Klaus Lorenz
Klaus Lorenz attended the 2009 NSW OAMPS Youth Week
was a great regatta for all competitors. Thanks to all the volunteers and officials who helped to run the regatta and make it as enjoyable as possible.
The event was located at Georges River 16s Sailing Club on Georges River. It went from Saturday 3rd October to Monday 5th October. The regatta was constituted for 3 days of racing with 7 races. Saturday was scheduled for 2 races, Sunday for 3 and Monday for 2.
There was quite a competitive junior fleet in the regatta with Dylan Passmore the NSW Champion and numerous other Optimist sailors. It was set to be a great regatta! Haha.
My Mum and Dad were hiring a boat for the regatta from the OZI OPTI supplier, Steven Bond. It turned out to be a brand new boat with brand new parts so thanks to Bondy. My parents had bought me a brand new sail for the competition and it was arriving on the day, so naturally the sail-maker was late delivering it. When he arrived I was so nervous I was pretty much s***ing myself. He was very helpful by showing me how to tune it properly and it turned out to be a totally awesome and kick-ass sail so thanks to Rob Brewer!
The first day was really cold and windy. I looked it up on the internet before I left the house and it was forecasted for 20-25 knots. However, when I stepped out of the car it looked a lot more than that! It was a southwesterly so it was cold and felt a lot windier than it actually was.
The racing area was right off the sailing club so I headed out 15 min before my start with my brand new boat and brand new sail with a lot of confidence. The river we were sailing on happened to have quite a bit of current running through it (by quite a bit, I mean about 20 knots!) so the start was pretty hectic.
I managed to have a crappy start yet again but fought my way up to first by the top mark. I then led for the rest of the race and finished in first. I basically did the same for the second race. The race committee decided to do another race as the wind was patchy for the next day. On the second race I was coming second for the whole race until I overtook Jack Falsenthal on the last leg to finish first again. Woooooo!
On the second day, I arrived to the yacht club and looked at the results to see 3 DNCs next to my name. Oh S***! Apparently there was some screw-up at registration with my sail number so I quickly sorted that one out by putting in a written application. This gave me back my 3 firsts.
There was no wind. The race committee sent us out anyway so we dutifully sailed out to the start boat. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the current. In about 2 min I had drifted about 100 m down from the start boat and it took me 10 min to paddle back. Let’s just say we got no racing in that day.
The next day was a little bit more wind. We managed to get 2 races in the afternoon. I finished with a 5th and an OCS because the current was roaring through the start line.
I finished in first place by 5 points. Brodie Crossman got 2nd and Jack Falsenthal got 3rd. Once again, thanks go to the race committee and the organizers of the event.
Special thanks to the Bloomfield family for letting me stay with them for the regatta and looking after me.
Extra special thankyous to my Mum and Dad for supporting me with my sailing and everything else the do for me and my sister Eva.