Bermuda Youth Sailors Shine In South America
Bermuda shines once again in South America at the highly competitive and popular IODA South American Championships. This regatta fielded 156 sailors from 14 countries. Racing concluded yesterday in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. This regatta is considered one of the top regattas in the World by the International Optimist Dinghy Association[IODA].
The organizers of the South American Championships were able to get three races off yesterday in the light but fairly consistent breeze from the south to complete the Championship for nine races, with only one drop race, making consistency a key factor in achieving top results.
Bermuda fielded a relatively young but strong team of 8. This is the 13th year in a row that Bermuda has fielded a team to this Championship.
This year’s team consisted of Joe Arrowsmith, George Buckley, Camille Chin-Gurret, Felix Cutler, Yannick Hillier, Adam Larson, Tayte Stefaniuk and Mikey Wollmann. There were seasoned veterans like Mikey Wollmann and first time IODA competitor Adam Larson.
The team was led by Bermuda’s High Performance coach, Martin Jenkins himself a two-time IODA World Champion who has been hired by the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association to prepare and coach sailors for International competition.
In the Nations Cup Team Race aspect of the regatta, BER 1 placed in the 4th position in a tie with Chile 3. The eventual winners were the USA powerhouse who took 1st and 2nd place. Third was the US Virgin Islands.
In the fleet racing Tayte Stefaniuk, a 12 year old Warwick Academy student was the top BER sailor placing 29th. He stayed consistent throughout the regatta and sadly in the last race got a black flag and slipped from 17th to 29th overall. Adam Larson, also 12, from Somersfield Academy was the 2nd BER sailor placing 41st overall.
Final results as follows:
- 29th – Tayte Stefaniuk
- 41st – Adam Larson
- 53rd – Joe Arrowsmith
- 83rd – Felix Cutler [30th Blue Fleet]
- 89th – Mikey Wollmann [36th BlueFleet]
- 93rd – George Buckley [40th Blue Fleet]
- 97th – Camille Chin-Gurret [44th Blue Fleet]
- 148th – Yannick Hillier [42nd Red Fleet]
Overall Open Champion was Ivan Shestopalov [13] from the USA for the second year in a row. The 2014 South American Champion was 12 year old Dante Cittadini of Argentina who was the Open Champion at the 2013 IODA North American Championship held in Bermuda in July of this past year.
