By Kyle O’Connell
In early January of this year I travelled with my family to the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Pittwater, Sydney to compete in the2011 Optimist National Championship. This would be my second Opti Nationals and I was hoping to improve on the mid fleet finish I got at the 2010 South Australia Regatta. Through the year I had done a lot of training and had travelled interstate several times with my Dad to compete in some big regattas with a few good results and a lot more big fleet experience under my belt.
With 110 boats in the open division the fleet was split into four groups, blue, pink, white and yellow, I was in white so this meant there were 55 boats on each start and you sailed against a difference colour in each start. On Monday afternoon after registration and measurement The practise race got away in a moderate north-easterly I had a great race and finished in first place, I was happy with my boat speed and was looking forward to the real racing the next day.
First day of racing saw an overcast day with a shifty light to moderate easterly sea breeze and with four races being run it made for a long day on the water. I had a good day finishing in the top 10 in all races and managing a second place in race 4, this left me in 7th place overall.
Day two and the wind kicked in big time with a good 25 knots north-easterly and a pretty descent chop running. This made for some great racings with some hard running lots of bailing and “hiking till it hurt” sailing. It was a day the bigger guys enjoyed more than the light weights did. Klaus Lorenz from Queensland got three bullets and was pumped while I had slip back to 20th overall and was a bit bummed.
After a rest day I was keen to get back out on the water and hopefully improve my overall result .It turned out to be a light wind day with only one race been sailed and a lot of swimming, mucking around, and waiting for the wind to try and fill in. In the one race we sailed I got myself in to the lead on the last run but was not able to hold on to the lead with three sailors getting pass me up the very light and shifty beat to the finish. One of these sailors was Chris Charwood from WA who was later crowned national champion.
Last day of sailing and we needed 4 more races to get the 12 scheduled series races completed and for me to get a important second race drop .It turn out to be a hot sunny day but the wind was light and shifting all over the place. Only one race was sailed in an 8 to 0 knot breeze and although I got myself in the lead pack on the last run I was on the wrong side of the course up the final beat went the breeze went left. I finished in 14th place which wasn’t too bad as a lot of other sailors didn’t get to finish before the cut of time
In all I had a great time hanging out with the other Queenslander after each day of racing. Special thanks to my Dad and Scott Mcinally the Southport coach who supported all the Queensland sailors out on the water in the Southport yacht club rescue boat. My goal for the regatta was to be in the top 20 which gets you in to the Australian Opti squad. I finished in 19th and along with 4 other Queenslanders, Klaus Lorenz 3rd Charlie Wyatt 7th Kye Evans 16th and Tom Cunich who is a new Southport member in 22nd are now all in the Australian squad and will be competing in some overseas regattas in the coming year.