Bill Gladstone of North U fame will visit Tralee on the 1st of February for a seminar. Those of you who were lucky enough to attend on his last visit will remember how awesome it was! This year he will deliver a four hour seminar on all aspects of racing. Can you afford to miss it? The cost is €20 per head which represents great value for money. First gun is at 7pm sharp!

Well The Optimist Worlds are over. Unfortunately there was no racing on the last day due to a lack of wind. Sophie however finishes the event on the podium with a silver for second in the girls fleet and thirteenth overall. Well done on the best Irish performance ever in this event.

Sophie continues to fly the flag for Ireland and TBSC at the Optimist Worlds in New Zealand. With only one day of racing left she is in 13th place overall and 2nd in the girls' fleet. This is the best ever performance by an Irish sailor at this event and there is every hope that she will finish in the top ten overall. We wish her the best of luck with the final days racing and look forward to welcoming her back to TBSC. Full results are available at www.optiworldsnz.org.nz/

Sophie has dropped from 7th to 16th overall after six races sailed at the Optimist World Championships, according to provisional results from organisers this morning. Browne scored a 16th in race six of the 210–boat fleet to place 16th overall. Significantly though the top Irish sallor is on equal points with 14th place and only seven points off the top ten, still very much in contention. Only 10 points separate 11 of the top 16 boats in the fleet with a further discard in hand and everything to play for. It is the first time Ireland has contested the World championships in four years, Irish efforts have been previously concentrated on the European championships. 

Today, the third day of racing at the Optimist World Championships, the breeze was light and variable and when the race officer got proceedings underway it was 5 to 7 knots of wind. Although the conditions did not suit Sophie very much, she has still managed to maintain a consistent performance on a very challenging day for her. The usual local wind pattern has not materialised in the past few days and the temperature has been lower than usual with rain and cloud cover. The land has not heated up enough to generate sufficient convection to establish a sea breeze. The wind shifted and dropped making conditions very difficult at times. 

Sophie had been in 7th place overall on the leader board overnight after 2 days of the event, but despite a difficult start she managed to claw her way back to 12th place at the winward mark and held on to her place to the wing mark, she then improved and gained a few more places on the last beat to the finish line when the wind dropped off further before shifting and favouring the opposite side of the track. Sophie finished 16th in the only race today and now lies 16th overall for the championship after one discard.

News from Sophie Browne who is representing us at the Worlds Optimist Championships in Napier New Zealand 

Sophie had a fourth place in the first race of the regatta on New Years’ Day, putting her in 10th position overall and today achieved 4 top 20 results out of 214 boats, including a 5th place in race four putting her in 7th overall on the leader board after 2 days of racing in the world championships.

She is going very well and she is keeping very cool. She is being cool, conservative, playing it straight up the fairway, playing the percentages and trying to control some of the very serious opposition. Most of all both Sophie & Donal (her Dad) are really enjoying the Kiwi experience in Napier, New Zealand!

All at Tralee Bay Sailing Club send their heartiest congrats to Sophie on her achievements so far and wish her continued success and enjoyment in New Zealand.

For excellent and frequent updates on Sophie's progress follow Afloat Magazine on www.afloat.ie or on their Facebook page or on Twitter AfloatMagazine@AfloatMagazine

Even though the weather has been awful we managed some racing this week. A good fleet of keeelboats were out on both Tuesday and Thursday evening. The highlight of the week was definitely Galileo's pirouettes on Tuesday evening when a wrapped asymmetric left them in a difficult position on a lee shore. Fortunately they dealt with the oroblem without any serious injury. Badger continued her good form to win well. On Thursday evening Boojum marked her return to racing with a fine win in IRC whilst Josie took the ECHO category. Racing continues this week and please note that first gun is at 1925.

The dinghy sailors were out on Sunday afternoon in a stiff breeze which tested some of them sorely. Michael Lynch was in his element though as he won both races with Ian Magowan not far behind. Liam Lynch had two thirds. The class act of the day however was Alacoque Daly in an Optimist who flew around the course in perfect control but unfortunately had no one to race against.

Finally Sophie Browne has been at it again! She had a wonderfu win in the Optimist Connachts counting two firsts and a second. In fact her discard was a third! Well done again on another fantastic win! Eoghan O'Buachalla was also in good form to take 6th in the junior gold fleet.