Gill Optimist Late Summer Championship at Brightlingsea Sailing Club

It was time to pack up the boats again, load the trailers and head to the beautiful East coast. Brightlingsea greeted us with its broad estuaries filled with it traditional working boats and dramatic skies.

Day 1

The RO, PJ, having studied the forecast and with his local knowledge promised us good sea breezes, but only if we were patient. An AP over 1 was flown but the on board Race Committee barely had time to finish their swim before PJ was proved right and a 8-10 knot shadow of pressure could be seen rolling in from the South East.

Wisely the RO went straight in with a U flag start and both the Main and the Regatta fleet were off with only 4 boats in the former falling foul of the race team's beady eyes.

Gill Optimist Late Summer Championship at Brightlingsea - photo © Ana Lau

Lymington's Jonny Rogers took an early lead and ultimately line honours, proving once more that he is a chip off the old block and will be one to keep an eye on going into the future. Regatta fleet saw up and coming rookie Sean Di Salle take the bullet in what was to become a weekend reign of terror.

Race 2 was less smooth with the RO proving he was not going to be messed around taking down 8 in the main and 5 in the regatta fleet on the U start. Despite picking up a 42 penalty at the last gate, veteran Will Mears scoped the 1st when it transpired that Rogers was on the bench with a UFD. Oscar Smith sailed a blinder stealing one off of Di Salle.

The next 2 races saw the breeze increasing and some big shifts as the gradient started to dominate. Isla Edwards took race 3 and Will Webster 4 in the main while Di Salle smashed the last regatta race of the day. Bosham SC's Pippa Shephard got impressively busy with the shifts and logged a worthy 3rd place.

Gill Optimist Late Summer Championship at Brightlingsea - photo © Ana Lau

Day 2

After a fabulous sailing club BBQ the night before day 2 looked to be a real stonker.

Gill Optimist Late Summer Championship at Brightlingsea - photo © Ana Lau

Race 5 started clean with both fleets punching up wind into a 10-12 knot North Easterly concluding in unstoppable Lila taking the main and you guessed it Sean Di Salle taking regatta, proving that his boat name "Pole Position" was spot on.

With the tide getting stronger the fleet struggled to line up well with more false starts and ultimately the RO have to reach for the black. He spotted 2 in race 6 and 8 in race 7 Di Salle took races 5 and 6 in regatta giving him a floorless score sheet after discard. Parkstone's Eliana Edward delighted in sneaking one off her sister in the 7th but couldn't stop her in the 8th leaving the unstoppably dominate sisters finishing 1, 2 overall.

Gill Optimist Late Summer Championship at Brightlingsea - photo © Ana Lau

IOCA and the competitors would like to say a huge thanks to Brightlingsea SC for hosting an amazing sailing and social event proving that you don't need to be a big club to host a successful, 90 boat strong, oppi fleet. Special thanks go to Alex Davey for all his hard work organising the event. Lastly massive thanks as ever to our class sponsors Gill Marine.

Overall Results:

Regatta Fleet

Main Fleet