Lucy top female sailor at O’pen Skiff Nationals

NATIONAL CHAMPION: Gisborne O'pen Skiff sailor Lucy Millar was the top female sailor at the 2023 O'pen Skiff Nationals in the Bay of Islands this month.Pictures supplied

LUCY Millar, of Gisborne, was the top female sailor in the Gold Fleet of the 2023 O'pen Skiff Nationals held in the Bay of Islands this month as Cyclone Gabrielle bore down on the country.

It was her last chance to win the event because the class has an upper age limit, and she made the most of it.

Millar beat last year's North and South Island champion.

In a couple of races, she finished in front of last year's New Zealand representative Carl Marshall, who had finished the world championships with a best placing of second on the last day of racing.

Lucy's best placing at the nationals was second, but she consistently finished in the top 10 to give her a creditable fourth overall (against male and female sailors), second in the O'pen under-17 and top female in the Gold Fleet.

Her placings were third, sixth, fifth, fourth, 10th, second and fifth in the 27-strong fleet.

Millar placed second female in the O'pen Skiff at last year's event.

Racing was held in patchy winds on Day 1 but the event organisers had to pack in more racing to allow for the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle.

At the prize-giving, special mention was made of Millar being the only O'pen Skiff sailor in the Gisborne region and rarely having the benefit of close skiff racing on home water.

Her build-up benefited from the presence of a young German female sailor, Lioba Rimmele, who was in the district on holiday. She jumped on to a spare boat and raced with Millar before the nationals.

Millar is eyeing a possible defence of her Wellington O'pen Skiff title in March, then the Starling Class Nationals to be held at Manly around Easter.

She has offered thanks to her sponsor Eastland Port, the 2023 Tairawhiti Rising Legends and the Gisborne Yacht Club for their support.

' The capital O and apostrophe of O'pen is in reference to the Optimist class boat, a popular youth sailing dinghy that was built in 1947 at the request of the Clearwater Florida Optimist service club. Somewhat heavy and slow, the Optimist class design included buoyancy bags to help float the vessel in case of capsize. An O'pen Skiff needs no such support; with an open transom, water flows out the rear and never stays in the hull during sailing or in a capsize, so the junior boat is easy to handle and right. First produced in 2006 as the O'pen Bic, it was renamed the O'pen Skiff in 2019 and is a popular sailing vessel for children and teenagers. (From San Diego Reader and Wikipedia)