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RPAYC Sailors take on 2017 New Zealand Optimist Championships
To finish off the season 3 sailors from RPAYC (Daniel Links, Bayley Taylor and Olivia Williams) recently participated in the New Zea-
land Optimist Championships in Napier.
Hosted by Napier Sailing Club the regatta was held over 5 days with sailing in Hawkes Bay. The event provided a wide variety of
conditions from cyclonic 3.5m swells to shifty inconsistent winds making for long days on the water.
All RPAYC sailors performed well and gained great experience with 177 sailors in the Open Division - Daniel Links finishing 7 th , Olivia
Williams 46 th and Bayley Taylor 87 th .
Optimist Worlds Test Event Report
Songkran International Regatta
In April 2017 I traveled to Pattaya in Thailand for the Worlds Test
Event with three of my Australian Optimist team mates.
The host club for this event and the Optimist World Champion-
ships is the Royal Varuna Yacht Club. The club was interesting as the
breeze can blow right through the main part of the club. This is be-
cause its always hot and dry or hot and wet in this part of Thailand.
The current was a really big part of the racing. If it was under 10
knots and it was mid tide, they couldn’t run a race. One race even
had us start with the Committee boats stern facing upwind.
There were nine nations at the event. Singapore, Hong Kong, Costa
Rica and Thailand all had very strong sailors.
I was very happy with my scores as I got all top 10 results and
dropped a 14th. I also won a race which felt really good. I was also
very happy to be top Aussie and finish 5th overall of the 70 boats.
I learnt lots about tide and fleet management and got to test my
speed against some great sailors in the short chop that is on the
race course. It was great preparation for the world championships.
I’d like to thank my club RPAYC for supporting me with this event. I
really appreciate the help I get from my club.
Fletcher Walters