IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone Yacht Club

Main fleet (by Jane Sanders)

The weekend of 14-15th October saw IOCA UK hosted by the Optimist fleet at Parkstone YC for the IOCA UK End of Season Championship in conjunction with the Parkstone YC Optimist Open meeting. The friendly Parkstone fleet provided their customary warm welcome to their fabulous clubhouse and facilities and it was great to see so many local sailors taking their first steps into national level competition.

Saturday dawned deceptively sunny but once you got out on the water it became evident that the Indian summer we had been enjoying was definitely over, and it was actually quite chilly on the water. Bryan Drake and his committee boat team had a big challenge laying the course with some enormous windshifts, and also had to deal with some gusts and rain coming down the course in the middle of the day.

It was certainly a challenging race course. Bryan and his team were responsible for a 95 boat strong Main Fleet and 21 boats in Intermediate Fleet, while local parent Roger Hakes took the 35 strong Regatta Fleet, aided by Imogen Kemp, who provided tips and support to the younger and less experienced Regatta Fleet sailors, many of whom were participating in their first major championships.

IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone - photo © Fee Drummond

Main Fleet Race 1 got off cleanly (in a fairly unusual precedent), and the fun began! Normal service was resumed in Race 2, where a healthy smattering of black flags was followed by several general recalls, and some course resetting. Race 3 was sailed in the strongest conditions of the day and it is testamount to the quality of the fleet that there were different race winners in each race. Thomas Knight (Chichester YC) nailed the shifts in the first race and held a comfortable lead to the finish. Race 2 was won by Hugo Fletcher (Royal Southern YC) and race 3 by first time race winner Alex Saunders (Warsash SC/ Royal Southern YC).

Intermediate Fleet consisted mostly of sailors cutting their teeth on the "big course" for the first time and it was great to see so many sailors stepping up from Regatta Fleet after the Nationals and the Late Summers. Again, wins were shared across 3 sailors, with William Percy taking the first win, Stefano Marangio (Burghfield SC) taking the second race and Max Ellis-Asquith (Warsash SC) taking the third. Further down the fleet there was some extremely plucky racing on what for these sailors was a long course, and a long day so we are really proud of everyone's fantastic sailing!

There were some tired sailors on Saturday evening, but not too tired for pizza and a disco, hosted by Main Fleet's resident DJ, Jack Ward (HISC/ Warsash SC). Everyone had enough energy left to get on the dance floor and have a great evening while the parents attended the IOCA UK AGM upstairs.

IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone - photo © Fee Drummond

Sunday dawned much lighter, still very shifty but with some significant holes in the breeze to contend with to keep everyone on their toes. Again, the Main Fleet race winners were 3 different sailors with Leo Gosling (RLymYC) taking Race 4 by coming up the right hand side of the course. The wind improved slightly for the second race of the day, with Rachel Elms (HISC) taking one for the ladies with a victory in Race 5. By Race 6, the Committee Boat again had a very tricky time, with some enormous shifts causing several abandonments. There were a couple of resets (and a lot of snakes and ladders on the racecourse), but Patrick di Salle (Gurnard SC) held his nerve to take the final victory of the weekend.

Intermediate fleet sailed slightly shorter races on Sunday, which got them in the mix with Main Fleet at the finish (and possibly put years on the lives of our finish boat team), led by Bob Jennings, who kindly provided his boat for the weekend. Stefano Marangio tightened his grip on the Intermediate Fleet title with some very consistent sailing at the top of the fleet, winning Race 4, and sharing a victory in Race 5 with Eleanor Hughes (Cardiff Bay YC). William Percy took the final victory of the weekend to round off some fantastic sailing on a big course by our younger sailors. A special mention to those sailors who had stepped up to Main Fleet and Intermediate Fleet for the first time - it was really tricky conditions and you all did a fantastic job. Overall Main Fleet winners were Hugo Fletcher in 1st, Leo Gosling in 2nd and Jonny Rogers (RLymYC) in 3rd. Nia Byrne (HISC) was first girl in 4th place. In Intermediate Fleet, Stefano Marangio took the win, with William Percy 2nd and Max Ellis-Asquith 3rd. First intermediate fleet girl was Zoe Green (Netley SC/ RLymYC).

Thank you to all at Parkstone YC, including our fantastic club representative Kate Davis, who worked tirelessly to provide a warm welcome and a great weekend! Impeccable organisation as ever. Thanks to our Race Officers Bryan Drake and Roger Hakes, it was a really tough weekend to be in charge on the race course, and to our mark laying teams whose arms are undoubtedly longer than they were on Friday. Thanks to all the non-parent volunteers and parent volunteers not already mentioned above for making this happen, including Sally Jeanes and Ruth Pearson on the committee boat, Dave Reed on the pin boat and our jury volunteers Sian Reynolds, Andy Hamilton, David Law and Steve Randle.

Last but not least, we'd like to thank our wonderful class sponsors Gill and Xtremity who support the Optimist Class - we really appreciate all you do for us!

IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone - photo © Fee Drummond

Regatta Fleet (by Roger Hakes)

33 enthusiastic Regatta Fleet sailors ventured to Parkstone for the IOCA End of Seasons, with a strong visitor turn-out to bolster ten enthusiastic entrants from the home club. After the warm weather of recent weeks the temperature had dropped and sailors needed to dig out their winter gear for the first time, but although it was a bit chilly to start the bright sunshine soon warmed things up. The race team was led by Roger Hakes who set an inner loop carentec course just a short sail from the club between the Parkstone Platform and Baiter.

On Saturday conditions were tricky due to the shifty north westerly wind gusting up to 20 knots, combined with a strengthening ebbing tide during the afternoon. The sailors showed impressive sailing skills to master the conditions, with those who found it more challenging being supported by coach Imogen Kemp. Those who could be on the line at the start and were then able to tack off into port to find shallower water out of the adverse tide were rewarded. Three 20 minute races were held before lunch and the sailors came ashore to refuel before completing another two races in the afternoon.

On Sunday conditions were lighter with a northerly 5 to 10 knots, but fortunately less tide as well. With the shiftier conditions some of the sailors who had not been near the front the day before had their moment in the spotlight. The sailors enjoyed another five races with a break for lunch. By the afternoon it was wonderful to see all of the sailors chattering away to each other on the race course having got to know each other and made new friendships.

At the end of the weekend Theo Fox from Emsworth SC was the worthy winner with seven podium finishes in ten races. Charlotte Davis from Parkstone YC had a strong second day to finish runner up overall and first girl.

The sportsmanship award went to Elsie Hutchinson who said thank you to the race committee with a big smile after every race.

IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone - photo © Fee Drummond

Main Fleet Results:

Intermediate Fleet Results:

Regatta Fleet Results:

IOCA UK End of Season Championship and Optimist open meeting at Parkstone - photo © Fee Drummond