On Tuesday, 66 children between the ages of 8 and 13 arrived early at Edgewood Yacht Club to compete in a sailing regatta. The Narragansett Bay Yachting Association (NBYA) organizes several junior regattas each summer, bringing together youth sailors from all over the Bay. Edgewood Yacht Club hosted the third Opti regatta of the season.

An Optimist (Opti) sailboat, for readers unfamiliar with the sport of sailing, is a 7-foot 9-inch vessel meant for one small sailor. It has one sail and the shape resembles that of a bathtub.

The conditions for the regatta were light, with around eight knots of northeasterly breeze and outgoing tide. Competitors at the regatta represented nine different junior sailing programs from all over the Bay including Barrington Yacht Club, Greenwich Bay Sailing Association, and Wickford Yacht Club.

The overall winner of the regatta was Eddie Miersch from the Brenton Cove Racing Program in Newport.

The competitors are divided into two different divisions: green fleet and champion fleet. Green fleet is designed to be a more relaxed, introductory environment to get novice racers more comfortable with sailboat racing. They spend less time on the water, sail shorter races, the back half of the fleet can be coached, and the scores are not published. The other fleet, champion fleet, is more sailors who are comfortable and more experienced with racing. These sailors are divided into sub-fleets by age group and compete for awards.

After a successful day of racing, competitors, coaches, and parents enjoyed pizza from Vivaldi’s Pizza on Broad Street in Cranston. The sailors lifted their boats back onto their trailers and went back to their respective clubs as quickly as they had arrived.