The Alfred's News August/September Edition 2017 Alfreds News August 2017 | Page 6

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Centreboard News
Bella Green, Optimist, Open BiC and Elliot 7 Female Youth Sailor
I would first like to thank RPAYC for providing facilities that have created an environment for Bella to flourish as a sailor. Little
did we know back in 2010 when Bella participated in her first Tackers lesson at the club, that sailing and RPAYC would become
such an integral part of her life and her personal development. Much less did we think she would have a chance to represent
Australia.
In the 2017 Summer season, Bella was at the club for training or
racing 5 days per week, 2 days with her school and 3 with her
coach or racing on Sundays when there are not away events in
her Optimist.
Bella is also an active volunteer at RPAYC having donated
(completely unpaid) over 350 hours of her time to assisting in
the coaching of juniors over the past several years.
In November 2016 Bella stepped back into a boat for the first
time in 5 months to compete in the 2016 FORWARD SAILING
NSW O’PEN BIC CUP.
The O'PEN BIC is an internationally recognised sailing boat class. There are 7000 boats of this type, sailed in 15 different
countries around the world. It is not a boat that she is intimately familiar with, as her regular class of boat is the international
Optimist Dinghy, but she performed very well regardless in the boat. At this event, held out of Manly Yacht club, there were
66 competitors, including 6 from New Zealand, and 13 interstate competitors. Bella finished as the first NSW Girl, and 10th
overall.
Again in November 2016 Bella competed in The Harken
International Youth Match Racing Championships. Although
Bella's team finished last, as the youngest and first time
competitors, it was a wonderful experience for them. I believe
she would currently be the youngest ever competitor in this
event.
In December 2016, Bella finished school a couple of days early,
to travel straight to Melbourne where she competed in the
"The Sailing World Cup" - Melbourne 2016, in the St Kilda
Sailing Precinct. This was the final to the 2016 Sailing World Cup
Series that started in Melbourne in December 2015. Bella
qualified through to the Gold Fleet in this event, and came
away from the event as 6th placed girl.
She then travelled back to Sydney to compete at Sail Sydney in Woollahra. There were 92 boats in her class competing, and
Bella was again in the top fleet, and finished as the 3rd placed girl.
In January 2017 straight after Christmas, Bella travelled to Adelaide, for the Australian Open and International Optimist
Championships at Largs Bay Sailing Club in. There were 263 Opti's competing at this event, including 33 sailors from 8
countries including Germany, France, Singapore, USA, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Finland. This was the largest overseas
contingent ever at this event. Sailors at nationals compete to sail the final races in gold fleet, and Bella again qualified through
to the gold fleet final, and was the third placed girl for the whole event, but one disappointing race on the final racing day of
the regatta saw her slip to 5th place girl, (2nd placed NSW Girl).