Nearly 50 young sailors showed up for the Fidelity Bahamas Optimist National Championships 2024 in the waters of Elizabeth Harbour in George Town, Exuma, this past weekend.
The three-day event was hosted by the Exuma Sailing Club and featured young sailors from the Bahamas National Sailing School (BNSS), the Nassau Yacht Club, Lyford Cay Sailing, the Mack Knowles Junior Sailing Club out of Long Island, the Grand Bahama Sailing Club, the Eleuthera Sailing Association, the Hope Town Junior Sailing Club and the Harbour Island Sailing Club just to name a few.
At the end of the day, it would be 14-year-old Finley McKinney Lambert from the Eleuthera Sailing Association who emerged victorious, winning his third national optimist title in the last three years. McKinney Lambert won two of the four races in the series in the red championship fleet and finished second in the other two. He finished with six points.
In sailing, the lowest scores prevail.
The second local finisher in the red fleet was Emit Knowles of the Exuma Sailing Club. He was sixth overall. Knowles finished third in the first race, 10th in the second race, seventh in the third race and sixth in the fourth race, ending with 26 points. The second overall finisher was Sullivan Reznik of the Southern Yacht Club out of New Orleans, Louisiana. His teammates Conner Blouin, Elizabeth Lovell and Everett Blouin finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.
The third local finisher in the red fleet was Callum Pritchard from the Bahamas National Sailing School and the Nassau Yacht Club. He had finishes of fourth, ninth, sixth and and eighth to finish with 27 points.
Over in the green fleet for beginners, Fletcher Johnston of the Hope Town Junior Sailing Club won all four races in the series. He was followed by his teammate Valentina Pinder who finished third in the first race, fourth in the second race, third in the third race and second in the fourth race for 12 points overall.
Rounding out the top three sailors in the green fleet was Naaman Butler III out of the Exuma Sailing Club. Butler was second in the first race, fifth in the second, fourth in the third and fifth in the fourth to finish with 16 points overall.
As for the overall national champion, McKinney Lambert has been sailing since he was just four years old. His first big accomplishment in a major event was placing first in the green fleet in the 2017 Bahamas Optimist National Championships at just seven years old. He has since sailed competitively at most of the major events held in The Bahamas and has represented The Bahamas internationally many times in the United States of America (USA), Canada, Mexico and Italy.
The three-day event was held in conjunction with the Bahamas Optimist Dinghy Association and the Bahamas Sailing Association (BSA).
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Publish date : 2024-10-07 00:00:00
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