Optimist US National Championships at Pensacola - Day 3
by Talbot Wilson 26 Jul 2015 13:43 BST
23-26 July 2015
Sailors had another long wait before getting races started on Day 3, but it was worth it. By getting the fifth race for each of the split #3 Divisions — pink, purple and yellow — all sailors will now be able to drop one race from the qualifying round. That's what many sailors were working for because they had carried a black flag penalty with 94 points or other penalties in their 4-race total.
After finishing Qualifying Race Five, Principal Race Officer (PRO), Ron Hopkins, quickly got racing started again for Flight Six to give the sailors one more score to "let the cream rise to the top," as he explained it.
The top three after the combined unofficial, preliminary Qualifying results with six flights finished saw Luke Arnone of Mantoloking Yacht Club CERT in first at 2-2-1-1-(drop 7)-2 and 8 points. Emma Cowles, Larchmont YC LISOT was second with (drop 20\ZFP)-1-1-5-2-1 and Tayte Stefaniuk of Bermuda's Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club LOOT goes on in third place with scores of 1-1-2-3- (drop 41)-7 and 14 points.
The top 93 (33%) of the sailors move into the Gold Division of the medal round. The other sailors will be equally divided between Silver 'A' sand Silver 'B'.
Complete updated preliminary results, subject to protests and penalty adjustments are on www.usoda.org and www.usoda2015nationals.com
Nineteen sailors requested redress, or compensation, for the good scores they had in those races and wanted the PRO to keep the Pink and Purple results and just sail Yellow on Thursday morning. A public Redress hearing was required and held by Chief Judge Mike Posey. The young sailors posed their cases before all the competitors. The PRO's decision was upheld by the jury and all races of Set Five were re-sailed on Saturday.