Jason Putley finished 100th at the Optimist World Championships held in Italy, whilst Thadd Lettsome came in 177th. Photo: Supplied

Rayne Duff competed at the US Optimist Championships and finished 54th out of 242 other sailors. Photo: Supplied

Racing continued last week through Friday and both Putley and Lettsome had good results that showed them gradually moving up the ranks, to 108th and 143rd respectively. At end of day Friday, both sailors were praying for more wind in the coming week, because they could see the light winds were allowing the lighter kids to make up some lost ground.

Team racing took place on Saturday and Sunday and the official "free day" was Monday, which meant some time for sightseeing, with Putley taking  to the mountains, high up above Riva del Garda for some amazing scenery and lunch with some of the gang from the USVI team, whilst Lettsome went off by train to magical Venice in search of the best tasting gelato in all the land, which had been a quest since arriving in Italy.

Upon their return to racing on Tuesday, the winds played havoc with the organizers, and the sailors, switching directions and going from light to un-sailable. The light winds early in the day caused a late start once they filled in, and then only lasted long enough to complete the first race of the day. A strong westerly wind had been expected later in the day, and when it did come, sailors were asked to quickly get ashore. Several were towed. These westerlies exceeded 30 knots and were above the regatta permitted allowances.

On Wednesday, the winds came in at 14-16 knots in the afternoon, but gradually decreased towards the end of the first race due to a storm in the mountains behind Riva del Garda. This blocked the revered southerly Ora winds, and again the fleets were quickly brought ashore when sound of thunder echoed through the mountains above Lake Garda. Results after the final day of racing had Putley in 100th place, and  Lettsome in 177th. Some of their USVI friends results showed them placing at these positions: Teddy Nicolosi-108th, Scott McKenzie-147th, Chris Murphy-182nd, Paige Clark-190th, Ryan Hunter-234th From other parts of the Caribbean, Louis Bavay (Antigua)-195th, Nathan Smith (St Maarten)-203rd, Rocco Falcone(Antigua)-205th.

This will be Jason Putley's last Optimist event and the last for his USVI friends Paige Clark, Scott McKenzie and Ryan Hunter all of whom are aged 15 and have aged out of Optis. Thad Lettsome, aged 11, remains the youngest VI competitor at this year’s Worlds in Italy, and fifth youngest of all 259 participants.

Next year's 2014 Optimist World Championship will be held in Argentina, and then in Poland in 2015. For now, Jason is off to New York and Thad will head to Verona and Sardinia.

In other Sailing news

Rayne Duff attended this year's US Optimist Dinghy Championship- the premier US event for this class held every summer. Attended by over 260 sailors, with over 240 racing in the championship fleet, Duff did the VI proud.

Race organizers split the championship group into three heats of approximately 82 boats, randomly assigned at first until results began a seeding process whereby at the end of the qualifying round they had determined the top third of the group, who were then separated into a Gold Fleet to race for the Championship title. The remainder of competitors continued to participate for the Silver Fleet Title. Duff qualified for the Gold Fleet placing 38th of 242.

During the Medal Rounds in Gold Fleet, he rose to a position of 9th overall after race 9, however, a starting penalty and two difficult races dropped him to a finish of 54th of the 242 competing sailors by the end of the event.

Sailors in these regattas range from 8 to 15 years old and as such the organizers also score the sailors by age group. Red is for kids 13-15 years old, Blue is for sailors 11-12, and White is for sailors 10 or younger. Rayne therefore took an additional position of 5th in the White Fleet, being just 10 years old.