The Royal Malta Yacht Club recently hosted a multi classDinghy Weekend Regatta which welcomed over fifty sailors from four MalteseSailing Clubs – Birzebbugia Sailing Club, Malta Young Sailors Club, VikingsSailing Club and the Royal Malta Yacht Club.
The single handed Optimist class, saw sixteen entries andwas divided into Novice – for children who are new to sailing and racing, Cadet[8-11 year old] and Senior [12 to 15 years] classes.
The Single handed Laser 4.7 class and Radial class hadseventeen entries whilst all the Topper entries hailed from the Vikings SailingClub.
The double handed Feva class saw six boats between Royal MaltaYacht Club and Birzebbugia Sailing Club. A Handicap class was made up of a RSVision, 2 Mirror Miracles and an Enterprise, these raced on PortsmouthYardstick corrected time.
Saturday saw a total of three races held in strong winds anda quite confused chop, conditions which favoured the heavier sailors. All threeraces per class got away without too much trouble for Assistant Race OfficerInge Mule Stagno from Birzebbugia Sailing Club and Peter Dimech from the RoyalMalta Yacht Club.
The same format was applied on the second day of racing, bywhich time there was less wind and the confused chop had calmed down. TheOptimist fleet were keen to race. Their zeal to race however saw two of thebeginners get caught in a wrong position and were disqualified.
The Laser fleet saw some older sailors, including two Royal MaltaYacht Club committee members, battling it out against youngsters who eventuallygot the better of them.
The Feva fleet saw some new sailors to the class includingyoung Victoria Schultheis, recent winner of a gold medal in the Optimist Classat the World Sailing Championships. Schultheis sailed her first event in thisdouble handed class. The Farrugia Vella brothers from Birzebbugia Sailing Club alsodid very well. Siblings Andrew and Michela Mifsud sailing a RS Vision beattheir father who sailed the Miracle dinghy in this handicap class.
Royal Malta Yacht Club Commodore Godwin Zammit presided overa Prize Giving afternoon, which saw crews joined by families and friends whocheered on the winners who were presented with a number of sailing relatedproducts.
All Results can be found in the Races section of the website – http://www.rmyc.org/races/?id=194
Photo Credit: RMYC/Mark Napier