Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy was host to the second three day event for the 2009 Selection Trials.

Weymouth turned to be challenging: not quite as much wind as the selectors would have liked, but sufficient to be worthwhile. All three days were spent out in the bay - which meant long hard days!<br>
The four Scottish sailors were all fired up and raring to go on Saturday. Conditions were a fairly constant 12kts with the occasional 15kt gust. This turned out to be pretty much the wind strength over the three days all be it varying in direction. This was definitely a prime case of getting a clean start and playing the shifts up the middle of the course both upwind and down. Many competitors were caught out going too far to one side of the course or the other, including some well known names in the Optimist fleet.

Both Saturday and Sunday had four races per day, each with almost a mile long beat, in Weymouth Bay which gave the sailors a very long sail home after racing. Nine hours on the water on Saturday and seven on Sunday proved the point that this is not only the most competitive Optimist Regatta of the year but also an endurance test.<br>
Conditions were challenging: shifty winds meant that the traditional 'bang right/left' approach was doomed to failure. The smart money stayed safe up the middle and played the shifts. Even the experienced hands struggled at times: results from Annabel Vose and Matt Wallis in the 40-50 range is not expected!

All our sailors put in a fantastic effort with the highlight of the weekend being Callum winning race twelve and going on to qualify as part of the GBR Team for the European Championships in Slovenia this summer. Ross put a consistant series together and when added to his 10th and 15th last weekend gave him 37th overall, considerably higher than his ranking last year. Ali raised his game with better scores including a 14th which should really have been a 6th had he not been yellow flagged on the run  (lesson learned Ali!!). Jamie had a huge learning experience with three results inside the top thirty to encourage him to keep chasing the older boys.

Once again a great team spirit from the Scottish sailors and parents/pit crews/shore team/on water support!!!

Annabel Vose put a very consistant series together to win the trials by 18 points, although even she managed a 44th on her score sheet. Josh Sparks was second and Scott Wallis third.

The circus moves on to Grafham in two weeks for the Inland Champs where hopefully we will have a much bigger contingent from Scotland and hopefully more success on the water..............

The Scots have performed well in challenging conditions. Callum managed to achieve every position in the top 5 except 3rd; Ross produced a couple of 10s; Jamie had a good 10 boats behind him.

You can find full details of the results in the follownig weblink - 

http://www.kbsuk.com/data/OptimistIOCAEvents/data/results/2009selnh.html