IOCA South East Optimist Travellers Series at Weir Wood Sailing Club

The first event of the new 2019 IOCA SE Travellers series was held at Weir Wood on Sunday May 12th. It first Optimist Open at WWSC in three years and the first Travellers series in the IOCA SE region. It is part of a series of events to increase Optimist participation in the South East region.

The forecast for a large high over all of the UK for that Sunday didn't look promising but 22 sailors enjoyed almost summer sailing conditions.

Race officer Peter Clifton set a Carantec course at the top of the reservoir where the breeze looked the most stable. The 12 main fleet sailors were sent on the outer loop while the 10 regatta sailors sent course was set as the same course but without the second beat and run.

For the most part the light 5 knot North Easterly to breeze held but the dark patches in the clouds overhead indicated that there would be stronger patches of pressure and gains to be made for the sailors who spotted them first.

With a few exceptions the Main fleet was largely made up of this years crop of RYA Zone Squad sailors and the standard of sailing was very high. Charlie Gatehouse from Bewl made the best of the conditions with a first and a third in the morning, followed with three bullets in the afternoon.

Second overall and with some impressive downwind speed was Jemima Day from Papercourt SC with an equally consistent four seconds and a fourth. Noa Moskovitch from Papercourt was the only other sailor to take a race win other but a few inconsistent results in the afternoon put her down to third.

For most of the Regatta Sailors it was their first ever event, the tricky conditions conditions provided four different race winners, In the Joseph Wimpory just took the regatta win with 1 point over Ewan Hamilton. The Regatta fleet was coached by Weir Wood youth coach Glen Chandler.

The event attracted sailors from host club Weir Wood SC, Chipstead SC, PaperCourt SC, Newhaven and Seaford SC and Medway YC. The IOCA SE Series is kindly supported by Devoti Sailing and D-Zero. Dave Valentine was on hand to present the trophies and prizes.

Thank you to Weir Wood SC for hosting the inaugural IOCA SE Travellers event. The next events in the series are Chipstead SC July 6th, Medway YC July 14th and Papercourt SC Sept 14th.

IOCA South East Optimist Travellers Series at Weir Wood - photo © Steve Day

Main Fleet Results:

Regatta Fleet Results: