Hugo Vandame and his Optimist training partner (Daniel Laverty from Somers Yacht Club) have been busy in the last 2 weeks racing against some of the best Victorian Optimist sailors.

 On Dec 3^rd and 4^th, they entered the George Mac regatta.  A very well organised regatta by the Brighton yacht club who managed to run 9 races in 2 days with 41 participants.

Hugo and Daniel had some good races and less good ones especially when the wind was blowing to 20 knots (not Hugo's favourite conditions) on the Sunday (where Daniel did better).

They finished 17 (Daniel) and 19 (Hugo) overall.

 This was a good warming for the race to come (last week-end in St Kilda): Sail Melbourne - an international Olympic event where non-Olympic classes are invited to race.  This was a 4 day event starting on Thursday.  Hugo and Daniel entered the Optimist intermediate division (18 participants in total).

To be honest, Hugo was more excited to miss school than racing.  Bad luck, with the 30 knot wind forecast, he was sent to school on Thursday.  It was a good call as they did not race that day.

 He did miss school on Friday but unfortunately they did not end up racing as the wind was still strong (20-25 knots).  Hugo and Daniel managed to meet many Olympic sailors including many Australian athletes who participated to the Rio Olympics.

Saturday morning was finally the first racing day.  Hugo won the first race but was unfortunately disqualified under the U flag (premature start)!

On the provisional ranking Saturday evening, Hugo and Daniel were respectively 8th and 9th at equal points!

Sunday morning they were very determined to do well and Hugo told me "I need to win a race today and finish in the Top 3”.

The wind had pick-up to 15-18 knots by the time they raced in the afternoon.  Hugo finished 3^rd and 1^st for the 2 races, putting him 4^th overall before the last race at equal points with the 3^rd.

Hugo managed to finish 2^nd in the last race allowing him to finish 2^nd overall.  What a good effort and fantastic recovery from his disqualification on race 1.

Daniel also had a good day with 4^th and 6^th in the first 2 race.  He finished 8^th overall with unfortunately a DNF on the last race where he was 4^th when his rudder came off.

 They were both very pleased with their weekend and racing!