The St. Lucia Yacht Club hosted another successful Open Dinghy Sailing Championships on June 3 & 4! Twenty four sailors sailing in one man dinghies, Optimist and Laser, flecked the horizon in Rodney Bay this past weekend on what is known as the best race course in the region.
The St. Lucian youth sailors were challenged by sailors from Martinique and Grenada racing 9 races over the two days but came out on top in each class of racing. The laser class is further broken into two classes of race differentiated by sail area, 4.7 and Radial. St. Lucia’s Olympian, Stephanie Devaux-Lovell competing in the radial class, had tough competition from Martinique’s, Malo Desriviere.
After exchanging leads over the 9 races Malo Desriviere came out on top as the overall Radial Champion with Stephanie placing 2nd of 6 radial competitors which included St. Lucia’s Chrisanki Flood. Stephanie received the Chris Renwick National Radial Champion Trophy.
The 4.7 class was very competitive with St. Lucia’s young men: Danny Dillon, Guillaume Chevrier, Adonai Modeste taking 2, 3, 4 place overall respectively behind the 4.7 Champion; Clement Martin of Martinique. Danny Dillon was awarded the IGY National 4.7 Champion Trophy.
The two Optimist classes are differentiated by age. The Benjamin Class , with 8 competitors 12 years and younger many for whom this was their first regatta, saw St. Lucia’s Alejandro Vargas finishing first overall and receiving the Ted Bull Benjamin Optimist Champion Trophy. The youngest competitor in the regatta, Sebastian Ambler of Marigot Bay, received special recognition as did Grenada’s Asher Holmes for completing 8/9 races in strong winds in what was his first regatta. St. Lucia’s youngest female sailors, Ariane Fraites and Lucie Nelson also received special recognition.
The Optimist fleet (over 12 years) was consistently led by St. Lucia’s Jakob Harrison who won the Jonathan Everett Optimist Champion Trophy as the overall class winner and National Optimist Champion. Also a SLYC sailor, Jake Johnson finished second in this class followed very closely by Grenada’s Reshawn Babb and Jamille Charles.
The regatta prize giving and BBQ will begin at 5pm on Sunday afternoon.
