The Tribune

BAHAMIAN teen sailor Spencer Cartwright continued his year of dominance in the Optimist dinghy events by winning all six of the races in the Optimist Fall Regatta.

Meanwhile, veteran sailor Donny Martinborough pulled through with a first place finish in the Terry McCoy Memorial Sunfish Regatta.

This year’s Optimist event, which pits juniors aged seven to 15 against each other on the water, featured nine Gold Fleet (advanced), 11 Silver Fleet (intermediate) and six Green Fleet (beginner) competitors representing both New Providence and Abaco.

The competitors battled it out in seven races held over a two day weekend and many also competed in the Terry McCoy Memorial regatta.

“It is impressive to see how well our youngsters are sailing these days. Our two top juniors from the Optimist class (Paul deSouza and Spencer Cartwright who represented the Bahamas at the Optimist World Championships in the Dominican Republic this year) performed extremely well against top senior sailors Donny Martinborough (three time world champion in the Sunfish Class), Craig Symonette, Peter Bruce Wassitsch and others,” said coach Robert Dunkley, who also expressed his excitement that deSouza won two of his five races.

This weekend saw nearly perfect conditions - a steady breeze of eight to 12 knots from the northeast – for the sailing of both the Optimist’s Fall Regatta as well as the Terry McCoy Memorial Sunfish Regatta.

Cartwright continued his dominance in the Optimist dinghy by winning all six of the races he sailed in the series – basically repeating his performance at the Bahamas Optimist National Championship last month which saw 89 boats compete.

Joey Gale from Abaco won in the Silver Fleet and Shadiya Adderley of Nassau won in the Green Fleet.

In the Sunfish Fleet, the rankings were so close that the overall winner wasn’t determined until the very last race. Although any one of four sailors could have taken it – Donny Martinborough, Peter Bruce Wassitsch, Lee McCoy or Paul de Souza - Martinborough’s vast experience on the water helped him take the top honours.

“These events are always fun and we are pleased to say through the support of our many sponsors such as Rotary East Nassau, Cable Bahamas/Cable Cares, KPMG, Odyssey, Bahamas Hot Mix, Royal Bank of Canada, the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Tourism and many individuals, our sailing programmes are healthy and continue to grow. Thank you to all who helped – we’ll see you at the next one,” Dunkley added.