Heading for Scotland

300 Optimist sailors on way to Volvo Musto Optimist Nationals

Largs Sailing Club will host up to 300 young Optimist sailors for the Volvo Musto Optimist National Championships, 31st July – 6th August 2004, the premier event in the UK Optimist sailing calendar. This is the largest sailing regatta ever to be hosted in Scotland.

The Optimist class is the largest junior dinghy class in the world, and has been the launch pad for many famous sailors’ careers, including Team Volvo for life sailor and former Optimist National Champion Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy, who are both currently in Athens preparing the Olympic Games.

Mike Golding, recent winner of the singlehanded Transat and Defi Atlantique races on ECOVER and one of the pre race favourite's to win this year's Vendee Globe, will be present on Friday 6th August, to watch the racing and present the prize giving ceremony.

The young sailors will compete for the top spots in Senior and Junior fleets, with ten races planned for each fleet. Competition on the water will be high, with sailors who have recently returned from the World Championships battling it out at the front of the fleets. The nationals will also give a chance to the up and coming young optimist sailors to prove themselves as some of the big names in the British fleet will be competing at the Optimist European Championships, which are taking place in Sweden at the same time.

In particular, twin brothers Ben and Tim Saxton, 14 from Grafham Water who were placed 92nd and 99th respectively at the Optimist World Championships are ones to watch, as is Claire Lasko,14 from Oxford, who was placed 94th at the World Championships.

Local Scottish sailor’s, Andrew Normand and Anna Burnett, from Royal Northern and Clyde Yacht Club and Conrad Weaver from Derwent Water Sailing Club, are also favourites to do well at the championships.

“We are looking forward to some exciting racing this week,” said Jan Lasko, Chairman of the Optimist Association. “Previous winners of this event include Ben Ainslie in 1992. Who after winning Gold in the Laser class at Sydney 2000 he is now campaigning in the Finn Class for the Athens Olympics in 2004, we are hoping that some of the young sailors here will be following in his foot steps in years to come.”

“Volvo are proud to be sponsor of the Optimist Class, as we feel the importance of supporting the grass roots of Sailing,” said Sarah Rees, Sports Marketing and Sponsorship Manager at Volvo Car UK. “It’s really exciting to see so many young sailors out on the water, and I’m sure that some of them will go onto much greater success in the future.”

“Musto is delighted to be on board with the Optimists,” said Nigel Musto, Deputy Managing Director of Musto Ltd and a past winner of the event himself in 1977. “At Musto we support some of the World’s top sailors and crews, but it’s also great to support the future stars of our sport.” As well as joint sponsor of the Championships, Nigel will also be supporting his daughter Anna, who will be competing in the junior fleet.

Due to the success of the sponsorship, Volvo and Musto announced their continuation of the sponsorship of the Optimist Class for another year until the end of 2005.