Inaugural Optimist Team Racing Champs, Singapore

by Daniella Ng, SingaporeSailing on 16 Jun 2009 The Sentosa Open Optimist Championship ended on Saturday but teams from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Singapore, stayed on to take part in the inaugural Optimist Team Racing Championship. We called for good winds the mornings of Sunday and Monday, and it arrived around noon on both days.

The regatta consisted of round robin races, where each team got to race with every other team. Storm clouds brought good winds on the first day and the Race Committee managed to run 52 races in total to pick out the top four qualifiers to the last round of competition.

The sea was like a pane of glass this morning, but with a light breeze filling slowly: soon enough, the wind came in at 12-13 knots on average. For the finals, each team raced against another with a 'first to three' format. The winners of each pair would then sail against one another for the top two placing.

After many races, Thailand and Malaysia topped the scoreboard and made it to the finals, leaving the two Singapore teams to fight for third and fourth placing.

It was exciting to watch the finals, with the best teams coming together to beat one another with team racing tactics and rules. The sailors required physical fitness to hike out in order to keep their boats flat and moving with speed.

The finals saw the Malaysians doing better in stronger wind conditions compared to the Thais, but that did not make them lose hope, fighting each race with a hunger to win. Malaysia sent a strong team of young sailors all aged 13, they were light and fast and their determination to win was what kept them going.

After a strong battle, the Malaysians emerged as champions of the championship. Coming in second was Thailand followed by Singapore Team 1 and Singapore Team 2 respectively. The Malaysian team is indeed the best performing country, claiming not only the team racing trophy but also three out of top ten positions in last week’s fleet racing.

Many thanks to participating country and to everyone who has made the event a successful one! We wish the sailors 'ALL THE BEST!' at the upcoming IODA World Championships in Brazil.