Optimists in Guernsey

My first time competing in the Nationals was last summer in Weymouth. I was straight in at the deep end in the senior fleet. It was a daunting prospect, racing against 120 sailors mostly older than me. I was hoping for fairly light winds as I am very light, probably the lightest in the senior fleet. My luck was in, for most of the week the winds were force 2-3. Daniel in his Optimist

I arrived really early on the first racing day, there was not a breath of wind and it was very, very hot. We all rigged our boats and waited. Some people swam off the slipway to try to keep cool, others played around with the water hoses, but we all waited, and waited. At 3pm we were told there would be no racing that day.

So the week continued, light winds, great for me and I had some excellent results (first British boat round the windward mark in one race!). I was doing much better than I could have imagined, then disaster! On the start of 4th day I was getting into position at the start line when my tiller snapped. There was nothing I could do, I was devastated. I thought that would be it for the day, but I was in luck. I was spotted by someone from Jersey who was able to mend it for me. Rough weather

On the last day it was blowing a force 5. Not good when you only weigh 30 kg. I struggled to keep my boat up and by the end of that day I dropped back 13 places to 48th. A huge disappointment, but looking at the big picture I had done pretty well.

Text: Wray, D (August 2003)