2018 Optimist Nacional

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I The Australian Optimist class National Championships is an event the Opti Community looks forward to each year, with families, friends, coaches and officicials from interstate and overseas coming together to enjoy their love of the sport and to catch up & relax over the week of the event.

Post Christmas, families and Opti’s are packed, shipped and driven long distances across Australia to gather at the biggest single class regatta of the year. The event programme allows those new to Opti sailing to learn more about racing whilst having some fun in the Green Fleet, Intermediate sailors fine tune their racing skills; and Open sailors compete to be their best and qualify for places on the representative Australian Optimist Sailing Teams & Development Squads.

The 1000+ community this annual event forms creates a vibrant and exciting atmosphere around the location - the 2018 Gill OptiAUS Championships was hosted this year at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron between 3-10 January. 261 sailors competed over 3 fleets – kicking off the event with 24 teams vying for the 2018 Teams Racing Championship title followed by 5 days of racing.

Regattas the size of this event do not happen without considerable effort by volunteers – special thanks to all the race committee, on water judges, measurers, parents and the RQYS members who donated their time to ensure that the sailors were provided with a world class regatta. The event was a huge success, and a big thank you to our sponsors Gill Australia for continuing to support the Opti class, XSP for shipping charter boats & chandlery and RQYS for hosting such a great event.

There were plenty of smiling faces and friendships made across the boat park and some close racing on the waters of Moreton Bay. Congratulations to our Overall & divisional winners and a special thank you to the 14 International sailors who travelled from 8 countries that made the effort to come to the Australian Nationals. We invite you to return to compete in this event in Tasmania for the 2019 Gill OptiAUS Championships at Sandy Bay Sailing Club in Hobart.

Teams Racing – was once again a hotly contested event. The sailors all look forward to this event that preceeds the main regatta racing. 24 teams entered and it came down to the last race of the finals with South Australia 1 once again up against New South Wales 1. In a repeat of the 2017 Teams Championship, SA1 came back from 1 down ending up finishing 2/1. South Australia for the 2nd year in a row the Teams Racing Champions. Congratulations to : Jonas Barrett, Alexi Wigglesworth, Quinn Auricht, Ben Hinks and Ruby Pike.

Green Fleet With 51 entries there was plenty of fun being had sailing on a shortened course format. It was great to see these little guys and girls sailing and having fun, smiles all round. Well done to the RQYS Green fleet supporting coaches and parents in making this a fun regatta for our Green fleet VIP’s.

Congratulations to : 1st – Jack Scharf (QLD), 2nd – Sara Bruce (NSW), 3rd – Harry Hogan (QLD). 1st Female – Sara Bruce (QLD).

IntermediateFleet, 75 entries with close racing across the 5 days. With all sailors in one start, the start line congestion looked at times like co-ordinated chaos, but with a minute to go all sailors would find their spot and the close racing would commence. The standout leader in the Intermediate Fleet was Reece Hartnett from New South Wales, with all other positions involving tight competition. Good to see some rookie sailors achieving top 3 places in some races in only their 1st or 2nd regatta. Congratulations to : 1st – Reece Harnett (NSW), 2nd – William Troop (NSW), 3RD – Cameron Scade (NSW) 1ST female – Anneke Meyer (NSW) Open fleet This fleet had 135 competitors resulting in the fleet being divided into two divisions for both qualifying and finals. The quality of the Open Fleet racing was outstanding throughout the 5 days of the regatta with close and exciting racing at the front of the fleet.

A great display of consistency for Fletcher Walters, Daniel Links and Quinn Auricht to staying in the top 3 positions for the entire regatta. The final podium positions came down to the last race and last couple of meters with Daniel Links winning both races on the final day, Fletcher Walters was able to secure second place in the final race of the regatta allowing him to win the 2018 Gill OptiAUS Championships by one point.

Overall winners & Australian Championship 1st – Fletcher Walters (NSW) 2ND – Daniel Links (NSW) 3rd – Quinn Auricht (SA) 1st Australian Female – Mia Lovelady (WA) Open Championship – Female podium 1st – Samara Walshe (USA) 2nd – Sophie Zimmermann (PER) 3rd – Mia Lovelady (WA) Best 10yrs & under : 1st – Joel Beashel (NSW), 2ND - Riley Cantrell (VIC), 3RD Ava Wilson (SA) Best 11yrs & under : 1st – Austin Higgins (SA), 2nd -Phillip Cripsey (VIC), Aiden Simmons (VIC) Best 12yrs & under : 1st – Aaron Teo (WA), 2ND - Mason Mahoney (VIC), 3RD James Ferguson (WA) Most improved – Austin Cross (QLD) with overall improvement of 103 places from 2017 event.

Full results:

https://optimist.org.au/results

Having the priveledge to host our second Optimist Australian Championships was a special honour for our club. Our last time hosting, in 2012 attracted just over 100 boats, so to see that number increase to over 250 over the last 5 years is amazing and promising for our sport.

Just as some of the names from that regatta have gone on to win World Championships, represent their country, and most importantly become good role models for this generation, so we know that sailors from this event will be names to remember and admire.

We hope they remember their visit with the fondness and memories of fun that we will.

Brady Lowe from RQYS

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