Annual Youth Awards were presented by the Royal BVI Yacht Club to sailors who have shown outstanding involvement and commitment to sailing and to the club as a whole.

The awards were handed out at the Youth Christmas Party and End of Term Regatta. The categories and recipients were as follows:

Most Improved Club Dinghy- Ryan Lettsome
Sportmanship Award – Kyle Roose
Best Club Dinghy – Rayne Duff
Best Youth International Competitor – Sam Morrell
Best BVI International Competitor – Alec Anderson & Chris Brockbank

Optimist fleet at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club’S 52nd annual Open Orange Bowl Regatta, Miami, Dec 26 – 30. Photo: Provided

Also during the holidays, British Virgin Islands Optimist sailors, Nathan Haycraft and Rayne Duff, and 29er sailors, Sam Morrell and Daniel Petrovic flew to Miami to compete in the Coconut Grove Sailing Club’s 52nd annual Open Orange Bowl Regatta which took place December 26 – 30.

The weather conditions for the regatta were unlike what the sailors are used to training in; the wind was light and the seas were calm.

The boys only raced two of the days and eight races were completed in the Optimist fleet. Rayne ended up finishing in blue fleet; 8th out of 112 competitors and overall 22nd out of 219 competitors. Nathan ended up in white fleet placing 10th out of 38 competitors and 124th out of 219 competitors.

Sam and Daniel competed in the 7 scored races of the 29er category to finish 9th out of a fleet of 26.

The Royal BVI Yacht Club Youth Sailing Programme ‘Race Team’ traveled with Commodore Haycraft to attend the St. Maarten Yacht Club Optimist Championships November 8-9. Team BVI comprised 6 youth sailors and included Ryan Lettsome, Nicholas Haycraft, Kyle Roose, James Rajic-Knight, Nathan Haycraft and Rayne Duff, along with Coach Rob.

The weather on day one was nothing if not trying. Sailing the first day inside the lagoon where there were very gusty and shifty winds, without sunshine to encourage made it a hard effort in challenging conditions. On the second day, the racing moved to the outer bay, offering longer courses and more consistent and pleasant weather which suited the young sailors well.

In what was an interesting variation, two of Team BVI’s youngest sailors, Ryan Lettsome and Nicholas ‘Nico’ Haycraft were made to compete in the age division championship fleets, instead of the expected, beginner only ‘Green Fleet’. The challenging conditions and strong wind combined with Championship level courses were hard on the young boys, but both slogged it out and completed many of the races, ending wiht Ryan just edging Nico out of last place – a steep learning curve but a rewarding one as well.

Kyle and James both had a much improved second day to finish in 14th and 9th respectively, James recovering from an OCS (early start penalty) and a capsize on the first day to claw places back. Nathan was successful in winning one of the races which helped him to secure a 4th place overall finish.

Rayne Duff retains Sol St Maarten Optimist Championship title. Photo: RBVIYC

Rayne achieved a convincing victory to carry the title of Sol St. Maarten Optimist Champ for another year.

“Encouraging international relationships and community bonds among its youth sailors is an important element the youth sailing programme,” said Commodore Haycraft. “The friends and connections made through this sport build good will and even promote future business between the communities. The RBVIYC makes efforts to attend many regional events around the Caribbean and we hope this strong showing will encourage more Caribbean sailors to travel to events as well.”

Click here for the results.

By: RBVIYC

Team BVI at Columbus Day Regatta, St Thomas. Photo: RBVIYC

The Royal BVI Yacht Club Youth Sailors traveled to St Thomas to compete in the Columbus Day Regatta hosted by the St. Thomas Yacht Club, on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 October.

The BVI team sailed well in difficult conditions, very light winds, bringing home first place in 3 classes.  Nathan Haycraft came first in Optimist White Fleet, Rayne Duff came first in Optimist Blue Fleet with Sam Morrell and Danny Petrovic first in 420 class.

The Optimist Championship Fleet was won by Teddy Nicolosi (STYC) with BVI’s  Rayne Duff only 4 points behind in 2nd. Thad Lettsome finished overall in 5th, Nathan Haycraft 8th, Amelie Clark was 15th, with Kyle Roose, Max Reshetiloff and Olivia Messum finishing their first Optimist event 17th, 18th and 19th respectively. The lack of wind on both days meant that only 7 races could be completed over the two day event

There were also 4 BVI sailors competing in the Optimist Green Fleet for beginner racers.  Anya Reshetiloff, Ryan Lettsome, Noah George and Nicolas Haycraft who all sailed extremely well in the challenging conditions doing the BVI’s very proud.

In the Laser Radial class, Jason Putley and Matthew Oliver represented the BVI with Jason finishing 2nd and Matthew finishing 3rd. The 420 class was won by Team BVI sailors, Sam Morrell and Danny Petrovic, who finished 2 points ahead of 2nd place.

“The weekend could not have happened without the support of our corporate sponsors,” said Julie Rhodes, RBIYC manager. “The Moorings, who provided us with two Catamarans which were used to transport boats and competitors as well as to accommodate them;  Nanny Cay for the use of the fuel dock to load our boats and for overnight dockage, and Nagico Insurance for their continued support of our Youth Sailing Program.”

Mrs Rhodes went on to thank the  St Thomas Yacht Club, event hosts, and the Team BVI Race coach, Rob Lind and instructor, Katelyn Woodman for coordinating the team. Team BVI comprised 15 sailors – the largest showing the BVI has had at an international event for some time.

Results: http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=9139

Sailing Classes are offered all day on Saturday as well as after school at Nanny Cay. Contact the Royal BVI Yacht Club office on 494 3286 to get out on the water.

Copyright © Matias Capizzano

Junior sailors Rayne Duff, Thad Lettsome, and Nathan Haycraft represented the British Virgin Islands in the Optimist North American Championship 2014 which took place July 9 – 16 in Nayarit, Mexico.

The four days of fleet sailing saw 175 competitors aged 11 to 15 from 19 nations racing in Banderas Bay. After seven races, Jodie Lai from Singapore won the overall and top female title, while Ivan Shestopalov (USA) was overall runner-up to win the North American title.

Rayne placed 15/59 in the Yellow Flight and 15th overall. Rayne was also the highest placed sailor from the Caribbean. Thad placed 11/58 in the Blue Flight, and Nathan placed 39/58 in the Red Flight.

The sailing conditions were difficult with the wind varying from 5 knots one minute to 15 knots the next then back to 5 knots, there was also 3 knots of current that didn’t seem to have any rules.

Due to the very light winds a lot of time was spent waiting for the wind to fill in so far less sailing was done over the 4 race days, only 7 races were completed.  This made it harder for our BVI sailors to settle in and adjust to the sailing conditions.

That said, Rayne showed his dominance in the class with a very clean and stable result board.  If there had not been a discard Rayne would have taken 3rd place overall.

Thad had some good results and showed his maturity, towering above the rest of the fleet he managed to keep good results in difficult conditions.

Nathan, the youngest team member, learnt new tactics when dealing with such large fleets and the effects of a black flag.

OptiNAM 2014 comprises three separate championships, The Optimist Individual North American Championship (INAM), The Optimist Team Racing North American Championship (TRNAM) and The Optimist Nations Cup (NC).

Countries represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Japan, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Switzerland, United States, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and Mexico. Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.

Following OptiNAM, and the concurrent European Championships, the Optimist World Championships will be held in San Isidro, Argentina this coming October.

http://www.optinam2014.org/results-display  for the full results.

About Optimist sailing
The Optimist, a 7 1/2 foot flat bottomed boat, is the biggest and fastest growing dinghy class in the world, and the only dinghy designed exclusively for children under 15 recognized by the International Sailing Federation.

As one of the most intensely competitive classes worldwide, despite the youthfulness of its sailors, the Optimist has emerged through the years as the premier developmental boat for young sailors. Optimist sailing provides a secure foundation for children entering the sport to develop into world class sports men and women.