Woods collects his prize after being named top Byte youth
ROOKIE Rajae Woods was presented with his prize this week during the 2002 Sandys Boat Club's Great Sound Series Prizegiving after he took first Youth and first Overall in the Byte class.
Woods ended up with 32 points.
This was the first series of the 2002-2003 racing season, which represented a broad cross section of Bermuda's single-handed Byte and Laser dinghy sailors.
The Byte is the little sister of the Olympic class Laser. Two feet shorter and 30 pounds lighter, it is a perfect boat for sailors not likely to attain the classic six-foot, 180-pound Laser frame.
Sharing the same course, even the same starting sequence, a dozen members of each fleet came out to face the wind and waves of the Great Sound over the course of this season opener. During October and November 33 races were sailed - and not one in under 10 knots.
More often the fleets "enjoyed" stiff breezes and pounding waves. For the most part, the Lasers represented Bermuda's hard-core dinghy sailors. The Bytes were a mix of the class' veteran adults and newly recruited Optimist grads. Woods had previously sailed in the Optimist class and was a first time sailor in the Byte class this year.
Lisa Siese, Rear Commodore of Sandys Boat Club, presented awards in three categories in each fleet - Overall, Youth and Female.
Another Optimist graduate, Katrina Williams, captured awards for both second Youth and second Female with 83 points. Top Female Byte, and second Overall, went to one of the fleet's founding members, adult Pat Humphrey who finished with 56 points.
In the Laser fleet, Brett Wright was first Overall with 41 points followed in the standings by youth sailor Ben Wicks who captured second Overall as well as first Youth with 65 points. Gareth Williams secured the second Youth prize with 79 points and Sara Lane Adderley was the fleet's top Female finisher with 102 points. Now ready and primed for the rest of the season, both fleets move into Hamilton Harbour for three months of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club's appropriately named Frostbite Series.
