RHADiCal sailors sparkle in the States

Bermuda’s four opti racers belied their lack of experience to claim third place at the International Optimist  Team Racing Championship at the Lauderdale Yacht Club Trophy Regatta in Florida.

Mikey and Ceci Wollmann, Adam Larson and Tatye Stefaniuk wasted little time in adapting during their first team competition outside Bermuda, which was also the first time they have raced together as a foursome.

The team event is a highly-tactical format, where the four race against another four-strong team, often hunting down the strongest opposition sailor and attempting to induce penalties from them.

After the early rounds of racing, Bermuda — under their RHADiCal name — were third, with the top five progressing through to the next stage.

In their quarter-final match, Bermuda enjoyed an impressive 2-1 win before falling 2-1 in the semi-final.

All in all, Bermuda won 12 of their 16 races and left their coach at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, Nico Stefani, a satisfied man.

He told the Bermuda Sun: “They were third overall out of 20 teams — and most of the best teams in the US were there.

“It’s the first time they have raced together. They lost their first race but then won seven in a row. They did amazing — for the amount of practice we had, they did very well.”

Normally, teams have five sailors and race four of them —but Bermuda took the bare minimum and simply got down to business.

It’s a demanding format, which requires complete concentration.

“They are shorter races,” said Stefani. “The sailors have to know the rules. Everything goes a lot faster and you have to focus all the time.

“For every race you have to plan, depending on the team you are racing against.

‘For example, if you are racing a strong sailor you put out one of your sailors to stop them and try to win penalties against them.

“There are a lot of tactics and it’s important to stick to your plan each race.”

Stefani believes that he has a winning combination at his disposal and says more overseas regattas are a real possibility for the team now they have proven so adept at team racing.

He said: “They had never practised together until the Friday before the event because I have them on different days.

“But it’s a really nice combination — you have one who is very mature, two who are very fast and one who is very good tactically. In every race there was something for them to learn.

“In Bermuda we don’t practice team racing and it’s the first time a club is doing it. 

“They were saying they wanted to be top 15 and that they would be happy with that because they don’t normally win more than two races!” n