Peter is from Toronto, but trains regularly in the Kingston, sailing out of the Kingston Yacht Club. Two more Kingston sailors qualified to represent Canada, Bergh Ellemers and Ross Murdoch, both achieving personal bests with results of 94th and 158th respectively participating in their first major championship.

The championship included 200 competitors from North and South America, as well as teams representing Japan and New Zealand. Each of the sailboats was fitted with a tracking unit powered by Rogers to enable live coverage of the event. Spectators worldwide were able to follow race progress in real time, and will be able to replay the competitions for the next year. (Connect to replay options for the TracTrac system though the event website)

Christopher Williford from USA was crowned North American Champion 2010. Christopher sailed consistently throughout the event, finishing among the top ten sailors in all 12 races except for one. This is the second time he is awarded the trophy. He was first overall in last year’s North American Championship held in Republica Dominicana, but yesterday Christopher was not ‘alone’ on the podium since his twin brother Duncan was second overall. USA had more to celebrate, as accompanying the Willifords was Conner Harding, another USA sailor. The USA domination of the top five was only interruped by Matias Dyck from Ecuador, who had been second during most of the event but did not have such good results the last day and could not take advantage of the second discard. Among the girls, Caterina Romero from Peru did remarkably well in all the races and earned a 9th overall and first girl.

Kingston showed itself at the very best right from sailors started to arrive for training a week prior to the regatta, right through to the week-long regatta. The sailors experienced excellent competition conditions and the parents and visitors enjoyed the sunny weather to watch tracing and explore the city.

For full results and more stories, see the OPTINAM2010 website (http://optinam2010.org ), and the IODA website http://www.optiworld.org/

The next sailing events in Kingston will start on August 15th, with the CORK International Regatta, followed by CORK Olympic Classes Regatta and CORK Offshore and One Design. During this time, almost 1000 boats will compete in Kingston, drawing competitors from Canada, USA, Europe and Oceania.

The final sailing competition of the season will be the CORK Fall Regatta and Ontario Championships for 5 sailboat classes, as well as National Team Qualification for the two Olympic One person Sailing Events, the Laser (male)
and Radial (female)

CORK website; www.cork.org

Marianne Davis
Executive Director
CORK/Sail Kingston

sail@cork.org
www.cork.org
phone  1 613 545 1322

Optimist dinghy (www.optiworld.org), the most popular sailboat worldwide for youth sailing, is the beginning for many of these athletes as they start their sailing careers which may culminate in an Olympic medal.

IODA has provided a Live Tracking system (Trac Trac, powered by Rogers Wireless) for this event. Through internet access (www.optinam2010.org) spectators may view races in progress, replays and follow individual sailors or teams around the race course.

Many participants are National Champions. Here are some of the ones to watch out for;

Argentina (ARG)- KlausLange, Javier Krick

Barbados (BAR) – Scott Gittens

Bermuda (BER) – Sam Stan, Ellie Wollman

Brazil (BRA) – Rafael Montiero

British Virgin Islands (IVB) – Robert Poole, Sam Morrell

Canada (CAN) – Meredith Megarry – ON (Canadian Champion 2009), Lloyd Lyall – BC, Peter Ehvert – ON, Kevin Surget – QC, Max Flinn – NS

Chile (CHI) – Mathias Robertson Junemann

Dominican Republic (DOM) – Justina Pacheco, Alina Nordbruch

Ecuador (ECU) – Moises Aray, John Aray

Guatemala (GUA) – David Hernandez

Japan (JAP) – Syun Watanbe

Mexico (MEX) – Hector Guzman Casas

Netherlands Antilles (AHO) – Louis Hendrix

New Zealand (NZL) – Trent Rippey

Peru (PER) – Renzo Sanguinetti Velasco, Stefano eschiera Loret De Mola, Caterina Romero Aguirre

Puerto Rico (PUR) – Andre Reguero, Jorge Lazaro

San Lucia (LCA) – Stapahnie Devaux-Lovell

Trinidad (TRI) – Derek Poon Tip

US Virgin Islands (ISV) – Colin Brego, Nicolas Gartner

United States of America ( USA ) – Christopher Williford (NA Champion 2009)

Uruguay (URU) – Alberto Lados

The event was kicked off with a parade of nations displaying their country flags and opening ceremonies in Queen’s Grant Hall. The 21 teams were welcomed by Kingston’s Deputy Mayor Vickie Schmolka, representatives of the International and Canadian Optimist Dinghy Associations and CORK, the event host. Lisa Ray from KROC K-105.2 acted as Master of Ceremonies and Kingston’s Town Crier declared the event open.

Lack of wind on Sunday led to an abandonment of the practice race. However, the sailors are now ready for tomorrow, the first day of racing in this North American Championship.

We are looking for volunteers to assist on and off the water for the Optimist North American Championship, June 26 – July 4, 2010. You can find out all the details of the on water and on shore tasks via the volunteer section of the CORK website. To sign up, please register by creating a profile (aka account) on the website (or by updating your profile if you already have one) and by entering the days/tasks you are available. Knowledge of sailing is not a requirement and training will be provided. Please contact volunteer@cork.org or the CORK office 613 545 1322 with questions.

We look forward to sharing good times with you in Kingston this summer!!