brother and sister team of Will and Sophie Heritage from the Isle of Wight won silver, while Grafham Water's Caleb Cooper and Megan Smith secured bronze.

It was King's fourth attempt at winning gold in the multihull class, having previously won bronze (2014) and silver (2015).

Their boat, the Spitfire, is a 16.5-foot racing catamaran built and supplied by White Formula of Brightlingsea.

The 2016 RYA Youth Championships is likely to be the last in the Spitfire before it moves to the replacement Nacra 15 boat.

It is therefore fitting that the trophy returned to Brightlingsea from its adoption as the youth boat, seven years ago.

The RYA Youth National Championships is the pinnacle national event on the youth sailing calendar, attracting more than 300 sailors competing across eight classes.

Previous winners have gone on to represent their country at the Youth World Championships and Olympic level.

King and Butters, who is based at Poole's Parkhurst Sailiing Club, now move into the Nacra 15 in the hope of once more competing for the British Youth Sailing team at the World Championships in New Zealand at the end of the year.

They will also be trying out on the Nacra 17 Olympic boat of 2016 Rio British Olympic competitor, Ben Saxton, at Weymouth this weekend.