Argentina's Cittadini and USA's Harvey take Optinam top honors

by Somers Cooper on 13 Jul 2013 Mother nature finally allowed a seventh and final race to be sailed on Wednesday to complete the 2013 IODA North American Championships in extremely light 5 - 6 knot conditions out on Bermuda's Great Sound. Argentina's Dante Cittadini continued his consistent romp, scoring a third place finish to win the regatta by comfortable margin of 12 points over Singapore sailor Samuel Neo. Neo steadily rose through the ranks throughout the event to equal his second place finish at the 2012 Optinam in Mexico last year. Martina Pisani from Argentina took the third overall position and the top female spot.

American Shawn Harvey was sitting in second place overall prior to the last race but his score of 21 in the final contest dropped him down to fourth overall. Harvey was still able to maintain his position as the highest placed sailor from North America and was crowned the North American Champion. Bermuda's Chase Cooper rose one position after the final race to fifth overall and joined Harvey on the podium as the second North American. The third North American, Scott Mackenzie from the U.S. Virgin Islands, was able to leap from twelfth to sixth overall after scoring a seventh in the final race. Ceci Wollmann from Bermuda was the top North American female and ninth overall.

Sailors enjoyed beautiful sailing conditions for the first three days of the regatta but an extreme high pressure weather system left very little wind for racing on the final two days. Only one race was completed over that period. Sprits still remained high as the sailors enjoyed the sunshine, fun and camaraderie as they gathered for the final farewell and prize presentation at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess on Wednesday evening.

After two years of planning alongside the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and hundreds of hours of volunteer work, Anthony Bailey, the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association (BODA) President and Optinam Event Chairman, declared the event a 'great success'. Bailey acknowledged the vast volunteer team effort required to execute an international regatta of this size and singled out Regatta Manager, Dede Cooper, who, ' gave unselfishly of her time, day and night in order to get the job done'. The BODA President also said that, 'none of this would have been possible without the support of numerous corporate and private sponsors led by The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, The Bermuda Department of Tourism, Tokio Millennium Re, The Department of Youth and Sport and the City of Hamilton along with a large group of smaller sponsors and providers of goods and services.'

2013 Optinam Prize Winners – Bermuda July 10th

Team Racing

Nations Cup: For teams of countries from outside of North America

3rd: Chile 1 - Dante Parodi, Enrique Feliu, Felipe Fuentes and Benjamin Molina
2nd: Argentina 2 -Carmela Berger, Juan Pablo Cardozo, Matías Dietrich, Alejandro Formica and Iñaki Gurmindo
1st: Singapore -Samuel Neo, Shyn Ee Phua, Jodie Lai, Isaac Tang and Serzen Gurung

North American Team Race Championship: For teams of North American countries

3rd: USA 1 - Lucke Arnone, Conner Correll, Henry Burnes, Thomas Rice, Cameron Giblin
2nd: US Virgin Islands - Scott McKenzie, Teddy Nicolosi, Mateo DiBlasi, Christopher Murphy, Ryan Hunter
1st: USA 2 - Shawn Harvey, Matt Logue, Louisa Nordstrom, Eduardo Mintzias, Ryan Hennessey

Individual Races

First male sailor regardless of continent of residence - Dante Cittadini ARG
First male sailor whose continent of residence is North America - Shawn Harvey USA
First female sailor whose continent of residence is North America - Ceci Wollmann BER

Top Junior: to the best under-12 sailor overall (born in 2002 or later) - Dante Parodi CHI

First sailor from Bermuda - Chase Cooper

Top five female sailors overall - regardles of the continent of residence:

5th: Olivia Belda BRA
4th: Luiza Cruz BRA
3rd: Shyn Ee Phua SIN
2nd: Ceci Wollmann VER
1st: Martina Pisani ARG

First female sailor overall, who is awarded the championship trophy and the permanent trophy to the first girl overall - Martina Pisani ARG

First 15 sailors regardless of gender and continent of residence:

15th Matt Logue USA
14th: Breno Kneipp BRA
13th: Ian Moran USA
12th: Luiza Cruz BRA
11th: Luke Arnone USA
10th: Shyn Ee Phua SIN
9th: Ceci Wollmann BER
8th: Henry Burns USA
7th: Ripley Shelley USA
6th: Scott Mackenzie BER
5th: Chase Cooper BER
4th: Shawn Harvey USA
3rd: Martina Pisani ARG
2nd: Samuel Neo SIN
1st: Dante Cittadini ARG

Top three sailors from North America

3rd: Scott Mackenzie ISV
2nd: Chase Cooper BER
1st: Shawn Harvey USA – 2013 North American Champion