Milford Yacht Club OptiSail Regatta 2024
by Erin Wojdaszka, JSA Communications Manager
Milford Yacht Club held its OptiSail Regatta, with Green Fleet, for JSA Area C on Wednesday, July 26th. The sailors, coaches, and parents showed up Wednesday morning at 8:00 am to register and check-in.
After they got their Optimists on the dock and rigged, the sailors needed to make sure they completed their measurement and equipment check prior to the competitors’ meeting.
The day started out hot and humid, but a light breeze started to fill in the cove outside of Charles Island around 11:00 am. Bruce Scull said, “We have at least 60 Optis in the combined Red/Blue/White fleet and at least 30 boats in the Green fleet. So we have close to 100 boats that are supposed to register and race today. Sometimes, with this many boats, it makes it challenging to have enough volunteers to help run the two different courses. But today we have a lot of people who came out to help make sure the sailors had a fun day of racing.”
Bob Farnum, PRO for the Red/Blue/White fleet said, “We will set up two triangular courses for the fleets: the Green fleet will race in the cove to the right near Charles Island, and the Red/White/Blue fleet will race off towards the left or eastern side of Charles Island.”
Brody Vail and Grant Zimmerman from Pequot YC have raced in several Optimist regattas this summer. They both said, “Our goal today was to finish in the top 5 in the Red/Blue/White fleet, and have fun.”
Douglas Jones, PRO for the Green Fleet, ran the competitors’ meeting and described the course and the different flags they will see flying on the race committee boat. One flag he reviewed specifically was the “I” flag (spoken as the “India” flag). This flag is known as the one minute rule, which requires any boat over the starting line within a minute of the start time to sail around the end of the line in order to start the race fairly. Douglas said, “ I heard you guys were eager sailors and will want to be right at the start line as soon as the horn sounds. This is good, but it is challenging for other boats and making for a fair start.” Concluding the competitors meeting and keeping with the spirit of having fun Douglas told two sailing jokes!
Milford coach Julieanna shared, “ I am excited to be here to help out with the Green Fleet. The kids are so excited to have a chance to participate in a regatta.” Julieanna is the coach for the Junior Buccaneer program at MYC that introduces youngsters to sailing. It was great to see the parents out there helping the Green fleet sailors get their equipment checked and make sure they were ready for the competitors meeting.
The combined Red/White/Blue fleet kicked off their first race around 11:45am and the Green fleet started their first race around 12pm. As all the races started, it looked like it was turning out to be a beautiful day for racing Optimists. To see the results of the Milford YC regatta for JSA Area C click here.
