Milford Yacht Club’s 2024 Opti Regatta
written by Erin Wojdaszka
Milford Yacht Club held its OptiSail Regatta Area C with Green Fleet on Wednesday, July 24th. The sailors, coaches, and parents showed up Wednesday morning at 8:00 am to register and check-in. They began to get their Opti boats on the dock and rigged. All sailors needed to make sure they completed their measurement and equipment check prior to the competitors meeting.
The day started out overcast with clouds, and some breeze. Bruce Scull the event chair said, “We have at least 63 or more Opti’s in the Red, Blue, and White fleets and at least 21 boats in the Green fleet. So we have close to 86 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 two different courses. But today it seems like the rain will hopefully hold off and we have a lot of people who came out to help make sure the sailors had a fun day of racing and can safely sail in the 7-9 knots of wind.”
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. Bob Farnum, Principal Race officer said, “ We will set up two triangle courses for the fleets. The Green fleet will race in the cove to the right near Charles Island and the Red, Blue, and White fleet will race off towards the left eastern side of Charles Island. He reminded the competitors to watch their starts, with a lot of boats like this it can be challenging and we don’t want to restart because there are too many boats over the line”
Grant Zimmerman from PYC has raced in several Optimist regattas this summer. He said, “My goal today was to finish in the top 5 in the Red, Blue, and White fleet, and have fun.” 
The Red, Blue, and White fleet kicked off their harbor start around 10:40 and were towed out of the channel, and the Green fleet started their harbor start not too far behind. As all the races started it looked like it was turning out to be a breezy day, but the humid hot temperatures might stay away today. To see the results of the MYC Area C regatta click here.
