The Alfred's News Alfreds News November-December 2017 | Page 8

Centreboard News
Overall the Australian Team performed well up against some tough competition from New Caledonia and New Zealand with
the locals taking the top two places on the podium and Eddy Reid from Tasmania taking 3rd.
Overall a great Regatta, great experience, awesome French food and a special place to sail with lots of learnings to take away
for our next Regatta.
We were thrilled to proudly represent RPAYC and would like to thank the Club for their support along with our coach Tom
Brewer from NB Sailsports.
By David Williams
My Journey to the Asian and Oceanian
Championships in Hong Kong
Bella Green, journey to the Asian & Oceanian Championship in HGK.
In January straight after Christmas 2017, I travelled to Adelaide, for the Australian Open and International Optimist
Championships at Largs Bay Sailing Club. There were
263 Opti's competing at this event, including 33 sailors
from 8 countries including Germany, France, Singapore,
USA, New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, Finland. This was
the largest overseas contingent ever at this event.
Sailors at nationals compete to sail the final races in
gold fleet, and I qualified through to the gold fleet final,
whilst I was the third placed girl for the whole event, a
couple of disappointing races on the final racing day of
the regatta saw me slip to 5th place girl, (2nd placed
NSW Girl).
By virtue of my results, I was selected into the
Australian Optimist Sailing Team (a mix of the top boys
and girls in the country) selection into the AOST
qualified me to represent Australia, at the
Asian/Oceanian Championships at the Royal Hong Kong
Yacht Club in October 2017.
My preparation for this regatta was somewhat interrupted by my obligation to compete for my high school in snow skiing
over winter, (I had a great season finishing as state champion in skier cross and 4th nationally in Giant Slalom).
My last day of competition on the snow was the weekend before we travelled to Hong Kong, so I left all the organization to
my dad, even if I wasn’t skiing this would be normal for me J.
The regatta started on Monday the second of October, but we flew up to Hong Kong on Thursday 28th for early boat
preparation (I was using a charter boat) and some acclimatization.
The plane journey was uneventful except my dad managed to convince the flight attendant to give me some Qantas business
class pajamas, my favorite PJs! The journey from the airport to the hotel was somewhat more interesting on the local Hong
Kong subway with my mast boom sails and baggage, but we finally made it to the hotel checked in and managed dinner with
the team.
Friday 29th we headed off to the yacht club, I prepared my charter boat, which needed a good clean and polish, I’m sure we
handed it back at the end of the regatta in way better condition than when we received it. Once prepped we had a good
training session with Grant Alderson (our coach), it was amazing how warm it was and how warm the water was.