Success for young Itchenor SC member in Vigo, Spain

Success for young Itchenor SC member at the Trofeo Cuitat de Vigo in Spain © Chou Pesqueira

Itchenor Sailing Club member Arthur Fry recently won the prestigious Trofeo Cuitat de Vigo in his Optimist. This is one of 4 high ranking events held in Spain each winter, for Optimists, Lasers and 420s. These events are attended by the top sailors from across Europe, as they offer more or less guaranteed wind and warmer temperatures and give sailors who are aiming for their countries' Euros and Worlds teams a chance to benchmark themselves against each other as the Winter progresses. This was the first event of the 4 for 2014/15; Arthur is off to Palma, Majorca for the 2nd event in early December and then to Torrevieja in January and Palamos in February.

Arthur and his two brothers have been ISC members mainly sailing Mirrors. Over the years, Arthur has stood in as helm and crew for various members of the Taylor family at Itchenor Fortnight, one year managing to sail in Mirrors 1, 2 and 3. In 2012 he won Mirrors 2 with James Taylor. However, his main boat has always been the Optimist, which he started to sail at the age of 7. He started competing nationally at the age of 11, making his way into the RYA Optimist National Squad for the past two years.

He has had a busy year on the international and national circuit. At Easter he was selected as a member of a GB team to attend the Braassememeer Easter Regatta in Holland, an invitation only event for top European sailors, where he came 18th our of 210 sailors. In July he was a member of an 8 strong GB team at the French Nationals, where he came 13th out of 200+ boats in a very strong international fleet. As well as representing GB, Arthur has competed at a number of other European events, including the Topsport Regatta in Flanders (15th out of 110 European and US sailors), the Swiss Nationals (22nd out of 200, with many Worlds Team sailors tuning up for the Worlds a month or so later) and the Belgian Nationals, where he gained the bronze medal and sailed the event for Bart's Bash. His next big international adventure (after Palma) is the Australian Nationals being held in Freemantle, Western Australia in January 2015.

Back home he won the Warsash and Bosham Optimist Opens, was 2nd at the Chichester Optimist Open and 3rd at the Hayling Island Optimist Open, giving him the overall RYA Southern Traveller's Championship for 2014.

Competing at this level requires a considerable amount of training and, in addition to the National Squad training, Arthur is out on the water most weekends with a small group of Optimist sailors, sailing out of Itchenor or Lymington, and also at Weymouth when the schedule allows. His coach is a Belgian ex-worlds Laser & 420 champion who now specialises in Optimist coaching. Last Winter he also attended 3 racing camps in Lanzarote with one of the world's top Optimist coaches from Argentina and in May this year he was one of 8 National Squad sailors to be selected to attend invitational training with the US National Team in Annapolis, where he was coached by US and other world class coaches.

Next year will be his last in Optimist and he hopes to make either the Worlds or European teams at the Selections event in May. After that he plans to move onto the Laser 4.7.