Optimist European Team Racing Championships at Lago di Ledro, Italy

The British team at the Optimist European Team Racing Championships 2014 © William Burdall

The British team at the Optimist European Team Racing Championships 2014 © William Burdall

With the top 16 countries from the Optimist European Championships 2013 in Hungary, competing at Lago di Ledro in northern Italy to take home the gold medal, the task was never going to be easy for the four British youngsters.

The GBR team comprised Haydn Sewell, Julia Mellers, Oliver Hill and Sophie Holloway who had attended the IODA European Championships in Dun Laoghaire and were eligible to sail next season.

Ledro is known for its light airs and warm weather, so with clouds low in the valley and the sun nowhere to be seen a long opening ceremony began; the sailors then retired to contemplate the days ahead.

Day one: torrential rain and zero wind – so into a four-hour card marathon. The clouds cleared, blue sky appeared and it was time for racing! Half of the sailors hopped into their boats; GBR with the rest watched, waited and learnt. An hour later, the GBR team sprung into action only to suffer defeats at the hands of FRA, CRO and NED. After rounding the windward mark in a 1, 6, 7, 8 combination in the final race against BEL, Haydn the youngest sailor (12 years old) saved the race by compressing the fleet, impressing the umpires and allowing GBR to secure a win.

Day two: sun and wind in the morning meant a long day on the water! First match against the reigning champions ESP; GBR secured a win with their best display of team racing yet! On a high from the previous result, GBR beat GER in a 1, 2, 3 combination, suffering a defeat by SWE with a superb start in the final match of the box. A clean sweep against ISR lifted spirits only to be thwarted by POL on the finish line in the last few tacks. Next a loss to ITA concentrated the young sailors minds', resulting in consecutive 1,2,3 finishes for GBR against IRE and RUS. GBR succumbed to the eventual champions TUR with a 1,2,3,4 against. GBR then rallied to end with wins against NOR and SLO.

Day three: GBR in gold fleet guaranteed an eighth place, racing commenced. First match against (the to be champions) TUR was close, being defeated right on the finish line! Match two with RUS yielded a 1, 2, 3 win for GBR. Final match against ITA was pure psychology. At the final mark GBR almost had the winning combination; the wind dropped GBR held nerve, ITA didn't picking up penalty turns to be completed in 2kts of breeze ensuring a GBR win.

Final day: in very light winds POL one of the top 3 teams took a 1, 2, 3 against GBR. GBR rallied heading off a tough SWE race forcing some penalties to win on the last beat. Having beaten ESP previously high spirits were dashed as they delivered a faultless start and first beat. With light winds GBR could not close downwind.

In the final race of the event against CRO, GBR trailed into mark 1 but with a great leg 3 closed them down and pilling on the pressure. On the final leg there were penalties but GBR had not done quite enough.

It proved to be the toughest round of races at the event for GBR competing against the eventual silver and bronze medalists! GBR improved from a guaranteed 8th to 5th, the second best result ever for GBR at this event.

Overall Results:

1 TUR
2 ESP
3 POL
4 CRO
5 GBR
6 RUS
7 ITA
8 SWE
9 GER
10 FRA
11 IRL
12 BEL
13 NED
14 SLO
15 NOR
16 ISR