Twenty Optimist Sailors aged between ten and fourteen had a great opportunity to show their skills in the first series of BODA Trials for qualification for the “Worlds” in Argentina or the “Europeans” in Dublin later this year. Nine places in total are at stake.
Day one produced some new faces in the top positions with Alex Cutler, comfortably winning the first race and going on to have two seconds as well, he has only been sailing for 18 months his Coach Thomas Herbert-Evans added smiling!
Tayte Stephaniuk also from Royal Bermuda Yacht Club had an excellent day with a first and three third place finishes to end day in first place tied on equal points with Campbell Patton fresh from his successful Regatta in Spain as a member of the Winner Team.
Joe Arrowsmith and Mikey Wollman from Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club were up in the top seven for most of the day followed by Matilda Nicholls, the Top Girl of the Day and also no stranger to regattas. Attending Regattas makes for better prepared Sailors and BODA, the Optimist Association and Charity, are committed to assisting all sailors at all levels, where commitment is clear, in line with their published funding policy.
Day two and the wind stiffened, veering more to the West and once more the 16 or so knot winds in the Great Sound proved ideal. PRO Les Crane aboard Severngot the Sailors off to a prompt start and soon it was Matilda Nicholls 1st, Mikey Wollman 2nd and Campbell Patton 3rd as these sailors fought it out at the top.
Young Micah Thomas Raynor, who had finish 7th on day one then scored a 5th place and a 2nd, the best of his recent races to make him give all present, one of his best smiles!
Others not near the front also smiled and had fun as the three girls sailors Camille Chin-Gurret, Florence Nicholls, and Grace Reeves chatted their way happily around the different courses!
George Buckley, Adriana Penruddocke and Yannick Hillier were just behind the leaders and all three had some good races with Adriana, steady as always, moving up a place to 8th at the end of the afternoon but not before the rains began slowly to drop from the clouds, sucking out the wind and reducing the last race to a very shifty 6 knot affair in the closing stages.
Wollman again reacted best to the new conditions and came in first. Despite Thomas Raynor’s excellent 2nd, the top three places at the end of the two days Trials went to Mikey Wollman, Campbell Patton and Tayte Stefaniuk with Matilda Nicholls the Top Girl in 4th place as the Optimist Fleet scurried home before that Tank Rain took over.
Click Here to see the Full 2014 Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association Trials Part 1 Results
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