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IOCA South East Optimist Travellers Series at Weir Wood Sailing Club

by Brett Lewis 17 May 2019 11:12 BST 12 May 2019

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.

Main Fleet Results:

PosForenameSurnameSail NoR1R2R3R4R5Pts
1CharlieGatehouseGBR 6470131114
2JemimaDayGBR 5881222248
3NoaMoskovitchGBR 57583145210
4LeoYatesGBR 650854311517
5MillieLewisGBR 654645103820
6AlexYeatesGBP 57406957624
7BeaWestGBR 63569874726
8LuciePriorGBR 627871098327
9SamBowringGBR 569487610930
10HenryLewisGBR 64661212861036
11Edward Smith GBR 61891161391339
12WilliamBourneGBR 5988101112121144

Regatta Fleet Results:

PositionForenameSurnameSail NoR1R2R3R4R5Pts
1JosephWimporyGBR 6259128238
2EwanHamiltonGBR 6231332419
3ThomasBeckGBR 56414511410
4ZaraGatehouseGBR 62042633210
5MaiaBjork‑BakerGBR 49126155516
6Harry Whelan GBR 52868448924
7ElenaBeckGBR 59407776727
8TomGarroodGBR 48055897828
9TobyVincent64799109633
10JakeBriggsGBR 590210106101036

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