This year's Optimist National Championship was held in front of the Taino Beach Resort in Freeport, Grand Bahama, an ideal venue for any major sailing championship. With sailing right off the beach in beautiful turquoise waters and light to moderate winds, young Bahamian sailors were good to go and eager for the competition.
A total of 76 participants came from Freeport, New Providence, Long Island, Harbour Island, Governor's Harbour Eleuthera, Abaco and even the Cayman Islands, delighting the event organizer, the Grand Bahama Sailing Club, with their determination to sail despite the hurdles encountered by Hurricane Irene.
Optimist sailors are split into either Green or Championship fleets depending on their skill level and the Championship Fleet is then split into White, Blue and Red according to the sailors age.
The 34-boat Championship Fleet saw extremely close racing with Nassau Yacht Club's junior members Spencer Cartwright and Paul de Souza (2010 Green Fleet Champion) battling it out for top honors. While almost constantly neck and neck from start to finish, race number six of seven in the series saw Cartwright beat de Souza by half a boat length to clinch the title. With the chance to drop one race, no matter what position Cartwright took, he would still be the winner and in the end, he beat out de Souza by one point only, taking the title of National Champion with 11 points to de Souza's 12 points.
The best of friends, these two sailors have been competing against each other and practicing together for over a year. From the very beginning Cartwright informed de Souza that friendship aside, he felt he would prevail in 2011 to be National Champion, having come in second for the past two years. Despite being only 12-years-old, Cartwright, with three years sailing under his belt and de Souza with a mere one year's experience, raced in the 11 and 12-year-old group while still managing to beat all others who competed up to age 15.
With many other sailors "knocking on the door" and ably challenging, Cartwright was aware that intellect and speed would be needed to win the championship. Thinking your way around the course every second of the way is what is required to win and after an hour of such effort, a sailor is mentally exhausted.
"Your head is constantly 'out of the boat' looking for the next good puff while continually adjusting your sail trim and making sure you are in a favorable position relative to your nearest competitors. This kind of focus, concentration and mental work is what it takes to be competitive and many of these young sailors have the goods," said one of the event's organizers.
While younger and less experienced, the Green Fleet racing was also close. Sailing a much shorter basic triangle course, all 42 sailors fought just as hard to win as those in the Championship Fleet. For those needing assistance to get around the course, coaches were there to help, but only for those sailors at the back of the fleet.
"There was great fun and it was so inspiring to see beginner sailors doing so well with special kudos to all the coaches (mainly interested parents) for their time and efforts teaching these kids," said an event organizer.
The Grand Bahama Sailing Club, with major community support, gave these 76 young sailors a taste of what it means to attend major regattas, compete, make friends and see new things. The event sponsors - the Ministry of Tourism, the MailBoat, the Royal Bank of Canada, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Odyssey Aviation, KPMG, Rotary, the Grand Bahama Port Authority, the Freeport Container Port and MSC Shipping made this weekend possible and have been invaluable in promoting the sport of sailing in The Bahamas.
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