Optimist of the Month
Ross MacKinnon & Alex Falcon ‘Optimist’s of the Month’ – November 2018
Ross and Alex both learnt to sail on Optimists. They sailed in all the Western Cape and National Championships over the past few years. Alex represented South Africa at the Optimist Worlds and African Championships and Ross at the African Championships last year. At the start of this year they started training on the 420 together. Their goal for the year was to win the u17 section of the 420 Nationals. They exceeded this by winning the overall title. They will be sailing in the Youth Nationals at the Vaal Dam next month.
Ian Walker ‘Optimist of the Month’ – October 2018
SA National Optimist Champion (2017), Ian Walker finished in a very credible 41st place overall from a fleet of 264 boats at the recent Optimist World Championships held in Limassol Cyprus. Sailing for Team RSA, his position improves on the previous best set by David Wilson (47th) at the Worlds held in New Zealand.
Well Done Ian! You can be very proud of your achievement. We certainly are.
More on Ian here
Gold Fleet results here
Helen Jansen van Vuuren ‘Optimist of the Month’ – June 2018
Helen first sailing experience was as crew with her Uncle, Andy Wahl in Sept 2013 in the Mirror Nationals at the Vaal dam. That was all it took.
Under the watchful eye of Shellee Nel, Helen started sailing Oppies. At her second Youth Nationals at Wiggleswade 2015, Helen won the first girl. Thereafter she was selected to the African Championship on two occasions, Angola 2016 and Egypt 2017.
In the Mirror class she has also represent SA at two Mirror Worlds, 2015 Theewaters and 2017 at Restronguet Sailing Club near Falmouth in Corwall,UK.
Helen has opted to move onto the Laser class and would like to take this opportunity to thank all her fellow oppie sailors for all the memories and friendships made. Wishing Team RSA all the best for Africans and Worlds.