Optimist Europeans Underway in Tavira Portugal

The International Optimist Class European Championships are now well under way in the historic Portugese city of Tavira.

The host club, Club Nautico Tavira, is a great supporter of youth events and the venue provides for excellent sailing conditions.

225 sailors from 37 countries began racing yesterday in 10-12 knots of breeze. The wind was off shore, not the prevailing direction but conditions were perfect for the two scheduled races, one for each of the 8 divisions.

The reigning European Champion, Konstantinos Oikonomidis (GRE), had a great day, posting a first and a second. He was leading the Boys fleet from Matteo Pilati (ITA) and Peter McCain (IRL) in third.

In the Girls fleet, the early leaders are Maria Caba (ESP) and Francesca Bergamo (ITA).

Many parents and spectators were able to follow the races using the event tracking system, a facility that was last used at the IODA South Americans in Chile. The TracTrac units, owned by the class, have proved popular with the sailors, their parents watching at home and are now widely used as a coaching tool for the nightly debriefs around the hotel pool. Racing continues until Saturday.

Daily news reports: http://www.optiworld.org/news1Article.php?link=11newsEuropean.html
Tracking link: http://www.optiworld.org/MiniSite/trackingEuro.php