Scottish Optimist Travellers at Annandale Sailing Club

Scottish Optimist Travellers at Annandale © Stewart Mitchell

Scottish Optimist Travellers at Annandale © Stewart Mitchell

Scottish Optimist Travellers at Annandale © Stewart Mitchell

Last weekend (15th/16th August) saw the first Optimist traveller in the 2015/16 Scottish traveller series at Annandale Sailing Club. Fresh from the Nationals in Pwllhelli a total of 19 Optimists took part in a mixed RYA run academy/racing weekend.

Saturday started with a briefing from the 4 Optimist coaches and the fleet receiving some training for the first half of the morning. By this point the breeze had filled in nicely from the West and the two fleets headed out to race. In the main fleet two races were held before lunch with Gordon Sivarajin taking the first race of the day and Ruben Stockcross taking the second. After a short break for lunch the main fleet managed to get 2 more races in the afternoon, these were dominated by Ross Coombs who won both races closely followed by his younger brother Alastair. Several of the other younger sailors new to main fleet this year also managed to get in amongst the first few positions. After Ruben's good result in the morning he was unfortunately hit with gear failure in the last race and was forced to retire.

In the regatta fleet, 4 races were held on a slightly shorter course with Morven Wood taking the first race, Orri Robertson winning both race 2 and 3 and a win by Anna Miller in race 4.

Sunday dawned windless as forecasted so the coaches spent some time analysing yesterday's races and took the sailors out into the sunshine for some games and a warm up. By late morning a light breeze came in so all the sailors managed an hour or so training out on the water before a quick lunch break. During lunch the breeze continued to build so RYA Scotland academy manager and race officer decided to finish the weekend with the final 2 races.

In main fleet after 2 general recalls, race 5 eventually got underway in very shifty wind conditions, the front end of the fleet were all very tightly packed especially around the windward mark resulting it quite a scuffle. Eventually Ruben Stockcross won race 3 closely followed by Scott Forbes. Race 6 followed in much the same way with Scott Forbes crossing the line in first place.

When the results were calculated it was Scott Forbes's consistency that won through and put him in first place for the regatta. Second place went to Gordon Sivarajin and third Alastair Coombs. First girl went to Catie Warburton who came 5th overall.

In the regatta fleet 2 races were run with Morven Wood and Orri Robertson again both winning one a piece. Once the results were put together this gave Orri and Morven the same number of points in the regatta with Orri just pipping her at the post on countback. Third place was taken by Anna Miller just one point behind!

Thanks to Annandale sailing club and RYA Scotland for hosting a great weekend. The Optimist fleet are now looking forward to Loch Lomond the RYA Scotland club championships on 22nd August and the next traveller event in Nairn (29/30th August).

Results & Prizewinners: (top three)

Main Fleet
1st Scott Forbes (Loch Lomond SC)
2nd Gordon Sivarajin (CCC)
3rd Alastair Coombs (loch Venachar SC)

Prizes were also awarded to 1st & 2nd placed girls, Catie Warburton and Jennifer Wesley.

Regatta Fleet
1st Orri Robertson (CCC)
2nd Morven Wood (CCCDS)
3rd Anna Miller (Annandale SC)

Full results can be found at the IOCA Scotland website here.