Curacao Discovered for Excellent Optimist and Splash Racing
During the week of 23rd to 29th of January, Caracasbay, Curaçao, was the scene for the FRIA Curaçao Youth Regatta. The Optimist class was by far the biggest with 61 entries and the Splash class (the most popular youth boat in Europe after the Optimist) had 32 competitors.
The conditions were heavy, shifty winds, high waves and an average of 20-25 knots. Local Optimist sailor Ard van Aanholt won all three races; Christiaan van Garderen and Diemer Feenstra both from the Netherlands were second and third. In the Splash class, Daan Freriks of the Netherlands finished first.
During the lay day, most of the Caribbean sailors arrived to take part in the 3-day weekend event. Rico sent a large group of strong sailors, including the talented Ivan Aponte. Other talented sailors came from the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands. David Aponte from Club Nautico de San Juan, and Tyler Rice from the USVI came to try out the new youth boat. Both sailors just outgrew the Optimist and started sailing Laser.
The winds stayed strong during the three days and 10 races sailed. The Optimist group was divided in three classes, Optimist A, Optimist B and Club Opti. Local sailor Willem Evertsz won the Club Opti event. The Optimist B was won by Manuel Gonsalez from Puerto Rico, nine-year-old Ivo Schmitt finished second and Cassandra Sijtsma both from Curaçao third.
In the Optimist A, Ard van Aanholt (12, son of Olympian Cor van Aanholt) showed for the first time in his sailing career to be consistent, confident and calm and won the event with an amazing 7 first places and 2 second places. Ivan Aponte from Puerto Rico finished second and Guus Neeleman (son of 5 times Olympian Mark Neeleman) from Holland finished third. The victory of Ard and the good results of the other Curaçao kids may partly be the result of coach Fernando Allegre (Happy) from Peru who gave a clinic the week before the regatta. It was for the first time that Curaçao had been visited by a real Optimist specialist.
The Splash class was dominated by the Dutch sailors and won by Daan Freriks who also won last year’s Regatta in Splash. But local sailor Michiel van Wickeren managed to sail 3 first places and finished ninth. Tyler Rice (USVI), David Aponte (PR) and Philipine van Aanholt (CUR), who sailed so many regattas together in Optimist, found each other again and finished 11, 12, and 17th.
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