Issue date
New Zealand’s largest single-class regatta, the 2015 Toyota Optimist National Championships, starts at Worser Bay on Easter Friday. Over 200 sailors from four countries will compete in 14 races over five days of racing. Familes will be bringing dinghies from as far away as the Bay of Islands in the north and Dunedin in the south. Others have chartered boats from our sponsors, SailOne and Force Racing.
Worser Bay Boating Club last hosted the National Championships in 2009 and it supports a very keen fleet of optimist sailors. Several Worser Bay sailors are currently ranked in the country’s top 20 junior optimist sailors including Sam Bacon, Oliver Cowley, Albert Stanley and Will Wright.
Sailors compete in either Green or Open Fleets. The “Green Fleet” (46 entries to date) is for new sailors. Green Fleet sailors have completed a ‘learn to sail’ course, been sailing at one of the 120 grass-roots clubs around the country and are learning the basics of Yacht Racing. The “Open Fleet” has 156 entries to date and includes sailors until the year of their 15th birthday. Many of the Open fleet sailors have completed a National Ranking series over the summer. Results at the National Championships will be used to select teams to represent New Zealand at International Optimist class events including the North American Champs in Antigua, the European Champs in Wales and the World Championships in Poland.
The Optimist yacht: is the most widely sailed learn-to-sail and junior boat at yacht clubs in New Zealand and around the world. It was designed in 1947, is 2.36 metres long, is sailed in 120 countries around the world with an estimated 120,000 boats worldwide. Nearly 80% of skippers of boats at the 2012 Olympics had reached an international level in the Optimist class, including current NZL sailing team members Peter Burling, Paul Snow-Hansen and Alex Maloney – certainly a goal for young New Zealand sailors to aspire to. An entry level boat can be purchased for less than $1,000, with plentiful demand available to sell it on when the time comes.
The regatta: up to 14 races sailed in total with up to 3 sailed per day. Split into Open and Green fleet. The Open fleet of 150 boats will be split into three flights of 50 boats. The Open fleet will sail Qualifying and Final series races to find an eventual winner who is able to drop one or more of their worst race results. The principal race officer for the event, Harold Bennett, has presided over many previous regattas, including the 2014 America’s Cup in San Francisco. The Open Fleet Race Officer is local sail maker Brett Linton.
Schedule of events:
Registration Thursday 2nd April 1000 to 1700
Racing Friday 3rd April 1100 3 races - Qualifying Series
Saturday 4th April 1100 3 races - Qualifying Series
Sunday 5th April 1100 3 races - Qualifying Series
Monday 6th April 1100 3 races - Final Series
Tuesday 7th April 1100 3 races - Final Series followed by Prizegiving
The numbers:
202 sailors
Youngest sailor age 8
Largest Club Fleet attending 25 (Kohimarama Yacht Club, Auckland)
Over 50 support and official boats on the water
70 Open Fleet sailors attending their first Nationals
73 sailors are renting a house in the local area.
22 sailors staying in hotels
The club: Worser Bay Boating Club www.wbbc.org.nz was estabilshed in Worser Bay in 1926. The bay was the site of a pilot station in the 1860s and was given its name after pilot James Heberley’s frequent prediction that the weather was getting ‘worser’. Eventually the bay became known as old Worser’s Bay.
The sponsor: Toyota New Zealand has been a generous supporter of this Grass roots National sailing events for many years, and their support is critical to the operation of the event. We are grateful for their ongoing support which helps our young sailors reach their dreams in the sport of Yachting.
(The Toyota tent in pride of place at the 2013 Optimist Nationals at Timaru)
The regatta results will be posted each day on the regatta website www.optimistnationals.org.nz , with updates on the New Zealand Optimist class association facebook page www.facebook.com/NZIODA and the NZIODA website www.optimist.org.nz.
If you are interested in learning to sail an Optimist, find a local club at Yachting New Zealand www.yachtingnz.org.nz/clubs
