700 at Optimist Riva Del Garda Easter Regatta

by Susan Hill on 24 Apr 2006 The Optimist event, the Riva Del Garda Easter Regatta, attracted nearly 700 entries. A team of 23 GBR sailors accompanied by two I.O.C.A. coaches + parents and siblings which in all, made up a British party of over 80 to make the long journey to Lake Garda.

Hayling Island SC sailors, Brett Hill, Ben and Tim Gratton, for the second year running, made the long journey to Lake Garda. After a long and frustrating journey of traffic jams, we arrived at Riva del Garda on the Saturday before Easter to be greeted by the sight of about 100 optimists already out on the lake practicing. The Grattons arrived Sunday evening, so we were able to join up with them and a couple of other families that had arrived, for some Pizza's and Pasta.

By Tuesday, all the GBR team and boats had arrived safely. Most had opted to have their boats transported on a trailer to Italy, whilst the families flew out. Unfortunately, they also brought the grey skies with them. After a rainy Monday, Tuesday started dull but started to brighten by lunchtime. With the boats unloaded from the trailer, the coaches, Ben Ainsworth and Robbie Burns, gave the sailors a short briefing and got them out on the water for the training at 12.00.

The first two sessions were uneventful with a break for pasta after the first session and in again for hot chocolate after the second. For the third session though, the sun came out and with it came the wind. Having blown from the north most of the day, instead of turning round to the south as it is supposed to, the sun caused the wind strength to increase and the support boats reported 20 knots with gusts of 30-35 knots. This made for an exciting sail back to shore for most of the sailors, with some of the Oppie's planing faster than the ribs.

A Pizza get-together was held for the GBR team at the Villa Aranci in the evening with the Restaurant totally unfazed by the 82 that turned up for a booking for 40! Everyone had a great time, with the sailors and siblings together in one room and the parents in two adjacent rooms.

Wednesday evening, after a second day of training, sailors from 22 different nations gathered outside the Riva Del Garda Yacht Club for the parade, to mark the start of the regatta. The parade was led, through the streets of Riva, by traditional Italian Drummers, with the different nationalities carrying their national flags. The parade ended in the main square with a welcoming speech from the Mayor. This, as always, was a very moving sight, with so many Optimist sailors taking part and the sound of the drums echoing around the narrow streets of the old town.

The serious racing started on Thursday, with the sailors have been divided into three fleets: -

Cadetti (Regatta) fleet A - sailors born in 1997

Cadetti (Regatta) fleet B - sailors born 95-96

Juniores (Main) fleet C - sailors born 91-94

Fleets A & B sail close to Riva, whilst fleet C sail further out under the towering cliffs of Lake Garda.

Two of the GBR team sailed in the B fleet and the rest of the GBR team were in the C fleet. They were all allotted one of six flight colours. The day started with bright sunshine, glorious blue skies and a cool breeze from the north. By 12.00 this had died away and with the first race scheduled for 13.00 the boats launched with virtually no wind.

By the time the 1st round of races (3 starts with 171 to each start) started though, the Ora had come in from the south with about 12-15 knots of wind. This decreased slightly for the second round of races and then increased again for the third round. All the GBR boats fared well in the shifty and choppy conditions and did well to finish all three races. Results after 3 races, 82 - Ben Gratton, 110 - Tim Gratton, 234 - Brett Hill

T-Shirt weather again on Friday! Beautiful sunny day, although a bit hazy. The boats set off at 11.00 with a dying wind from the north but again, the Ora came in on time from the south, with a vengeance. Suspicions were aroused when about 100 windsurfers appeared from nowhere with short boards and 5.3 rigs!

The first race set off in 10-12 knots but with an oscillating breeze and a port end bias, starting was particularly difficult. Despite being informed that 90% of the time, the right hand side usually paid off, conversely for the first start, the left side was the way to go, with a 70° wind shift half way up the beat. Ben Gratton was the star of this race with a 3rd place, having started at the port end.

For the second race, the wind had increased to 20 knots and by the third race, 25 knots. They all had an exciting reach in to Torbole, with a gusty wind and having to pick their way through the windsurfers reaching backwards and forwards off the shore. Results after 6 races, 16 - Ben Gratton, 139 - Tim Gratton, 224 - Brett Hill.

Saturday started warm but cloudy. For the third day in a row, the Ora arrived in time for the race starts. Three sets of races were completed and although the wind did not reach the strength of yesterday's conditions, the coaches reported oscillating winds, making the start and first beat very difficult. This led to varying results for the GBR fleet.

Fortunately, the promised rain stayed away long enough for the boats to return to shore. Ben Gratton unfortunately slipped back out of the top twenty after 2 bad races and with the wind arriving too late on Sunday for the last race to be started, Saturday's results were the Final ones.

This was a fantastic event, with some testing sailing, giving the GBR sailors invaluable experience of competing against some of the best sailors from Europe and beyond, including many of their European and Worlds team members.

Notable of these were last years European Champion, Jes Lynne Bonde (Denmark), Francesco Falcetelli (Italy) - 6th European, Yan Chekh (Russia) - 8th European, Julian Autenrieth (Germany) - 7th Worlds and many others.

The GBR team consisted of 3 National Squad members, 8 Intermediate Squad, 4 Scottish Squad, 6 Zone Squad and 2 Regatta fleet sailors.

All three HISC sailors did very well, with Ben Gratton getting high results and both Tim Gratton and Brett Hill finishing all their races in the top half of their fleets.

Ben Gratton again won a spot prize at the prize giving, this year a bike, having last year won a DVD player.

Hopefully IOCA will support another team to go to Garda and it would be nice to think that more HISC sailors would be part of that team.

Final overall Leading Results
1 Leonardo Dubbini (Italy)
2 Augusto Poropat (Italy)
3. Mathias Svensen (Denmark)
4. Anne Marie Rindom (Denmark)

Final results for the GBR Team (513 entries)

Ben Gratton 59
Olly Porter 66
Anna Burnet 70
Ben Harden 85
Tim Gratton 113
Tarra Gill Taylor 119
Henry Lloyd Williams 138
Charlie Esse 175
Brett Hill 209
Nathan Forrester 214
Liam Garrison 216
Lizzie Whitehouse 222
Dean Gillespie 250
Shona Ross 270
Ross Williams 337
Will Harris 342
Matt Thomas 344
James Logan 352
Charlotte Bonella 356
Harriet Black 399
Katherine Stanley Whyte 450

Cadetti (Regatta) Fleet (160 entries)
Ross Stanley Whyte 123
Hannah Harden 149