Ruben Steel report.
Last month I was fortunate enough to attend the Optimist Asian and Oceanic Championship in Al Mussanah, Oman.
Dad and I decided our best option was to grab a hoire car and drive from Dubai to the
venue in Oman in a hire car. Unfortunately, we ended up with a tiny car, and due to all our sailing gear, I was crammed in the back for the five-hour journey, which wasn’t much fun. On our drive from Dubai to Al Mussanah, we saw plenty of sand, camels and goats, and even more sand. After crossing from the UAE into Oman, the landscape shifted
dramatically, revealing some massive mountains, and of course, more sand.
We collected our charter boats and had four really good days of training led by our coach Jack in his charted RIB, the boat he had was continually deflating and leaking water, but it did the job. Winds were mostly in the 8 to 12 knot range. We were all feeling upbeat and ready for the event. We did some practice racing with the other teams, I think we had maybe 90 boats racing in a single fleet, it was a lot of fun. The other county’s coaches were trying to get all the sailors to get fair and even starts in the practice races, this was difficult because the start line was between two drifting RIBs. I think I have now been yelled at in 8 different languages, I found the best response was to just smile and wave.
Measurement was a bit of a mission, a few of our team members were required to crudely file down our rudders to get them to fit the jig and pass measurement, I had to cut my sail logo down as it was too big! No detail is too trivial for the optimist measurers to call us out on.
The regatta started with an opening ceremony, in Oman style it was complete with lots of festive loud Arabic music, food and camel riding of course.
Day 1 – Race 1
Very light winds, we spent about three hours on shore waiting for some wind to fill in, eventually we got some racing underway late in the day in about 5 knots. Unfortunately, I found that in these light conditions I didn’t have the speed needed to hold my lane off the start line. Fighting for clean air was tough and this race didn’t go to plan. There were a few black fags, ended with a 34th / 58.
Day 2 – Race 2 & 3
After another wait for breeze, we finally got some racing underway. It was very tough to get away cleanly, but the breeze was still quite light and the sailors who carries a bit less weight could get up on the gunwale, but instead I needed to sit in, which was a bit restrictive to the technique needed in wave and light winds. Finished 38th which was not ideal but I was determined to go out with a bang in the next race.
Time was against us and we only managed to get two of the scheduled three races in this day before sunset. The wind was probably a little stronger now and I was able to stretch the legs just a little bit.
This time I really fired up and finally got a great start and managed to hold a clean lane for the first few minutes, I saw a bit more wind to the right and so stayed to the right of the fleet, but instead I found myself in a bit of down pressure and ended up back in the middle of the pack at the top mark. I found the wind was a bit patchy and fleet is so close that any small mistake is a really big penalty in positions.
When we got back, scoring had me as a DNC, so it was time to submit a scoring enquiry. After a nervous wait the results were corrected and ended the day with 39th and 46th / 58.
Day 3 – Races 5 and 6
Another long wait for the wind, which was filling in by around 130pm each day, this meant that by the time the courses were laid it was a struggle to get more than two races before sunset. Another light wind day, winds in the 4 to 6 knot range.
I was struggling for speed in these conditions, and my results were not as good as I had hoped with a pair of 49ths / 58.
For the final day the fleets were seeded and unfortunately my results had me in bronze fleet, not where I wanted to be but also maybe a little bit expected as my light air performance was always going to be a challenge being in the upper range of size and weight for the Opti.
Day 4 Races 6 and 7
We had two races in the final day, I had two very good starts, but I just wasn’t able to hold my position. In race 6 I was in the top bunch off the line and most of the 1st leg but missed a shift near top mark then lost a few spots, I was swallowed up by the fleet downwind, then it felt like there wasn’t much more I could do to boost my position. The final race was similar; I had a clean start but was lacking speed in the soft conditions and residual short chop. By the time we finished the breeze had faded to about 4 knots, I really found it challenging to maintain good speed, being a bit bulkier than most of my competitors it was difficult to sit comfortably, and getting up to the gunwale gave me too much windward heel. The smaller guys who could get up there, then had more ability to adjust to the chop fore / aft. Being a bit bigger seemed to hit me twice in performance. In retrospect I would definitely say it would have been better to spend more time training in these types of soft, choppy conditions but to be honest its not common to get these conditions much at home.
At the end of the day the top Aussies performed well, congratulations to William Harris and Balthazar Roche who ended 30th and 40th respectively and our only two Aussies in gold fleet.
The final standing for the Australian team in the fleet of 170 were:
- William Harris 30th and Oceania Champion – Congratulations William ‘Sqilliam’ Harris!
- Balthazar Roach 40th
Zachary Tait 84th - Hiro Jacobsen 98th Sijia Deng 112th
- Emerald Jacobsen 137th
- Ruben Steel 143rd
- Ethan Wilkinson 146th
- Kirra Howell 152nd
- Emma Tomkins 162nd
2025 Optimist Asian & Oceanian Championship
It was a challenging event for me, and it felt like we all suffered a little from the lack of good winds, still I’m glad we made the effort to attend. It’s always a buzz to know you are representing your country, and I have made some lifelong friends in team AUS and kids from the other countries. The Argentinian group could be noisy late at night, but they were great company during the day. They offered me a haircut, and trusting them implicitly, I let them use clippers on my hair. I was quietly pleased with the decent, free haircut I received, as I half expected them to prank me and shave off an eyebrow.
We did the standard international t shirt swap, and one of the Kids from Japan went to the effort to present a really cool custom regatta t shirt and a business card with a QR code liking to his Instagram page. Well, I was impressed.
Moving on from the event, in the last month I have sold my Optimist and moved into an ILCA 4 and 6. I’ll be focussing my energy into learning how to race the ILCA and hopefully a lot of what I have learned in optimists will help me along the way. The ILCA is longer, faster and there is a lot of competition, but I sure am going to miss sailing that bathtub shaped boat that has taught me so much.
Thanks to our regatta coach Jack Lewis for all his help with training camps before the event and his help all throughout the regatta. Also thanks to Merren and Hugh the team managers, and also thanks to all the people that have helped me along the way including our club coach Rob Brewer, my mum and dad (Di and Justin) and RPAYC for supporting me.
Sail on.
Ruben Steel
