Cork Sailor Peter McCann lies fourth in the 164-boat senior fleet at the UK Optimist nationals as the championships enters its third day. McCann has posted two wins in the group stages, and his success is mirrored in the junior fleet, where clubmate Daire Cournane is also in fourth place overall in a 154-boat fleet.
The sun may have been absent yesterday, but there was still plenty of great racing at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. The morning breeze of eight knots increased to around 12 knots by midday, meant each fleet managed once again to complete the six scheduled races in the cloudy conditions. 488 Optimist sailors took the water on the second day of the championship, across the six different fleets.
Aside from the racing, there was the added excitement for the Optimist sailors and their parents, as throughout the day BBC news crews were filming at the Sailing Academy as part of their build up to the 2012 London Olympics. The Optimists are sailing on the same waters where the best sailors and windsurfers in the world will compete for Olympic medals in two years time.
In the senior fleets, 13 year old Arran Holman who won the opening race of the championships on Monday 26th July, continued with a solid performance winning his first race of the second day. Arran is the reigning Volvo Musto Optimist Inlands champion after winning at Grafham Water back in May.
14 year old Harry Gozzett also secured a first place as did Spanish sailors, Silvia Mas Depares and Franc Bru, Ireland’s Peter McCann, Fraser Woodley, and defending champion Callum Airlie.
At the end of day two Arran Holman leads, Silvia Mas Depares by a single point, with defending champion Callum Airlie in third.
The results are available on the event website HERE, where the event is also being live-blogged.
