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Barnt Green Sailing Club - Optimist
A report on the Barnt Green MOT by David Lockett. Saturday 29th March 2008 saw the final winter training event for the Midland Optimist Team (MOT) held at Barnt Green. Around 16 Optimist sailors attended the event across all levels of experience and ability. The day was planned to take the usual format with training in the morning from qualified RYA coaches and assistants (including Jo Powell from Barn Green) followed by three short races in the afternoon to put the new skills to the test. However, the weather had other ideas! The winds in the morning picked up to about 10 or 12 knots, just right for starting and compass work that had been planned. Lunch was taken at about 12:30 at which time the wind took its opportunity to make the afternoon extremely difficult by increasing to 26 knots with gusts up to about 40 knots. These sort of conditions are difficult for even the most experienced optimist sailor so it was extremely pleasing to see about 10 of the sailors brave the conditions and take part in the racing. As the weather conditions worsened, the racing was reduced to two races which were both easily won by Barnt Green Sailor Mark Powell who was by far the best sailor of the day in his favourite conditions. William Lockett was the only other Barnt Green sailor but he didn’t have his best day. He did, however, receive the coach’s award for effort and the most spectacular capsize (following the family tradition). The sailors came from as far away as Cheshire for the event and many came to Barnt Green for the first time. We had a lot of very positive comments from parents about the club and I would expect to see many of them return for the Optimist open in June. Anyone who can sail an optimist is welcome to attend future MOT events (which are not usually this windy). If you want to find out more about the MOT then please either contact David Lockett or look at the MOT website at http://www.midland-oppies.co.uk/. The costs are extremely reasonable, there are always friendly faces and all the kids have a great time. posted 1/4/08 ( DL )
Optimist Class Report by Rob Lennox, retiring Class Captain, Autumn / Winter 2007 It is with some sadness that I write my final Optimist class report. When the last of our family’s Optimists went in the back of a big white van to a new life sailing on the Welsh Harp, it marked the end of an era. The good news, however, is that “Avalanche” Optimist More good news is that David Lockett will be taking over my position as BGSC Optimist “flotilla leader” – class captain to you and me. I am sure he will bring his legendary enthusiasm to the role.
William Lockett, shown left receiving his prize from Christine Howe, has won the summer points series by a huge margin, and has shown major improvements since ambitiously putting his name forward and achieving a place in the RYA West Zone squad at the end of last season. Sarah Alton has taken second place in the points, and credit is due to her for turning out at BGSC to give William some strong competition. Peter Alton is now leaving the class as not only will he be over the age limit next year, at over six feet tall he would probably be over the height limit too! Rachel, Charli, and Hannah Lennox have been making the transition to the Laser 4.7 fleet this year. It is now a great strength of the club that we have a class that is not only suitable for young sailors to move on to from Optimists (or Cadets!), but also is one they want to sail. At the time of writing, the composition of all the squads is not known, but if Lucy Best, who has put in some impressive performances, makes it into the West Zone squad, she will be combining this with her place in the Cadet National squad! Pete and Jane Best assure me there are no date clashes. Mark Powell has probably had the most frustrating time of all our sailors. The combination of predominantly light winds at most qualifying events, several of his older mates now leaving the class, and a new generation of young lightweight sailors coming through has been tough. It has been great to see David Allenby taking part in quite a few races since the August training – well done! Credit is also due to Charlotte Rowe for the races she has done. My hope for next season is that some of the newer members of the club, along with those who enthralled us at the Junior Helm in the Optimists, will dip a toe in the water of club racing and find that it is fun. I wish David Lockett and the BGSC Optimist flotilla every success for next season. Rob Lennox October 2007
Earlier 2007 Oppi News, click here Even earlier Oppi News archive, click here The Optimist Class
“The Optimist is, quite simply, the dinghy in which the young people of the world learn to sail. Sailed in over 110 countries by over 150,000 young people, it is the ONLY dinghy approved by the International Sailing Federation exclusively for sailors under 16 years of age. At the Athens Olympics over 60% of the skippers and 70% of the medal winning skippers were former Optimist sailors.” Quotes taken from the website of the International Optimist Dinghy Association at www.optiworld.org – well worth a visit. And the good news is….we sail them at Barnt Green….and YOU can sail them too! If you are a beginner, you can be as young as 8 years old!, you learn the basics at one of our 3 day courses, in Club owned boats, held around Easter and around the August bank holiday.
Improvers join “Katie’s Crew” on Sunday mornings, have great fun and make a lot of noise building confidence and friendships. You carry on with more advanced skills at the 3 day courses, until… You try Club Racing on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings. Soon, you try to persuade your parents to buy you your own boat, and with good boats starting at around £700 with zero depreciation – it’s not that difficult! After that, it is a case of having a go in the “Regatta fleets” at Open Meetings, where you sail shorter courses than the Main fleets, against sailors of similar standard, and probably get a bit of coaching thrown in. There’s also the Midland Optimist Traveller events – see www.midland-oppies.co.uk – where the emphasis is very much on coaching and making friends at clubs in the Moving on, there are Regatta fleets at the 3 Major Events organised by the International Optimist Class Association (UK), the Inlands, the Nationals and the End of Seasons – see www.optimistsailing.co.uk These events are so popular, you need to get your entries in early! We normally have at least 2 Barnt Green sailors doing these.
Oppies reaching across the wind in a moderate blow at Barnt Green Next step is sailing in the Main fleets, probably with an upgrade to your boat!, and trying to qualify for an RYA West Zone Squad place – see www.rya.org.uk This gives access to some excellent coaches, some cool squad Musto clothing, and some of the training events are held on the sea. Remarkably, our club members got 5 out of 11 places in this squad in 2005! Finally, if you sail in the Main Fleets at the 3 Major Events, you end up with a national ranking place, and if you are in the top 60 you get in the National Squads with even cooler red Musto jackets! We had 3 sailors in these squads in 2005. And these squads could even be a step on the way to an Olympic Medal! So, you can see there’s a lot going on with the Barnt Green Optimists!
But if you decide after sailing a boat on your own for a while that what you’d really like to do is sail with a mate, Barnt Green is almost unique in offering a two-person juniors-only boat as well, the Cadet, and you can have a go in these too. (See the Cadet fleet page)
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