GBR Optimist Team lead the way at Flanders Regatta
by Alan Williams 12 Jul 2010 15:38 BST
3-7 July 2010
Optimists at the Flanders regatta © Alan Williams
A team of 18 GBR optimist sailors travelled to Belgium 3-7 July and received a warm reception for the annual Flanders regatta, which is held on the coastal waters off Nieuwpoort. 100 Optimists from 8 countries competed in the 5 day international event which was held in a range of testing conditions. There was a 3 day qualification series in 2 flights followed by gold and silver racing for the last 2 days.
The opening ceremony was in the newly finished town centre, complete with musical fountains and included free mussels and a selection of drinks.
Day 1 and 2 were held in up to 10 knots of wind from the WNW against a SW going ebb. Sailors had to make sure that they didn’t go too far left upwind or they would overstand the windward mark, the reaches and runs were challenging with sailors having to use transits to offset the effect of the tide and there was often compression on the runs which made for interesting leeward mark roundings.
Day 3 produced classic Flanders conditions with a steady 20 knots of wind and gusting upto 25knots, wind against tide which produced epic conditions, large waves and a big grin factor. On the nearby 420 course things weren’t going so well with stories of many GBR masts being snapped.
After 7 qualifying races, the GBR sailors went into the Gold fleet racing with Oliver Grogono having produced a consistent series discarding a 5th to lead, Arran Holman was 2nd and Scott Wallis 3rd. Matt Whitfield and Dan Whitely were also in the top 10.
The gold fleet racing was in generally much tougher and held in generally light winds of 4- 6 knots and strongish cross tide conditions so that the sailors and their coaches (Williams and Green) had to work out the tidal offsets. In the gold fleet racing, races 8 and 9 saw Wallis sail an impeccable day scoring 1,2, getting onto the favoured port tack immediately after the start. Holman and Grogs scored one good race each then proceeded to wrap themselves around the pin boat to score nightmares and hope that the following day there would be 2 more races to produce a gold fleet discard.
Going into the last day Scott was leading with Grogs counting a 28 and Holman someway further back counting a 46.
The final day dawned as every other, bright and sunny and there was a westerlyish wind at 4-6 knots. In race 10 Wallis scored a 3 and Holman a 2 to leave it theoretically possible for Holman to take the title if he won the last race. Grogono recovered from a difficult start to remain in the hunt for second. In the final race Holman and Grogono started poorly and pulled upto 15 and 16 respectively, and Wallis the newly crowned ‘Champion of Flanders’ cruised around the race course mid fleet.
Matt Whitfield finished 12th overall, Jamie Calder 17th after 2 great races on the last day and Dan Whitely slipped to a still creditable 18th. In the Silver fleet there were good performances from Lauren Miles in 13th, Followed closely by Morgan Dibb and James Clemetson in 17th and Benno Marstaller in 21st.
Thanks to the Belgians for putting on a great event, and to Willy Bombeak the Belgian met man who has entertained us for many years with his weather briefings who has now retired.
Overall Results:
1st Scott Wallis, 33pts
2nd Arran Holman, 45pts
3rd Oliver Grogono, 46pts