Sailing Report

Tom Brewer

This past weekend, our Cranbrook sailors competed in the NSW Optimist State Championships up at Toronto, Lake Macquarie. Six sailors from Junior and four from Senior School gained some valuable experience in a very competitive fleet. We were very lucky to have some light wind fill in each day right before racing began but this also made for some unpredictable sailing conditions.  

Congratulations to Walter Heeley (Year 7) who raced a very tight regatta, finishing up in 5^th place, only 2 points away from 3^rd. A big well done goes to Marcus Retboell (Year 5) & Will Harris (Year 5) who made their debut in open fleet, racing against some of the top National sailors. In intermediate fleet, we saw some great mindset work from Balthazar Roche (Year 5), after having a frustrating Race 4 to getting his head back in the game and scoring a 3^rd place in Race 5. We also saw some exciting sailing from Harrison Lucas-Martinez (Year 7). Whilst it was his first regatta, he showed confidence and skill racing up in the top half of the intermediate fleet at times.  

With States now wrapped up, the boys are training for the next event in June and, ultimately, the Optimist Nationals next January, where the potential lies to qualify for an Optimist Australian Team spot.