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Optimists during the RYA Regional Junior Championships at Helensburgh Sailing Club

by Rory Gifford 2 Oct 2018 20:20 BST 29-30 September 2018
James Gifford wins the Helensburgh Optimist Open © Jo Gifford

The RYA Regional Junior Championship was an amazing event at Helensburgh. It was quite a windy event with spitting rain (that was the best bit).

On Saturday Alex was very consistent with James (Gifford) leading at the end of the day with 2 bullets and a 3rd, Alex was in second with three seconds. I was third with a first in the first race but then a third and a fourth.

On the second day it was event windier gusting up to 32 knots (that was the worst bit) we only got one race in after the Race Committee stopped morning racing. James won again, and therefore won the event. Alex went skiing - no really! Ben Homer managed to come second despite being really small. I was leading at the first mark but then my race went a bit wrong and I finished fourth. Anna had another third and so ended up fourth and top girl.

The weekend was also the third of the Scottish Traveller series sponsored by Sailingfast so there were good prizes too! As you can probably tell I ended up third and had to write this report.

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