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RBVIYC 2011 Dinghy Championships prize giving at Nanny CayA whopping 36 sailors signed up for the RBVIYC annual dinghy championships held April 30/May 1 out of home base Nanny Cay.
Regatta organizer, Richard Wooldridge was over the moon to see such a strong turnout with nearly half of the competitors traveling from St. Thomas and St. Croix. Richard explained: “We had 18 sailors in the Optimist ‘Green’ fleet, half of them from the USVI. You can always judge how healthy a sailing program is by looking at the Green fleet where they are just starting to learn some racing moves. It was great to see these youngsters meet and bump into each-other for the first time, they were having a ball!”
The Optimists raced inside Sea Cow’s Bay because the Sir Francis Drake Channel was way too rough for beginners.
The Optimist blue fleet was won convincingly by Sam Morrell who has just returned from Chile where he was representing the BVI at the South American Optimist Championship. Ryan Wooldridge did manage to sneak one race win and came second overall. Ryan Hunter from St. Croix sailed well to take third.
The real action was on the Green Fleet course in the Bay. The wind can get a little gusty in there which made things interesting for the fledgling racers. Coach Omari Scott from Antigua ran the course with Mike and Di Kirk assisting.
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The fleet racing in Sea Cow’s BayOmari set the windward mark just a few feet off the dock at Manuel Reef Marina where parents got a great view of the action as the fleet clattered around the mark.
Omari said: “I’ve never seen kids learn so quickly, you could actually watch them getting better, tacks, gybes, port and starboard…it was the most incredible green fleet racing I have ever seen”.
By Sunday afternoon it was clear that the BVI’s Rayne Duff had done enough to win overall. At 8 years old he was also the youngest. Truly a magnificent performance. Chris Sharpless of the USVI was second with the BVI’s Sam Childs in third. Both Rayne and Sam have been practicing racing moves every Wednesday afternoon with Rayne’s dad, Brian Duff. Maybe that made the difference!
At the prize-giving back at Nanny Cay, it looked like Brian and wife Kim would be requiring surgery to remove their smiles; lucky Rayne received a really nice Optimist model for being the standout performer in Green Fleet. Omari also presented Chris with an Oppie training manual for showing the race committee great respect by thanking them each time he finished. Olivia Messum picked up a Sol Petroleum goodie bag for showing great spirit and determination.
Nanny Cay is now the home for the RBVIYC’s junior sailing programme, jubilant general manager Miles Sutherland-Pilch helped hand out the prizes: “This has been a terrific regatta and I’m already looking forward to next year’s being bigger and better!”
