2022 ARKAS WORLD OPTIMIST CHAMPIONSHIPS

Congratulations to Ethan Thompson and Miguel Power for their successful completion of the competition at the 2022 ARKAS World Optimist Championships recently held in Bodrum, Turkey.

They traveled with a team of five representing the top five sailors from Bermuda and competed against 278 sailors from 61 other countries. The Bermuda team consisted of Ethan Thompson, Miguel Power, Sarah Davis, Sophia Dias and Tristan Hocking.

The venue at the B.B. Bodrum Sailing Club on Icmeler Beach offered an ideal location to host the sailors. It sits on the southern coast of Turkey overlooking the Greek island of Kos in the distance. The winds were fairly predictable; mornings started with 2-8 knots building during the day to 23 knots by 4:00 pm. As such, racing was only held between 2:00 pm and 4:30 pm, but this gave all sailors good opportunities in light winds in the first race and heavier winds in the second. Both Ethan and Miguel sailed exceptionally well, with both boys obtaining a top finish of second place in their respective fleets.

After the qualifying 6 races, the competition was split into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Emerald Fleets. Ethan qualified for Gold and Miguel for Bronze. 6 more races followed as the “Finals” with Ethan finishing 26^thin Gold Fleet (and therefore 26^th in the World) and Miguel 4^th in Bronze Fleet placing him 142^nd in the World. Sarah Davis finished 131, Sophia Dias 194 and Trystan Hocking 206.

The team also qualified for the Team Racing final day – a feat not achieved by Team BER in almost 10 years. After losing to Turkey and winning against Slovenia, they lost to Greece and were out of the competition, but what an achievement! We went back to the hotel for a well-earned rest. (The rules of team racing are you must lose twice to be eliminated.)

Old acquaintances were renewed and new friends made by all the sailors, and we look forward to meeting up again in the IODA South American and North American Championships in October and November.

There were many memories, highs and lows of the regatta but the one thing I will always remember is a comment made by Ethan as we were sitting at the closing ceremony. He suddenly turned to me with a look of wonder and said “Oh my gosh… I just realized… I’m 26^th… in the World”.