Sailing Success for Oliver

Oliver from Year 4 has recently had some fantastic sailing success in the North West Zone Championships on the 23rd and 24th of September.

Over the weekend there were 7 races in total, with approximately 100 competitors. These races where for the selection of the Northern region zone squad and children from all over the North West and North East compete for the weekend to decide who will represent the North.

Zone squad is the first stage of the ladder for children of up to 15 to start sailing competitively around the country. These sailors then progress to the intermediate squad and then the National squad before Olympic selection.

Oliver races an Optimist which is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy. Optimists also have a national sail number, using the Olympic abbreviation of their country (e.g. GBR) and a sequential numbers.

Here is Oliver’s boat

Oliver is by far the youngest competitor in the main fleet, and raced 6 of the 7 races that weekend. Oliver is not hoping to qualify this year, it was just a bit of practice. Oliver did however win the Regatta Fleet race and came away with a medal and an RYA hat, a much sought after prize!

Oliver has thrived due to his outstanding levels of dedication and hard work and we hope to see more great successes from him in the near future. Well done Oliver!