Oppi Nationals 2024 Report By Mary Peats

Published 8:16am on 12 Aug 2024

Nearly 250 Optimists attended the Oppi nationals this year, including sailors from Czech Republic, USA, Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Poland. There were 4 fleets - coached regatta, racing regatta, junior main and senior main. I was in coached regatta and Thomas was in racing regatta.
It was my first time sailing at a different sailing club and it felt very daunting at first but when we were introduced to our coached regatta group, I made new friends pretty quickly.
Pwllheli lived up to it's windy reputation and we only got a day and 1/2 sailing in with only an afternoon of racing (which I didn't realise was the proper racing so I didn't try my hardest!) It was the windiest I have ever raced in my life and when we were planing downwind I was going almost as fast as an Oppi can go! My brother was on a different course further out to sea, he says the waves were as large as he'd ever seen and definitely far bigger than anything he'd ever sailed in before, not like Portland harbour at all! I'm not sure he enjoyed the waves despite managing to surf down a couple.
Despite the weather I had a great time, made new friends and made plans to do the next events with them and I also got a slate medal. All in all I had a brilliant time.
Mary Peats (aged 9yrs)