Young sailors travel afar

| 22/09/2009

(CNS): Members of the Cayman Islands Sailing Team have had a successful summer competing in seven international sailing regattas, the Cayman Islands Sailing Club reports. Team members travelled as far afield as Brazil, Canada, Italy and the United States of America. At the Optimist World Championship in Brazil, Matthew Courtis came a very impressive 48th out of 211 boats. This concludes an excellent season for Courtis who also finished 20th at the United States Optimist Championship and took first place at a regatta in Texas. Matthew will now focus on qualifying for the Youth Olympic Games in 2010. (Photos CISC)

At the World Byte Championships in Canada, Marina Maffessanti, Chris Delaney (above) and Lizzy Wauchope (below) raced in a fleet of forty boats. Delaney led the team with a 25th place finish, Maffessanti was close behind in 29th, and 14 year-old Wauchope came 31st.

Meanwhile, Cayman Laser National Champion Nick Taylor, had an outstanding finish in the Laser Radial division at the Olympic Classes Regatta in Canada. Taylor sailed to a sixth place finish out of 87 boats. Taylor will be defending his title as Cayman’s top Laser sailor at this year’s Laser Nationals in November.

Stuart Jennings and CISC Sailing Director, Mike Weber headed off to the two-person 29er class World Championship in Italy and also competed in the North American Championship in Canada. The duo placed mid-fleet in both events and are preparing for the 2010 World Championship in January.

And Laser sailor, Rob Jackson, performed well at the Laser Master World Championship in Halifax, Canada, where he finished 21st in a fleet of almost 40 boats.

Weber noted the high level of competitive sailing done by this year’s team. “To have our sailors at four different world championships is quite a feat for a small country. I am very proud of our team, in particular our youth sailors, who have represented Cayman so well at these prestigious events.”

Weber also highlighted that, “competing at this level on the international circuit was only possible due to generous sponsorship by Cayman companies. We would like to thank our 2009 sponsors, Conyers, Stuarts, and Butterfield Bank, for their continued support for youth sailing and racing.”

The team will continue practising and are looking forward to the Scotiabank National Youth Sailing Championship to be held at the Cayman Islands Sailing Club on October 24th and 25th and also the RBC School Sailing Championship on November 27th.

For more information on the Cayman Islands Sailing Team, please contact Mike Weber at sailing@sailing.ky
 

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