Podium finishes for Milo & Sarah at the Volvo Gill Optimist End of Season Championships.
Date Posted: 14/10/2011
Gill Race Team members Milo Gill-Taylor and Sarah Norbury produced fantastic individual performances at the Volvo Gill Optimist End of Season Championships last weekend to achieve 2nd and 3rd place respectively.
The annual event is the last major event on the Optimist calendar and a chance for IOCA UK Worlds team members to compete against some top competition before they head off to Napier, New Zealand at the end of December.
Over 290 young sailors battled it out over the weekend in testing conditions that ranged from no wind to 25 knots so it was great to see Milo and Sarah working so hard to finish on the podium. Well done!
Optimist Inland Championships
Date Posted: 16/05/2011
Capsizes, tows, and cold sailors were the order of the day on Saturday but there were smiles all round. Sunday saw the winds drop slightly which improved conditions for the young sailors. The Regatta fleet were not able to race on Saturday due to the conditions but the Main fleet got in three races with another six on Sunday.
Matthew Whitfield won the Inland Championships with Gill Race Team member Sarah Norbury coming second and the Regatta fleet was won by William Heathcote so congratulations to you all.
The Inlands was our first event as sponsor of the Volvo Gill Optimist Class. It was great to meet you all and we are looking forward to seeing you again at the Nationals.
Gill Race Team member selected to compete in the European Optimist Championships
Date Posted: 11/05/2010
Gill Race Team member Sarah Norbury has successfully seen off her competition to win a place on the British Optimist European Team!
78 optimists took to the water to compete in the selectors which were held over two weekends - the first in Weymouth and the second in Pwllheli. Overcoming stiff opposition and extreme weather conditions, Sarah was delighted to finish 6th overall and 1st Girl by quite a margin!
Sarah is the youngest member on the girl’s British Optimist European Team and the first 13 year old girl to win a place in the team for a number of years.
Over 40 countries send sailors to the European Optimist Championships and there will be around 230 sailors taking part.
Our congratulations go out to Sarah for yet another fantastic result!
Gill Race Team members triumph at Dutch Easter Regatta
Date Posted: 07/04/2010
Gill Race Team members Scott Wallis and Sarah Norbury were among the 40 British Optimist sailors that descended on Braassemermeer to compete against a 230 strong invitational fleet.
Individual race wins were notched up by Scott Wallis. Consistency and avoiding the black flag was the key to success and by Sunday night when the fleet were split into Gold, Silver and Bronze for the finals, Team GBR were in good shape with Scott leading the pack.
Two gold fleet races were held in 6- 13 knots, with some quite large shifts and pressure differences across the race course, which made the racing challenging. The first gold fleet race was a nervy affair, general recall on a blue peter followed by a black flag start. Scott Wallis was 8th by the last leeward mark, but his nearest rival, German Fabian Graf sailed a perfect race to score a bullet.
Sarah Norbury, still carrying a black flag from a previous race came a creditable 4th and Scott missed one tricky shift to still lead by 3 points going into the last race.
In the final race, Scott managed a blistering start but was caught by a loss of pressure in the middle of the windward leg. By the last leeward mark he had made up 10 places to sit behind Graf up the last beat. After many tacks and dummy tacks and other shinanigans Graf managed to get a small bunch between him and Scott at the finish to take the title, leaving Scott with a more than delighted second place.
Meanwhile Sarah Norbury managed a 7th which pushed her up to 4th overall and 1st girl.
Our congratulations go out to both Scott and Sarah.
