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 .