2017 Australian Optimist Regatta by David Taylor
2017 Australian Optimist Regatta by David Taylor
The 2017 Australian Optimist and Open Championships were held at Largs Bay Sailing Club in Adelaide, South Australia. Largs Bay is north of the Adelaide CBD and is a place where the sunsets are amazing. Many RPAYC sailors made their way to Adelaide mostly by road with their parents but some by air for the regatta held over 10 days in very hot Adelaide conditions. Most of the days saw the temperatures exceeding 40 degrees on the shore. From RPAYC we had the following numbers attend:-
• Green fleet – 2 boats
• Intermediate fleet – 6 boats
• Open fleet – 10 boats
This attendance gave RPAYC the second most attended club and third in the overall clubs Pointscore. First and second in attendance from clubs was by two of the local Adelaide sailing clubs, so congratulations to all the members who made the effort to attend a regatta so far from home. The regatta commenced on the 2nd January 2017 with the Teams Racing event for the Open Opti fleet. RPAYC had team members in the NSW YST team with Fletcher Walters and Daniel Links, the NSW All Girls Team with Bella Green, Olivia Williams and Bayley Taylor and an all RPAYC Team with Oli Gordon, Morgan Wells, Jono Tuite and Cooper Bellingham. The NSW YST came second in the teams racing whilst the All Girls Team and RPAYC Team were eliminated in the qualifying races. On the 4th January the Nationals fleet racing series commenced. Overall there were 261 Optimists in attendance over the three fleets making the regatta one of the biggest single class Nationals in Australia this year. There were many overseas sailors in attendance with the Malaysian Optimist Team attending as well as other sailors from Singapore, Germany, USA, New Zealand, Finland, Thailand and France. The racing was conducted on three separate courses for each fleet in waters where there were great white shark sightings on most days somewhere on the Adelaide coast! The wind was generally light to medium from either the south-west( sea breeze) or north( land breeze). Unfortunately the Open fleet did not get any races in on the final day due to a very shifty land breeze and only 10 races were sailed. Intermediate fleet got all their scheduled 12 races in and Green fleet had 13 races. The regatta was very well run and organised with the final presentation being held at the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia. The CYCSA was also where the parents left their ribs in the water for the duration of the event. The berthing fee for ribs included a $ 50 fuel voucher and a $ 20 drinks voucher, so it was quite common for the dads to meet in the air conditioned bar after racing for a quick frothy and a cool down! Results for the RPAYC Optimist sailors were:-
Green Fleet( 51 entries)
• 11th Lara Supple
• 24th Charlie Verity
Intermediate Fleet( 61 entries)
• 4th Elis Merrett
• 9th Oscar Verity
• 36th Isabella Holdsworth
• 49th Orlando Springer
• 50th Kye Williams
• 53rd Walter Tuite
Open Fleet( 151 entries)
• 8th( Gold fleet) Fletcher Walters( 3rd Australian)
• 17th( Gold fleet) Daniel Links( 10th Australian)
• 42nd( Gold fleet) Jono Tuite
• 47th( Gold fleet) Morgan wells
• 57th( Gold fleet) Bella Green
• 4th( Silver fleet) Olivia Williams
• 8th( Silver fleet) Oli Gordon
• 10th( Silver fleet) Logan Cortis
• 13th( Silver fleet) Cooper Bellingham
• 48th( Silver fleet) Bayley Taylor
From the above Open Fleet results the following sailors have made various Australian Optimist Team places:-
• Fletcher Walters – Optimist Worlds Team
• Daniel Links – European Representative Team
• Jono Tuite – Asian Representative Team
• Morgan Wells – Asian Representative Team
• Bella Green – Girls Representative Team
• Olivia Williams – Development Squad Team
Acceptances for the Australian Teams are still being finalised so some of our sailors that narrowly missed out on places may still make a team. Next year the Optimist Nationals will be held in Queensland at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Hopefully RPAYC can have as equal success as this year at the next regatta.