SIMPSON BAY—Learning unlimited won the fourth edition of the Domino’s Interschool Dinghy Sailing Championship. St. Maarten Montessori was second and followed by Milton Peters College (MPC).
The Overall school Trophies was awarded based on the results of the 3 top performing boats per school. The boats scores were added and compared.
A total of 26 sailors on 22 boats representing 10 schools took part in 6 races in gusty conditions in the Simpson Bay Lagoon Saturday. The sailors competed in 5 different classes: RS Quest, Laser, Laser Pico, Optimist and the overall school trophy.
In the Laser class the undisputed winner was Emma Lennox, from LU, with first place finishes in all races on the Laser 4.7. Kai Henriquez representing (MPC) was second and just two points back in third places was Lucas Disch from St. Dominic.
Three schools competed in the RS Quest class. Summer Jean Morton and Sahil Khatnani from Learning Unlimited dominated the class winning all races. Mathijs Detering and Delhon Hewitt from Kidz at Sea were second and Louka Williams and Derek Matser from CIA were third.
Eight sailors competed in the Optimist class from four different schools. The racing was extremely competitive between the top 5 sailors, especially the top 3. Adriaan Coppelmans sailing for Sint Maarten Montessori, Caii Banting sailing for LU and Chris de Wilde also sailing for Montessori all got wins.
Adriaan took third place, with Caii and Chris tied for points, but due to the number of first places Chris took the overall win in the Optimist class with 3 first places.
Six boats were on the water in the Laser Pico class,mainly sailed by children who have only started sailing 6 months ago. Terrence Agard competed for the very first time and even though he was in the back of the fleet for most races, he kept on sailing and with a big smile on his face trying to beat the others over the finish line. His persistence may not have given him a top 3 place, but with a 3rd and 5th place and his admirable attitude he did win the Sportsmanship Award, recognizing him for his efforts and love for sailing.
John Caputo, representing title sponsor Domino’s, presented Terrence with the award and explained how important sportsmanship is in sailing. Afterwards he said “it was wonderful to see 26 children on the water having fun, while competing in a sport they clearly love. You could see the smiles on the faces, and therefore Domino’s is happy to make sure this event keeps happening. It is a great means to introduce kids to sailing and of course the competition between schools is a great addition to the overall event.”
In third place Jayden Aventurin took a win for the Sister Magda School. In second place a newcomer to the program Boo Faustin, who started sailing in the summer camp and is showing tremendous development on the Pico, took a win for Sundial School. Alex Speetjens recently returned to the sailing program took first place and a win for MPC.
