Optimist Mini Open Meeting - Saturday 30 May
As part our training we held a mini open meeting on Saturday 30th May. The fleet of 29 Papercourt Optimists included a large range of abilities from National Squad members to those trying racing for the first time. We had lots of sun and a shifty North East breeze fluctuating from force 1 to 4 which kept everyone on their toes.
The 15 strong Racing fleet was won comfortably by Murray Hampshire though he didn't quite have it all his own way. The first race was led for a lap by Conor Whelan until he was passed by Murray who went on to win from Dominic Hall with Conor third. In the shifty wind during the second race Murray played the shifts well to win from David Brand with Jamie Smith third. Jamie showed the value of consistency with 3,4,4 an impressive set of results. In the windier third race Murray won from Jessy Hammett, who was first girl, and Xavier Irfate third.
In the Group 3 fleet there was a different winner in each race and a tie break to split the top two. Nicholas Palmer won the first race followed by Stuart Wishart and Stephanie Palmer third. Stephanie won comfortably in the second from George Marsden and Bethany Ellis. Anyone of four could have won it in the last race but Stuart's first nailed it, Nicholas' second gave him second overall. George Marsden was third and can count himself unlucky to count and second and third but finish fourth overall but only 2 points separated the top 4. The consistent Stephanie Palmer was fourth in the last race t o take third overall and was first girl. Bethany Ellis, Victoria Hargreaves and Jake Hardman also had good series.
The coaches were very impressed by the quality of the sailing and especially the way Group 3 kept going when the wind picked up in the last race. Thanks to our race officers Paul, Charlie and Graeme H and also coach boats Graham C and Andy Hicks who did a fantastic job running the races and making sense of the results.
The coaches remarked that most of the fleets must have been listening to their trainers in recent weeks, although there is still room for improvement as the fleet work towards the standard demonstrated by the worthy winner of the racing fleet.
The results of both fleets are:
Racing
>> 1st Murray Hampshire 1,1,(1)
>> 2nd Jamie Smith 4,3, (4)
>> 3rd David Brand 5,2,(7)
>> 4th Dominic Hall 2,8,(11)
>> 5th Connor 3,7, (13)
>> 6th Xavier 8,(9), 3
>> 7th Jessy Hammett 10, (13), 2
>> 8th William Birchall 7, (10),5
>> 9th James Cook 6,6,(8)
>> 10th 5788 Freddie V 11,5, (11)
>> 11th Emily Smith 12,4 (14)
>> 12th Alice Smith (14), 12, 7
>> 13th Terresa Franz 9,11,(12)
>> 14th Stephen Gordon 13,(15) 9
>> 15th Harry Harry Marsden 15, 14 (15)
Group 3
>> 1st Stuart Wishart 2, (4), 1
>> 2nd Nicholas Palmer 1, (6) , 2
>> 3rd Stephanie Palmer 3, 1, (4)
>> 4th George Marsden (8), 2, 3
>> 5th Bethany Ellis 6, 3, (13)
>> 6th Victoria Hargreaves 5, (8), 5
>> 7th Jake Hardman 7, 5, (14)
>> 8th Ella Green 4,9, (10)
>> 9th Kirsten McLean 9, (11) 7
>> 10th 4585 Didn't sign on - 11, (13), 6 (Was this Alex?)
>> 11th Natalie Jones (13), 7, 12
>> 12th James Barnwell 10, 10 (rtd)
>> 13th Ben Barnwell 12, (14), 9
