Optimist Sailing South Africa – Newsletter No. 2

Optimist Sailing SA Quarter 2 Report 2017

Optimist Africans and Worlds

On Thursday the 22nd June a press function was held at MAC in order to introduce the teams to the media, take some photos and to hand out the team clothing. Unfortunately not everyone could make it however some did manage to Skype conference call in to watch the proceedings. There will be a story in the local newspapers which we will publish as soon as received.

You can follow the Optimist Africans here on Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/OptimistAfrican2017/
You can follow the Optimist Worlds here on Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/OptimistWorldChampionship2017/

Regular information and news will be posted on our official Optimist website www.optimist.org.za and our Facebook page https://web.facebook.com/OptimistSailingSA/ throughout both events.

Much training has been taking place at Granger Bay and Langebaan in preparation for this event. It was great to have the up country sailors fly down and join the training. A big thanks to Fabrizio Fruet and Cal Tomlinson for putting this together as well as Claire Walker, Dylan Long  and Roger Hudson for the coaching.

Good luck to all our sailors attending these two events!

All of the photos from the evening can be found here.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5jgOvjyZTKiMnJRc0xZa1VFZ00

The EXCO of the Optimist Sailing SA have expressed their objection to the format and dates for the upcoming Youth Nationals in December to be held at Midmar.

The traditional racing from Monday to Friday with Team Racing and a lay day on the Wednesday has been changed to racing from Monday to Thursday with no lay day and Team Racing on the Friday. We all know that people will want to get home and no one will stay for the Team Racing and have expressed our objection to the change.

We believe the Youth Nationals Organizing Committee should have consulted with the various classes before making this change. The Dabchick and Laser Classes have also lodged objections.

Please visit this link and indicate if you agree or disagree with the changes.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/7CVFHT9

TEAM WESTERN CAPE will be participating in the 9th Qingdao International Sailing Week / Qingdao International Marine Festival 2017.

In terms of SAS’s tripartite agreement with Dept of Cultural Affairs & Sport (DCAS) as well as The Sports Bureau of Shandong Province, SA Sailing WC is proud to announce Team Western Cape 2017. With the financial support of DCAS, our Western Cape Optimist sailors will benefit on so many levels; experiencing a different culture, creating new life long sailing friendships, enjoying different sailing conditions and learning new skills. The team will depart on 08 August 2017 and return on 18 August 2017. Our youth sailors will be enriched and ready to share their new found knowledge with others.

Team WC is representative of the Metro, Eden, West Coast, Overberg and Cape Winelands Districts as follows :-

Bev le Sueur (SA Sailing WC Acting Chairlady) – Female, Cape Winelands
Shama Nathoo – (Team Leader) – Female, West Coast
Dylan Long (Team Coach) – Male, Overberg
Elisa Falcon (10 years old) – Female, Metro
Stella Bakker (13 years old) – Female, Overberg
Chiara Ross (12 years old) – Female, Metro
Sean Vonk (11 years old) – Male, Eden
Alex Falcon (13 years old) – Male, Metro
Thomas Raynham (14 years old) – Male, Overberg

We have heard from SAS that an appeal has been put in around the selection process with the threat of taking the matter to Department of Culture and Sport and\or World Sailing. We urge members to deal with SAS through their Class Chairs as these sort of threats to SAS put these programs at risk and the project may be cancelled or passed onto another class in future.

Our 5 new Optimists finally arrived from China and have been unpacked and loaded onto the new trailer we purchased. The boats are to be used for developing new sailors and any club or organisation wishing to make use of them must please send a motivational proposal on how the boats will be used to grow Optimist sailing and over what period. Unfortunately the cost of importing these boats was very high, so even though the boats themselves were free, we will be looking at ways to recover the import fee’s.

These boats can also be chartered out for regatta’s at R250.00 per day complete. (Please bring your own sails)