Eleven Guernsey sailors, four in the junior and senior main fleets and seven in the three ragatta fleets, were among the close to 500 competitors attending the Volvo Musto Optimist British National and Open Championship in Weymouth last week. No rain, plenty of sunshine and good and varied wind conditions resulted in five full days of excellent racing on the 2012 Olympic waters.

As a Guernsey highlight of the week, in the 81 strong regatta coaching fleet, Phoebe Lewis finished in first place overall with four race wins out of thirteen starts to bring some silverware back to Guernsey. "I really enjoyed my first Nationals, the support from the team was brilliant”, Phoebe says. “I can't wait to step up a fleet next year!"

Phoebe had only taken delivery of her new boat on arrival at the venue and received her trophy from the new chairman of IOCA, Neil Mackley, whose son previously owned the boat. “Everything worked well but I am struggling to think of a new name for the boat”, Phoebe says, looking like she has something in mind though.

Olivia Strachan and Ellie Guy, also in the regatta coaching fleet, and Maddie Lewis, Phobe’s younger sister, in the regatta starter fleet, all performed well during the week and completed all races when a large number of boats were bought in under tow in testing winds.

In the more competitive regatta racing fleet, Freddy Moss put in five single digit finishes out of fifteen starts, including a third, to finish in 16th place overall out of a fleet of 62. In the same fleet, Ellie Tanguy and Stephen Reynolds finished 38th and 40th respectively.

Freddy and Ellie and possibly also Stephen will now step up from the regatta fleet into the main fleet and together with Freddy they will aim to qualify for the British zone squads. The zone squads offer excellent quality training over the winter and serve as stepping stones into other squads. Many are the sailors who have started in the zone squads and then moved on to reach higher goals.  

In the main fleets, very large international contingents, including very strong teams from Ireland, the United States, Belgium and Spain, along with the top British sailors meant the standards were very high.

After the first two days of qualifying series for the main fleets, all four Guernsey sailors qualified for the silver fleets. In the senior silver fleet, Clementine Thompson put in some very strong performances in the second half of the week, including a first and a second, to finish in fifth place overall with teammates Poppy Rickards and Sam Crosby finishing 42nd and 43rd respectively. Tom Lees, who made his main fleet debut at the Nationals, sailed consistently to finish 35th in the junior silver fleet.

The National Championship titles went to Freddie Grogono in the junior fleet and Callum Airlie who defended his title from last year in the senior fleet.

Next up for the Guernsey sailors is the Guernsey Clinic and Open Regatta, a week of training and racing on home waters in late August. During the autumn, the sailors will have a comprehensive training and race program in Guernsey but will also be off for Tropheé des Isles and the Brewin Dolphin Regatta, both in Jersey, the zone squad qualifiers in various venues in the south of UK and the final national ranking event of the season, the Volvo Musto End of Season Championship at Rutland in early October.

For full results etc see the event website www.kbsuk.com/Optimist/IOCAEvents/index.asp?EventID=26. See also the GYC Juniors blog for more photos www.gycjuniors.wordpress.com.