Only hours after 10-year-old Abigail Affoo received the trophy for best female dinghy skipper at the Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association’s yearly prize giving on Saturday, June 13, she and her father Joseph Affoo were on their way to St. Thomas for the 17th Scotiabank International Optimist Regatta.
After an intensive three-day clinic at the same venue at which the regatta was taking place Affoo and 73 other sailors competed in three different age groups to become this years Red, Blue and White fleet winners. (See report in August issue of All at Sea.)
Affoo, who competed with 15 other junior sailors in the White Fleet, managed to clean up her fleet by beating her other competitors in eight out of the 12 races and thrashing second-place winner Wiley Rogers from the USA with a 92-point difference. At the end of the regatta, she not only took home the first prize in the White fleet but was also able to place herself within the top 25, placing 24th overall and leaving many older sailors behind her.
Affoo, with fellow Trinidad & Tobago Optimist team members Derek Poon Tip and Kelly Arrindell and coach Mathew Schoener-Scott, represented her country at the 2009 North American Optimist Championship in the Dominican Republic. The Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association thanks the Sports Company of Trinidad & Tobago Limited for their continued support of the program.
Report and photo courtesy of Esther Van Santen, Senior Administrative Coach
The Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association
