Scottish Optimist Travellers at East Lothian Yacht Club
by Alastair Coombs 5 Jun 2018 09:31 BST
2-3 June 2018
Scottish Optimist Travellers at North Berwick © Richard Coombs
Last weekend (2nd/3rd June) saw the final Optimist traveller in the 2017/18 Scottish traveller series at East Lothian Yacht Club in North Berwick. A total of 18 Optimists assembled from all over Scotland and took part in the racing which was part of the ELYC summer regatta.
Saturday morning started misty and still and even by the time of the briefing at 11:30 there was still not enough wind to launch, however soon after the wind filled in from the East and the sun broke through the Haar so we launched in glorious sunshine.
In the first two races conditions were still very light however Alex Cogan Sivarajin managed to eek out a little more boat speed than anyone else and ended up winning both races. Second places went to Alastair Coombs and Rory Gifford. The rest of the fleet were well spread out with some of the fleet being caught out by the tide and patches with little wind.
Race 3 started off in promising winds but this quickly dropped to almost nothing Rory won the race and his brother James came in second. By the time the rest of the fleet had crossed the line the wind was almost non existent and we were all towed in to shore.
Sunday dawned windless as forecasted and after a postponement we launched at about midday. Eventually we started a race which was subsequently abandoned halfway up the first beat which had taken us over half an hour. Conditions didn't improve and the committee quickly decided to abandon all racing for the rest of the day.
When the results were calculated Rory's consistency won through and put him in first place for the regatta. Second place went to Alex Cogan Sivarajin and third Alastair Coombs. First girl went to Anna Miller who was 9th overall.
This event was also the last event in the 2017/2018 Scottish Traveller Series sponsored by Sailingfast.
Once the results were calculated for the series the winner overall was Alastair Coombs, closely followed by Daniel Scott in 2nd and Rory Gifford in 3rd place. First Girl was Tess Crooks.
Thanks to East Lothian Sailing Club for hosting a great weekend and the traveller series sponsor Sailingfast for providing us with some great prizes. The Optimist fleet are now looking forward to heading down to Pwllheli in the summer for a week of racing at the Optimist Nationals.
Full Results from this weekend can be found at www.elyc.org.uk/resources/Documents/Optimist.htm and for the traveller series www.scottishtravellers.org.uk/results/20172018-2