IOCA North East Optimist Open Meeting at Scaling Dam Sailing Club
by Oscar Shilling 24 Jun 2016 20:31 BST
18-19 June 2016
IOCA North East Optimist Open Meeting at Scaling Dam © David Shilling
Sponsored by Ovington Boats and Sevcon
Optimists from all over the North East gathered at Scaling Dam Sailing Club for a chance to win the IOCA North East Area Championship and the Silver Plate. Competitors came from as far as the Scottish Borders and Sheffield to take part in a very competitive series of six races.
Saturday's racing in light conditions saw Oscar Shilling winning the 1st race, Abi Cowely winning the 2nd race, Ed Coady won the 3rd and Oscar finished the day with a win and the overnight lead. Sebastian Shilling sailed well with a second and a third in 2 races. George Stewart also doing well, getting a 3rd place in the 4th race and tying for 6th place with Charlie Fensom in race 3. Patrick Beukenholdt having to deal with gear failure in 2 of the races, was 6th overall on the first night. Thomas Oldrini sporting his new sail found it may take some getting used to.
The regatta fleet however saw Peter Cowely take 4 straight bullets and was safe in the knowledge he'd take the trophy home the following day. This left Poppy Nixey-Godfrey and Sophie Hatch fighting for 2nd place, they were only separated in race 3 by Hamish Warnock who took 3rd and Erin Young in 4th which was their best results. Erin Tinkler worked hard to get into some good positions on the race course and best result was a 5th.
After sailing had finished, Scaling Dam organised a clay oven pizza van and a circus skills instruction session at which adults and children enjoyed trying fun activities such as stilt walking, unicycles, diablos and juggling various objects on the lawn outside of the club. The pizzas were the best pizzas in the world!
The next day's light wind took its time to fill in, however the race officer Andy young had the situation all under control and organised 2 great back to back races moving the course slightly in between to accommodate the backing easterly breeze.
In the first race Liam Boyce and Nicky Jackson-Ayre both found a lifting band of wind which catapulted them through the fleet with Nicky coming 4th, Liam got caught up in traffic downwind but managed to finish that race in 8th. Ed and Oscar traded places at the front of the fleet with Oscar winning the race to seal the series title. On the last race of the day Oscar led up to the last windward mark until Ed squeezed past and the pair finish with a tight tacking duel that Ed won to take the last race of the day and finish 2nd overall. Abi and Sebastian finished with equal points but with Abi having a 1st in her scores she took overall 3rd place on count back.
No change at the front of the Regatta fleet with Pete taking another 2 wins although the girls did get ahead of him for a short while in one race but he stuck in and worked his way back in the lead.
Tying on points Sophie took 2nd and Poppy 3rd on count back as Sophie had the better result in the last race, both of them at their first ever open event.
There was also a team prize for the best scores from a club which was won by Kielder (Pete with a 1st and Poppy and Abi with 3rd places).
A brilliant weekend away enjoying the camping, great club hospitality and competitors falling asleep in the back of cars on their way home!