2nd OPTIMIST CHAMPIONSHIP 2009

Sweeney Holds on to Take National Sailing Title

Saturday 13th June, thirteen of St. Lucia’s top under 15 sailors battled it out in the St. Lucia Optimist Championships.

The young sailors took to the sea in Rodney Bay to demonstrate their racing skills, which they had been learning over the past 3 terms of training from their coaches Rob Hemming, Chris Lowe & Katie Yeo. (Youth Sailing Programme organized by the St Lucia Yacht Club)

The committee boat II Restless carried Fredric Sweeney, the young Race Officer of the Day and his geriatric crew of 70 and 80 year olds (Ted, Frank & Jonathan) and of course the never exhaustive photographer (Danielle) and lady coach (Katie)!

Looking forward to a super sailing day, 13 young sailors signed up for the Championship although the weather did not have the same sunny mood as they did!

The morning schedule was for 3 races and driving rain with variable winds made for some tough racing, wind squalls of up to 20 knots.

Their skill and maneuverability was a sight to behold as they competed in 6 races around an Olympic type course. 3 races before lunch and 3 after lunch! Fortunately the sun appeared in the afternoon along with a slightly less wind strength which provided an ideal sailing setting to complete the competition.

The young sailors fought hard, with Marcus Sweeney (13) coming out with 2 strong victories. Stephanie Lovell (13) took the other race in the morning followed closely by Thomas Meixner (13) and Marion Bardies (14).The afternoon saw weather change to sunny skies and steady winds making the racing very competitive and dominated by the girls as Marion Bardies, lead often with Raina Bergasse (14 ) also spending time at the front, while Stephanie Lovell and Marcus Sweeney traded the fourth and fifth races. Going in to the last race the overall trophy was still up for grabs with Marcus Sweeney ahead of Stephanie Lovell by just a couple points. Marcus Sweeney got off to a terrible start and had to battle back from well down the fleet. Stephanie Lovell did everything she could to take the lead from Marion Bardies on the second lap and went on to win the race. Although, it wouldn’t be enough, Marcus Sweeney showed the perseverance of a true champion and climbed all the way back to finish second and take the overall title. Stephanie Lovell still took the Girls trophy, Luc Chevrier sailed a consistent regatta to take home the 11 & under Trophy.

Over 11:    1st Marcus Sweeney , 2nd Stephanie Lovell,  3rd Thomas Meixner

Under 11:  1st Luc Chevrier, 2nd Richard Beausoliel, 3rd Jason Cox

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(Click on the picture to go to the web album.)

The youngsters had a wonderful experience competing against each other and are now getting ready for this Saturday 20th June for the End of Term Fun Day on the beach at the Yacht Club.

Story by a combined effort of R.H. & D.D.R.  & Pictures by D.D.R

St Lucia Yacht Club END OF TERM FUN DAY & Prize giving 2nd OPTIMIST CHAMPIONSHIP

You weren’t there, oh dear, you missed the fun!

We all got together at 9am at the club to have a real fun day with all our sailing kids. 28 kids from the St. Lucia Yacht Club Junior Sailing Programme showed up to have some extra fun at sea and on the beach.

4 teams were formed: Solar Powered, Schizophrenic Pathogens, Blue Tied, Grasshoppers. Lily (our Sailing Programme Administrator) headed the organization assisted by the coaches Rob & Katie and other willing helpers.

Camera ready >>>>> go for it !

The END OF TERM FUN DAY started off with Trivia questions like “How old is the Yacht Club (yes, indeed 45 years!) and Who is the Commodore of the club (Charles Devaux). The kids then had to make a balancing “sculpture” with recycled material. Not that easy.

The “Assault Course”,  a challenging obstacle course created by Katie & Rob, the sailing instructors, which combined running, crawling, swimming and human wheel barrow with 4 buoancy aids on and other things for the young and flexible. Needing a break from the action and the heat, the sailors retreated up to the TV screen for Rob’s last lesson on mark rounding based on video footage of last week’s Opti racing while Lily & Tom prepared the BBQ. Thanks go to Franck and Mereia for providing sausages to BBQ!!

In the afternoon, the games continued, rigging boats, racing and a flag race.  All kids were very tired by 4pm and looking forward to the prize giving from the 2nd SLYC Optimist Championship and the Fun Day.

The Fun day winning team was the Schizaphrenic Pathogens and ice creams were enjoyed by all of its members.

The awards for the 2008-2009 season of the SLYC Junior Sailing Programme were as follows:

Best Intermediate Sailors – Jason Cox and Sofia Spiegelberg

Best Racer – Marcus Sweeney

Best New Laser Sailor – Aidan Cox

St. Lucia Yacht Club Best Junior Helms Person 2009 - Erik Simmons (trophy donated by Edgar Roe)

2nd Optimist Championship Trophies were given to:

Over 11: 1st: Marcus Sweeney, 2nd: Stephanie Lovell, 3rd: Thomas Meixner

Under 11: 1st: Luc Chevrier, 2nd: Richard Beausoliel, 3rd: Jason Cox

The Best Female Sailor 2009 is Stephanie Lovell and the Best Male Sailor 2009 is Marcus Sweeney. They both received a perpetual trophy.

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(Click on the picture to go to the web album.)

Award for the Most “Stick-to-itiveness”, named and donated by Lily Bergasse, went to Jason Cox, the least experienced of entrants and the most determined to stick it out to the end of the regatta!

DSL Yachting, Sandra Meixner received a big hurray for the free cinema tickets she gave the participants of the Optimist Championship!

Sponsors for the Championship were:

St. Lucia Yacht Club, Jonathan Everett, Destination St. Lucia (DSL), Peppers (Monique Devaux), Ted Bull, Franck Chevrier, Lily Bergasse

A special presentation to our departing coaches Rob & Katie on completion of their contract with SLYC, was made by Lily Bergasse. She made the point that the training session this year had been outstanding, we had 40 sailing kids! She also wished them well in their next post, be it sailing or whatever their calling would be. They both received the SLYC burgee and a Thank You card from the sailing kids presented by Stephanie Lovell.

We are very proud to be able to report that Jasia King will be travelling to Brazil with Coach Rob Hemming to participate in the Youth World Championships, July 10-12. We wish her well. Another of our laser sailors, Erik Simmons will be travelling to Canada in July to race in several regattas this summer including the very competitive, CORK Regatta in Kingston, Ontario at the end of August.

The Admistrator, coaches and sailors of the SLYC Junior Sailing Programme wishes to to thank everyone who was involved in making the Championship, the Fun Day and the entire sailing season of 2008-2009 a success.

Story by D.D.R.