PSC Sailors at 2010 Optimist National Championships
Papercourt sailors with Olympic sailor Saskia Clark
Thirty eight, yes I did say 38, Papercourt sailors made the trip to WPNSA at Weymouth, the site of the 2012 Olympics, for the largest ever Optimist Nationals. Papercourt sailors comprised the largest entry from any club and were prominent among all the fleets.
A total of 490 sailors competed over 5 fleets during the week beginning the 26th July. The investment in the Olympic venue was apparent and coupled with almost perfect weather led to a great week for all. It was sunny almost every day with wind from force 3 to 5. The residents of Chesil Beach Caravan Park must have wondered what hit them when the fleet came home from sailing to chill out ! Well … errr … go swimming, cycling, skateboarding, ….. but lets not forget the sailing.
Results by fleet
Senior Fleet
At the top of the Oppy pile is the senior fleet. 164 sailors aged 13-15 years including 60 overseas sailors from the US, Spain, Japan, France, Ireland, New Zealand and elsewhere competed for the Senior British Open National Championships. Papercourt had 8 entrants. After 6 races the fleet was divided into Gold and Silver flights.
Senior Gold Fleet
37th Murray Hampshire and 15th British Senior
Senior Silver Fleet
2nd Esther Fenton-Jones including a win in race 7 and 11th British Senior girl both fleets
20th David Brand including a 4th in race 10
28th Jessy Hammett and 16th British senior girl both fleets
58th William Birchall
64th James Cook
65th Harriet Lucas-Clements - 23rd British senior girl
73rd Emily Smith - 30th British senior girl
Junior Fleet
153 entries, including 38 from overseas, aged under 13 compete for the Open British Junior Championships. Papercourt had 8 entries. After 6 races the fleet was divided into Gold and Silver flights.
Junior Gold Fleet
24th Robert Masterman - 11th British Junior overall
47th Freddie Verburgt - 22nd British Junior overall
54th James Scott - 28th British Junior overall
Junior Silver Fleet
13th Jamie Smith including a 3rd in the 9th race
17th Oscar Wright including a 4th and having led the last race
47th Dominic Hall
50th Alice Smith
68th Charlotte Bassett
The Regatta Fleets
A new innovation this year was the Regatta Racing Fleet aimed to bridge the gap between the more relaxed Regatta Fleet, which mixes coaching with racing, and the two “main” fleets mentioned above. Five Papercourt sailors joined 62 others for 15 races over the week.
Regatta Racing
6th Emily Walter and 1st girl
8th Conor Whelan
10th Emma Handley and 3rd girl
39th Jack Lucas-Clements with a strong 12, 13 finish
46th Nicholas Wishart
Regatta Coaching Fleet
In the classic Regatta now renamed Regatta Coaching Fleet there were fourteen Papercourt sailors in the 80 strong fleet.
Regatta Coaching fleet
4th Annabelle Whelan and 3rd girl counting two race wins
10th James Hammett counting a 2nd place finish on big Thursday
12th Nicholas Walters best race finish 3rd
13th Zoe James and 5th girl
16th Alice Handley and 6th girl
20th Jake Hardman with a best race finish of 4th
32nd Chris James
36th Polyanna Wright who had to miss the last two races after a cut on the head was glued up
38th Hannah Birchall
41st Jonathan Ashworth
47th Will Cook
51st Charlotte Ashworth
76th Saskia Bassett
77th Laura Bassett
Starter Regatta Fleet
Aimed to teach racing and sailing skills for younger sailors. Three Papercourt sailors joined 32 others for the week.
Racing Starter Fleet
17th Patrick Whelan
20th Charles Handley
27th James Hall
The National Championships sounds intimidating but with the innovation of the Regatta fleets really does cater for all . Furthermore, with Papercourt parents clubbing together to crew a fellow members RIB the main fleet sailors always have a friendly face on the water to chat to between races.
The parents also have a lot of fun with Charles Whelan leading the way in the party stakes and Jason Hardman with Bob Birchall getting in a bit of a tangle.
Come and join us in Pwllheli in 2011..... it's a lot more fun than you might expect !! .. Oh and the kids have a great time and meet many new friends.
Paul Hammett
