O’Neill International Easter Optimist Regatta – Braassemermeer, Holland

Forty six of the UK’s Optimist sailors made their way to Holland over Easter to take part in the 14^th running of this traditional Easter event which sees competition between 300 of Europe’s top Optimist sailors. The young sailors had a lot to live up to as the UK had won the event for the last two years. Could they make it a hat trick? To give the competitors a fighting chance, most of them arrived three days early (sympathetic headmasters allowing) to practice under the watchful eye of Pete Martin, the class coach. Whilst the parents enjoyed beach like weather, the children trained in varied conditions from near calm to a gusty force 5 which built a short chop on the Braassemermeer.

Serious sailing started on the Saturday with the competitors divided into 6 groups. Each group sailed against each other group in a series of 15 races. Each competitor sailed five races with 4 to count. Thereafter, for Monday’s races, the fleet was divided into gold, silver and bronze fleets on the basis of the previous two days results.

In the first race, the first flight, surprisingly, got clean away in a very light breeze, but the second and third flights adopted what was to become the norm for the weekend – two general recalls followed by the use of the black flag. The best results of this race were achieved in the second flight with Tim Boydell (Restronguet) first, and James Tilley (Restronguet) second at the windward mark, positions which they held to the finish. In the other flights, Bastien Meur of Belgium opened his account improving from second at the windward mark to record a win in the third flight whilst a Swedish boy won the first flight.

After a short break for lunch taken on the water with the help of the four UK support boats, all of the flights experienced general recalls for the second race. The wind was still under 6 knots, and the lighter children started to show to the fore. Thomas Mallandine (Bowmoor) one of the smallest of the UK sailors, recorded a win, Luke Patience (Royal Northern and Clyde) a second and Stuart Frize (Clyde Cruising) a third. Bastien Meur gained a second consolidating his position at the front of the results after the first day, with Thomas Mallandine second.

Sunday dawned colder but with the wind, still light at 10 knots, although fuller than the previous day. The UK sailors really got into their stride when the third race got underway after a delay to allow the wind to settle. Stephen Powell (Hayling Island), Ben Marshall (Bowmoor) and Sam Pascoe (Weir Wood) led the fleet in their race, with Ben gaining the lead on the last beat when Stephen Powell got on the wrong side of a shift. In the third flight, the UK lead from the front with Mathew Greenfield (Weir Wood), Oliver Dix (Hayling Island), Joe Henry (Hayling Island), James Tilley and Thomas Mallandine finishing in that order after battling for the top 5 places for the whole race.

The fourth race was again subject to delay, and with the line having port end bias, a significant bulge developed in many of the starts. The Nordic countries came off worse with several of their competitors black flagged. Amongst the UK sailors, Thomas Mallandine, the bit between his teeth after his excellent results received a 20% penalty, which was eventually to prove very costly to his fourth position in this race. But the UK continued to record good positions, with wins for Tim Boydell and Harry Marshall (Barnt Green), and thirds for Nick Thompson (Royal Lymington) and Thomas Smedley (Hayling Island). But, Bastien Meur continued his excellent form with another first to lead the fleet at the end of the second day, which was curtailed after two races as dusk settled over the lake.

The race committee announced the gold, silver and bronze fleets on Monday morning. The UK had 22, 50% of their competitors in the gold fleet, more than any other country, and considering that they represented only 17% of the competitors, an excellent achievement. But the key prize was the individual trophy – Bastien Meur was in the lead, but Thomas Mallandine, Tim Boydell, Nick Thompson and Stuart Frize were all in with a chance.

The wind had backed to the southwest overnight and freshened to 12 knots. The heavier sailors had smiles on their faces, but most of them were in the silver fleet after two light days! The line was square for the first race and both the gold and silver fleets got away without even an individual recall. Thomas Mallandine maintained his form in the gold fleet working his way from eighth at the first mark to fourth at the finish, although Johnny Marshall (Royal Lymington) enjoyed the breeze and finished second, his previous best being tenth in the last race of the previous day. In the silver fleet, Stephen Powell again demonstrated his speed recovering from third after the beat to win the race with Alison Martin (Burghfield) in eighth place and the top UK girl.

The wind continued to build and by the time the warning signal went for the last group of races there was a good 15 knot southwesterly with gusts upto 18 knots. Could Thomas Mallandine and Bastien Meur, who had led the fleet since the first day, compensate for their lightweight? Again, perhaps because of the stronger breeze, the fleets got away first time. Johnny Marshall again lead the UK fight arriving third at windward mark, and, as the wind increased further, working his way to a consecutive second place. With seven in the top twenty, the UK sailors scored well. Thomas Mallandine finished fourteenth, the only race where he was outside the top five, but the 20% penalty from the fourth race now hurt pushing him from first to third when the results were counted at the end of the regatta. Bastien Meur also found the going tougher recording a twenty second, which he had to count as in the previous race he had finished only thirtieth, thus using his discard. Sweden’s Anton Dahlberg achieved a third and sixth on the last day, which leapfrogged him into first place from the third position he held overnight, through a very consistent performance where without winning a race, he only finished once outside the top eight.

Although a hat trick of individual wins eluded the UK sailors, there was a silver lining, with Thomas Mallandine (3^rd), Tim Boydell (5^th), Nick Thompson (6^th) and Stuart Frize (7^th) being the top four UK sailors, and thus winning the team prize for the UK. Well done to everyone.

Robert Dix

 Results: Gold Fleet: 1^st Anton Dahlberg (SWE), 2^nd Bastien Meur (BEL), 3^rd Thomas Mallandine (GBR), 4^th Juho Nykanen (FIN), 5^th Tim Boydell (GBR), 6^th Nick Thompson (GBR), 7^th Stuart Frize (GBR). Other GBR: Johnny Marshall 9^th, Joe Henry 14^th, Ben Marshall 19^th, Tom Smedley 22^nd, Philip White 23^rd, Luke Patience 32^nd, Harry Marshall 36^th, Aiden Webb 41^st, Peter Gray 42^nd, Johnny Frazer 43^rd, Sam Pascoe 48^th, Nick Asher 50^th, Chris Catt 52^nd, James Tilley 57^th, Philip Lasko 70^th, Oliver Dix 71^st, Hywel Poole 86^th. Silver Fleet: Stephen Powell 3^rd, Mathew Greenfield 4^th, Nick Cherry 10^th, Tom Stuart 14^th, Guy Kingham 16^th, Callum MacDonald 19^th, Myles Willis 20^th, Olivier Vidal 22^nd, Alison Martin 24^th, Edward Powys 30^th, Ben Hinks 34^th, William Morgan 39^th, Charles Hill 41^st, Andrew Skubala 43^rd, Jonathen Clegg 60^th, Collette Blair 79^th, Charlotte Savage 81^st, Chris McIntosh 89^th. Bronze Fleet: Chris Evans 6^th, Paul Davies 12^th, Luke Matley-Jones 22^nd, Charlotte Dobson 27^th, Richard Watsham 50^th, Alex McIntosh 52^nd, Victoria Savage 56^th.

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Last modified: May 12, 2002