Oppie inlands

300 sailors set to descend on Grafham this weekend

Grafham Water Sailing Club will host up to 300 young Optimist sailors for the Volvo Musto Optimist Inland Championships, this weekend, 14-15th May 2005. The Inland Championship marks the start of the national circuit that includes the Volvo Musto Optimist Nationals and the Volvo Musto Optimist End of Season Championships.
The young sailors will be split into Senior, Junior and Regatta fleets, with six races planned for the fleets. Competition on the water is expected to be of a very high standard.

Grafham Water club sailors and twin brothers Ben and Tim Saxton, will be looking to set the standard at the front of the senior fleet. Ben and Tim, 15 from Baldock have both already been selected for the British Optimist Team at this years’ Optimist World Championships, after finishing in first and second place consecutively at the Volvo Musto Optimist Selection Trials. The Optimist World Championships will take place in St Moritz, Switzerland this July.

Others to watch out for are; Imogen Stanley, 15 from Bowmoor, Owain Matthews, 15 from West Kirby and Matthew Rainback, 14 from Poole, who have also been selected for the Optimist World Championships. Other sailors who will be battling it out at the front of the fleet will be the young sailors who were selected for the British team for the European Optimist Championships, which are taking place in Poland in July.

“We are looking forward to some exciting racing this weekend,” said Charles Parkinson, Chairman of the Optimist Association in the UK. “The calibre of racing on the water is going to be extremely high, especially amongst the sailors who were recently selected for the World and European Championships.”

The Volvo Musto Inland Championships is a mandatory event for those wishing to be selected for the 2006 National Optimist Squad.

This is the fifth year that Volvo and Musto have sponsored the Optimist class, and the sponsorship also includes the National, Inland and End of Season Championships as well as the GB Optimist World and European Championship teams.

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