Record entry

338 young sailors are due to take part in the Optimist End of Season Championships

This weekend will see a record number of 338 young Optimist sailors competing on Weymouth Bay, at the Volvo Musto Optimist End of Season Championships (13-14 October 07). The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, the 2012 Olympic venue, hosted the largest ever Volvo Musto Optimist National Championships earlier this year (28 July-3 August 07) and following the success of this event, hundreds of competitors signed up for this weekend’s Championships, which aptly coincides with the Optimist class’s 60th Diamond Anniversary.

The Championships will also be attended by Team Volvo for life member, Paul Goodison, who has been recently recommend by the RYA to the British Olympic Association to compete at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Goodison will be on hand to present prizes on Sunday afternoon and talk to the young sailors about his Olympic experience and encourage them to continue racing.

The UK competitors will be welcoming foreign sailors from five other nations including Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as a strong contingent of 17 sailors from France. Irish sailor Alexander Rumball, who came sixth in the Senior fleet at the National Championships will be returning to race against the top British sailors. Alex Mothersele, the 2007 Volvo Musto Optimist Champion will not be attending but the three other UK sailors which were in the top ten will be battling out on the Bay; David Grant, Ben Harden and Tom Britz. Britz should be one to watch after his strong performance of 16th place, which was second British sailor after Mothersele at the French National Championships in August.

At the National Championships, due to the number of sailors, they are split into three groups, the Senior fleet (13-15 years old), the Junior fleet (12 years old or under) and the Regatta fleet, for sailors who are learning to race. At the End of Season Championships there is a Main fleet, which combines sailors of all ages together, and a Regatta fleet. The Main fleet has 261 entries in the Championships, while the surprise attendance has been in the Regatta fleet. The fleet originally had only space for 50 places, but due to demand from sailors, the Optimist Class Association has had to increase the number of entries to 77. This has meant sailing clubs and parents have had to join forces to provide more volunteers and safety boats for the developing fleet.

Names to watch out for from the Junior fleet, who will be racing against their older counterparts in this event are; Scott Wallis, David Pain, James Parker-Mowbray and Josh Sparks. While the top three sailors from the Regatta fleet have moved to the Main Fleet, allowing the more inexperienced racers a chance to be seen on the podium this regatta.

2007 is the Diamond Anniversary for the 2.3 meter Optimist, which has proven itself to be an excellent starter boat for children who want to learn to race. It has helped groom some of the UK’s great sailing names, including double Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie, who won the National Championships in 1992 aged 15 and Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers, both members of Team Volvo for life.