Barnt Green Optimist Fleet.  A report on progress by David Lockett, submitted on 30/11/2009.

The Barnt Green Optimist fleet has had a fantastic few months during the late summer and into the Autumn, with local and national successes that all the sailors and coaches can be very proud of.

The fleet is looking in good shape with several new sailors coming through from the summer training to the position where they are now regularly taking part in the weekend club racing.  Charlie and Tom have been going head to head on some occasions recently which will ensure that they get the competitive sailing that they need to develop quickly.

At a National Level, Martin Wrigley, William Lockett, Matthew Cross and Lucy Best have all been attending a number of competitions to ensure they were on top form for the ranking events with a view to being selected for the National Squads.  The Nationals were held at Largs in August and the End of Seasons were held at Rutland in late October.  All our sailors performed well at these events and waited nervously at the end of October to see how their final rankings came out and if they had achieved their goals.  They all did.

Barnt Green is now arguably the most successful Optimist club in the midlands with four of our sailors having achieved the success required to be selected for National Squads and one in the Zone Squad.

The role of honour is:

Martin Wrigley                                 National Intermediate Squad

William Lockett                                National Intermediate Squad

Lucy Best                                          National Development Squad

Matthew Cross                                 National Development Squad

Freddie Lockett                                West Zone Squad

The standard of sailing is now extremely high in the Optimist fleet which is very good news for the sailors, the club and those just starting out in the class who will have great role models to aspire to.

All of our squad sailors and some of our newer sailors are also part of the Midland Optimist Team.  This is a group of like minded Optimist sailors (and parents!) from across the midlands that get together on one Saturday a month at various sailing clubs for training and racing.  This year has also been the most successful for the MOT in many years with ten of their sailors achieving squad places including the top girl in the country and five gaining zone squad places.

The MOT AGM was held at Barnt Green on November 21^st.  While the parents were discussing the running of the club for the coming year, the sailors were taking part in training followed by the postponed Midland Area Championships.  There were twenty two sailors on the day and with such a high standard of sailing, the competition was fierce.  The winner after four races in very wet and windy conditions was Arron Hollman from Hollowell Sailing Club and the best placed Barnt Green Sailor was Matthew Cross in 6^th.

Barnt Green Optimists have had a fantastic 2009 and with the prospect of the fleet increasing in size with several new sailors, the prospect for 2010 is even better.  I would like to congratulate all of our sailors and with them all good luck and a fair wind in 2010.      David.