Antigua born, Optimist sailor Maria Eldridge, has returned from St Thomas, where she represented Antigua and Barbuda and the AYC at the 25th St Thomas International Regatta (I.O.R.), from Thursday, June 15th to Sunday, June 18th.
The event is the largest in the Caribbean for the class and this year attracted 119 top sailors from 5 countries including the USA 2017 World Team. On Thursday, Maria joined 3 random sailors at the event, for Team racing as the captain for the team.They finished 6th out of 19 teams. Great job ! Friday was the first day of championship racing and by Sunday 10 races where completed with one trow out, and results were posted.
We asked Maria if she was happy with her result… “ The first day of championship racing, my starts were really bad. I believe I was intimidated by the number of boats on the start line,90. In Antigua I train with 5 sailors and even the events I have been overseas, there was never more than 50 boats on the start line. However, by the second day I manage to have good starts and climbed up from 67th to 44th out of 90 championship sailors. I guess am happy for now…”
Maria is leaving to Canada Saturday, June 24th, to represent A&B and AYC, at the 2017 North America Championship”, June 26th to July 2nd.
Wish our youth sailor good starts and wind !!!