IT was the big event of the Optimist sailing calendar last week with the British National Optimist Championships held in Largs, Scotland.

It was a long drive for the 18 sailors, taking about 8 hours towing their boats to get from Cardiff to Largs.

The event involved sailing up to three races a day over a 5 day period resulting in a maximum of 12 races. The sailors, as young as 9, can be on the water for up to 7 hours in one go, in conditions that can be described as challenging or even “horrible”.

There were a total of 230 sailors from all over the UK, across both the Junior (under12) and Senior (under 15) classes.

In the junior event there were some excellent performances by the young Cardiff Bay sailors including a 3rd overall for Rhys Lewis of Evenlode School in Penarth who only missed out on being top boy by 6 points.

Next came Jamie Cook also from Evenlode who finished a superb 24th, which gave him the title of top under 10 year old in Britain. Other notable performances included Hannah Roberts – Straw (Howells) 35th, Sam Kneale 52nd, Emily Hall (Evenlode) 56th, Mathew Leary 62nd, Felicity Allen (Stanwell) 63rd , Lorelei Bates 63rd, Alex Lewis, younger brother of Rhys (Evenlode) 74th, Alice Reynolds 89th and Rhianwen Williams 116th.

As a result of their excellent sailing over the last 12 months Rhys, Jamie, Matthew and Hannah have all been selected to represent GBR in Ireland next week for the Irish Nationals. Good Luck to them all and team GBR.

Similarly in the Senior Fleet there were again some strong performances with a great effort by William Hall aged 12 from Stanwell High School in Penarth, who finished 10th and was also the 7th British Sailor. William has had a very strong year including being selected to represent GBR in the European Championships earlier this year in Hungary. Other Cardiff Bay sailors who braved the challenging Scottish weather included Rhys Williams 44th, Deryn May 45th, Huw Nunn 52nd, Mila Monaghan (Stanwell) 54th, Alaric Bates 59th and Oliver Reynolds 99th.

Philip Hall, father of William said: "It was a really gruelling event, particularly for the younger sailors who had to spend up to 7 hours out on the water in conditions that varied from 30 degrees to pouring rain with winds gusting up to 30 knots. I have the utmost respect for all of them who are an absolute credit to Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, their Schools and South Wales."

Philip added: "The main reason that Cardiff Bay sailors have done so well is down to the fantastic coaching and support that the young sailors have had over the last 4 or 5 years, especially from Head Coach Nick Sawyer, along with support coach Nathan Bailey and Training School principle Ian Aiken."