Sailing: BODA President Reflects On Optinam
After two years of planning and hundreds of hours of volunteer work, Anthony Bailey [pictured], the Bermuda Optimist Dinghy Association [BODA] President and Optinam Event Chairman, heralds the event as a “great success” and reflects on the long road and herculean effort.
“I am very pleased with the overall organization of the regatta and especially pleased with how the sailing community came together to ensure that this Bermuda regatta was a success.”
The regatta brought 156 sailors from 18 countries to Bermuda to join 20 local sailors on the waters of the Great Sound and it is believed to be the largest one-design sailing event in Bermuda’s long maritime history.
“I have received nothing but positive comments from a number of the visiting countries expressing how happy they we’re with the running of the event, the venue, and the whole atmosphere, ” said Bailey.
Bailey acknowledged the vast team effort needed to execute a regatta of this size and singled out Regatta Manager, Dede Cooper, who ” gave unselfishly of her time, day and night in order to get the job done”.
The BODA President also said that, “‘none of this would have been possible without the support of numerous corporate and private sponsors led by The Bank of Bermuda Foundation, The Department of Tourism, Tokio Millennium Re, The Department of Youth and Sport and the Corporation of Hamilton along with a large group of smaller sponsors and providers of goods and services.”
Bailey was pleased with the overall performance of the BODA sailors and the excellent job done by the coaches. “Bermuda had two podium finishers in Ceci Wollmann who was the1st North American girl, 2nd girl overall and 9th overall in the regatta. Chase Cooper was the 2nd placed North American sailor and and 5th placed overall.”
“Other outstanding performances included Campbell Patton, Joe Arrowsmith, Mikey Wollmann, Tayte Stefaniuk and Camille Chin-Gurret, all of whom placed in the top 100.
“Young Micah Thomas-Raynor also had a good regatta just missing out on a top100 finish. Coaches Martin Jenkins and Elijah Simmons were both outstanding in their preparation of the team, ” commented Bailey.
Finally Bailey wished to “thank his BODA Executive, all of the sailing community, our sponsors and partners and supporters for making Optinam 2013 a success.”
Complete Prize list:
Nations Cup: For teams of countries from outside of North America
- 3rd: Chile 1 – Dante Parodi, Enrique Feliu, Felipe Fuentes and Benjamin Molina
- 2nd: Argentina 2 -Carmela Berger, Juan Pablo Cardozo, Matías Dietrich, Alejandro Formica and Iñaki Gurmindo
- 1st: Singapore -Samuel Neo, Shyn Ee Phua, Jodie Lai, Isaac Tang and Serzen Gurung
North American Team Race Championship: For teams of North American countries
- 3rd: USA 1 – Lucke Arnone, Conner Correll, Henry Burnes, Thomas Rice, Cameron Giblin
- 2nd: US Virgin Islands – Scott McKenzie, Teddy Nicolosi, Mateo DiBlasi, Christopher Murphy, Ryan Hunter
- 1st: USA 2 – Shawn Harvey, Matt Logue, Louisa Nordstrom, Eduardo Mintzias, Ryan Hennessey
Individual Races
- First male sailor regardless of continent of residence – Dante Cittadini [ARG]
- First male sailor whose continent of residence is North America – Shawn Harvey [USA]
- First female sailor whose continent of residence is North America – Ceci Wollmann [BER]
- Top Junior: to the best under-12 sailor overall [born in 2002 or later] – Dante Parodi [CHI]
- First sailor from Bermuda – Chase Cooper
Top 5 female sailors overall – regardles of the continent of residence
- 5th: Olivia Belda [BRA]
- 4th: Luiza Cruz [BRA]
- 3rd: Shyn Ee Phua [SIN]
- 2nd: Ceci Wollmann [BER]
- 1st: Martina Pisani [ARG]
First female sailor overall, who is awarded the championship trophy and the permanent trophy to the first girl overall – Martina Pisani [ARG]
First 15 sailors regardles of gender and continent of residence
- 15th: Matt Logue [USA]
- 14th: Breno Kneipp [BRA]
- 13th: Ian Moran [USA]
- 12th: Luiza Cruz [BRA]
- 11th: Luke Arnone [USA]
- 10th: Shyn Ee Phua [SIN]
- 9th: Ceci Wollmann [BER]
- 8th: Henry Burns [USA]
- 7th: Ripley Shelley [USA]
- 6th: Scott Mackenzie [BER]
- 5th: Chase Cooper [BER]
- 4th: Shawn Harvey [USA]
- 3rd: Martina Pisani [ARG]
- 2nd: Samuel Neo [SIN]
- 1st: Dante Cittadini [ARG]
Top 3 sailors from North America
- 3rd: Scott Mackenzie ISV
- 2nd: Chase Cooper BER
- 1st: Shawn Harvey USA [2013 North American Champion]
- Photo by Matias Capizzano
