The Asian Optimist Championships were held in Pattaya, Thailand. There were 110 sailors representing 21 countries in the competition, and I was over there with the rest of the Australian Team of Nia Jerwood, Sam Blackburn and Chris Charlewood,from WA, and James McLennan and Jack Graves from Victoria. Jack, James and I were flying in to Bangkok from Melbourne late on Tuesday night. Customs was really easy to get through so we pretty much got a taxi to Pattaya straight away. The taxi trip was really long and boring. The hotel we were staying at for the regatta was called Cosy Beach Hotel. Our taxi dropped us off at 2am and we checked into our rooms. I was bunking with James, but he didn’t want to sleep in the camp bed so I was in the room by myself.
The next morning I woke up at 7 o’clock Bangkok time, which is about 10:00 at Airlie. Chris came into my room and told me that the breakfast buffet was being served. After getting dressed and ready, we went downstairs to the dining room. The breakfast was a delicious buffet with fried rice, toasts, waffles, pikelets and cereal. Afterwards we went up into our rooms and just talked until Diego called us down to the lobby. We then walked 700m to the sailing club to check the charter boats we were using and rig them up. At 11:00 we went out on the water to get used to the difficult conditions and trained for 2 hours. Diego then decided to do training races with the Singapore team until 3:30. After a hard day of getting used to the choppy conditions we headed back to the hotel. We talked a bit and then had dinner and dessert. Chris was sleeping in my room for the rest of the regatta so we got sorted and then fell asleep at about 10:00.
The next day was pretty similar except we went down to the club a bit later, at 10:00. Before we left, James and I stocked up on Gatorades. The training we did was pretty much the same except at the end we did a practice race with all the other teams. In the practice races we weren’t doing that well against the other teams, and Diego was telling us why with his 8:00 debriefs.
On Friday we woke up a bit later and took it easy. We went down to the club at about 10:00 again but there was no wind so we didn’t rig up. We played table-tennis with Diego for ages until the wind just started to fill in. All the team coaches organised a practise race for everyone so we didn’t actually go training. In the first race I got 3rd but in the second one the wind dropped out again so we just went in. Chris and I stayed up pretty late that night talking, as we had a rest day before the actual regatta started.
On the rest day we didn’t do anything, just sat in our rooms talking. The other kids’ parents went out to the floating market and went elephant riding. We didn’t want to so we just stayed in the hotel. In the afternoon we went for a swim but we wound down early and went to sleep at 9:00.
We had an invitation race at 1:00 so we went down to the club at about 11:00. We rigged up and then played table-tennis until they raised the launching flag and we could go out. We did some rabbit starts with Diego before the race and then our sequence started and we went down to the line. I had a good start in the middle and tacked straight off onto port. I was coming about 5th but then the umpires pinged me for ooching. I did my 720 and sailed the rest of the race incident free, finishing about 20th. After that we just went back to the hotel and slept.
On the first day of the series, I woke up feeling a bit apprehensive. I went down to have breakfast with the team. We had a briefing with Diego and then went down to the sailing club. The first race started at 12:00, so we started rigging up at 10:00. We then went out on the water and tested the course. I was in the 2nd flight so I waited for the first start to go off and then I checked the line.
For the first race, I started at the pin with Nia and we both got owned. We got forced out to the right and made up heaps but then the wind went way left and we got cleaned up. I didn’t gain anything on the reach or downwind, but because the wind went so far left the last upwind turned into a reach. I gained lots of positions to finish 16th. I was pretty happy with that result at that time.
I was in the 2nd start for the next race as well. I started really well in the middle of the line and was doing really well. I then screwed up at the top mark and couldn’t get around it because of the current. I finally got around it and by going high on the reach, gained a lot of places. On the last upwind, I went way left with Nia and we caught up more than 12 places because of better wind. I finished 7th and she got 5th.
It was a really good day to start off the regatta and I was pretty pleased to be coming 18th overall. Both Chris and I slept really well that night.
Waking up on the second day of racing, I was feeling really confident to do well. We had a briefing and then went down to the club at 10:00. I rigged my boat at 10:15 and got dressed. I then played ping-pong until Diego called a briefing and we went out.
I first start I had was so good and I sailed left on the up wind. I rounded the top mark 10th and kept that place until the gate. I sailed left again and did really well to finish 7th.
The second race of that day was really good again. I got a sick start in the middle ahead of the line sag and sailed an awesome race to finish in 4th place.
The last race of that day was good again. I started in the middle and banged left really hard and rounded the top mark 5th. I held that position all the way down the reach and run. I then went left again and caught up 2 spots to finish third. I was now placed 7th overall and was so happy. Now I had 2 lay days to look forward to because everyone else had teams racing, in which Australia finished 4th.
The third day was a really average, solid day. I went through the same routine again with breakfast and rigging up, and then waited for the wind to fill in. When we went out, the current was hell strong and the breeze was light. It took ages for the race committee to start us and when they finally did, the breeze dropped out, but they still raced us. I got pinged up near the top mark and did the 720 but the current took me way down so I had to sail all the way back up again. The reach took really long as we were sailing into the current and the downwind was really short. I made 3 places on the last upwind to finish 18th.
The second race was a disaster. I started well but didn’t go left and rounded the top mark in low 30’s. I didn’t gain anything on the way back up to the line and finished the race 30th.
The next race was a bit better. I sailed more on the left and had a much better race with speed to finish just behind Jack Graves as 10th.
With my confidence back the next race was a black flag start, as the current was pushing us over the line. I had a really conservative start at the boat end and with good boat speed. I sailed over a couple of Indians and rounded the race off to finish 11th, and 13th overall.
For the last day I was really focused on gaining places. I had a really good sleep and was prepared to do well.
The first race was really solid. I had a conservative start and pushed really hard to round the top mark 10th. I didn’t gain on the reach but on the run made up 2 spots. On the last beat to the finish I gained another spot by going out right into more wind and finished 7th.
Pumped up for another good race, I started at the boat end. 20 seconds before the start I got a massive right shift. I accelerated early in front of the line sag and had a sweet start. The wind kept going right and I was doing really well out of it, being to the right of the fleet. I rounded the top mark 1st and stayed in front all the way down to the gate, which I hit because of the current. I managed to crawl up from 5th to 3rd by the finish.
The last race was good as I did the same thing, except I rounded the top mark 5th. I made a place on the run to be 4th around the gate. It was then a really close race to the finish, in which I got 6th, giving me an 11th. for the whole regatta. The previous AUS record at Asians was around 27th.
I finished 11th overall
Overall as a team we got
I’d really like to thank all these people that helped me achieve: