National Yacht Club

Ten Irish Optimist sailors including six from the NYC (Heather Spain, Dara Donnelly, Hugh Perette, Patrick Coyle, Cliona Coyle and Clare Gorman) travelled to Braassemermeer in Holland for the Magic Marine Easter regatta. The event was sailed in freezing conditions with competitors having to cope with snow and sleet whilst racing. A total of 209 sailors competed including some of the best Optimist sailors in Europe and competition was at a very high level. The Irish team members were young and sailed very well against much older competitors many of whom were 14 and 15 years old. After eight hard fought races eleven year old Clare Gorman emerged as top Irish Boat and won a prize for tenth overall in the Silver fleet( 70 competitors). Hugh Perette and Dara Donnelly were next best of the Irish. There were some fantastic individual race performances including Daras 6^th in  race 7 and Clare’s 8th in race 2 and all of the sailors learnt a lot and had a great time making friends with sailors from all over Europe.