British Oppie triumph

As Bowmoor Sailing Club representative wins Belgium Nationals

Glorious sunshine and a southwesterly force 3-4 greeted the 73 Optimist sailors from Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and Great Britain for the Belgium Optimist Open Champions being held at Nieuwpoort, Belgium on 28-29 June.

Race one saw the fleet away to a cross tide. Axel v Bladel (NED) made a great start arriving at the windward mark with a long lead but as the race was likely to exceed the total time as no shorten course was posted the race officer abandoned, waited for about 30 minutes and then restarted the race with 2 instead of 3 laps. Laura Maes (BEL) local favorite made no mistakes this time to win ahead of the Swiss pair of Raphael Gabella and Olivier Gremaud.

In the second race of the day, with the sea breeze having settled in and the sailors having adjusted to the tidal conditions A. van Bladel came through to win ahead of Germaund and Jeoron Belis (BEL).

Race 3 started with a slacking tide and saw Sander van Bladel (NED) pip Bob Fontaine (BEL), another local favorite with Claire Lasko (GBR) finishing a strong 3rd. With the time getting on and a barbeque awaiting the competitors, no further races were sailed on Saturday.

The overnight leaderboard was interesting with Gremaud in first with 13 pts, S van Bladel 2nd (17pts), Gabella 3rd (20pts) and Lasko 4th (24pts). A number of boats had two good races and a high scoring result, with no discard until race 4..

Sunday again was a sunny day, but this time the wind came from the ESE force 3 for the race 4. The course was very fair with Lasko first at the winward mark having worked the middle right of the course and Gijs Pelt (NED) having worked the middle left in second place. They also finished in this order with Fontaine 3rd.

The wind picked up for race 5 to an ESE 4/5 and with the wind now against the tide, the wave height rose from slight to about 1.5 meter swell. The heavier sailors faired well up the beat with Pelt finishing first ahead of Astrid Zweistra (NED) in second and Fontaine 3rd.

As time was getting on race 6 was to be the last race of the day with Fontaine having a 2 point lead on Lasko who had finished 5th in the last race. Pelt made no mistake finishing the day with 2nd, 1st and 1st. Maes finishing 2nd, but having picked up a black flag on Saturday had to count a 25th which put the National title out of reach. Fontaine could only finish 13th and with Lasko finshing 3rd, left Lasko with the title of Belgian National Champion and an encouraging win just before attending the Optimist European Championships in Starigrad, Croatia on 5-12 July. With consistancy being the key to this event Zweistra finished second overall and 2nd girl ahead of the local boy, Fontaine.

Lasko, aged 13 is a member of Bowmoor Sailing Club. This is her third year in the Optimist National Squad. She is attending her second Optimist European Championship this year. Claire lives in Tetsworth near Oxford and is a pupil at the Oxford High School, a Girls Day School Trust. She enjoys playing hockey and netball for the school as well as participating at swimming events. It has taken slightly longer than usual to finish reading the new Harry Potter novel, as she has spent so much time
afloat.

Results

1. Claire Lasko (GBR) F 23pts 11,11,3,1,5,3
2. Astrid Zweistra (NED) F 28pts 6,13,7,8,2,5
3 Bob Fontaine (BEL) M 31pts 10,14,2,3,3,13
4 Sander v. Bladel (NED) M 34pts 13,4,1,12,4,20
5 Barnabe Deliens (BEL) M 39pts 4,15,10,4,37,6
6 Laura Maes (BEL) F 42 pts 1,7,bfd,25,7,2