POOLE Yacht Club is doing its bit to nurture the Olympic sailors of the future after holding the first of seven Optimist training days.

Around 20 youngsters enrolled for the high-level coaching, which will continue throughout the colder months.

A number of the sailors are in the Southern Zone squad, run by the Royal Yachting Association and could, potentially, become the Games sailors of the future.

If you have a child between eight and 10 years old looking to learn to sail, contact the Optimist class captain Simon Foster at Poole Yacht Club on 07778 559070.

  • Sunday saw good conditions for the third race day of the Poole Winter Series.

The huge 1A fleet made life interesting with a run and beat in South Deep, interspersed with the Parkstone dinghies.

An impeccable outing by Ian Wall’s Mojito saw him round the front from start to finish, while Richard Horton’s flying machine Intrigue flew past on the reach but headed for the wrong mark.

The 36-foot Dehler, Deity, got past, too, but was never going to make up for a 4.8-minute handicap penalty, especially as they were OCS and had to return to restart.

Out in the bay, meanwhile, the youth of Poole Yacht Club were giving Flair IV an airing in IRC 1 with 17-year-old Rockley Academy student Tim Lees at the helm.

After the fourth restart, racing got under way for Class One and big gains were made by the boats on the left-hand side of the beat.

With a good lay-line call by the Flair team, they led the way into the first mark and with some swift boat work, they never looked back.

Alan and Lis Bennett’s J109, Blue Jay, was hot on their heels but could not hunt down the young Flair team and finished a minute or so behind on the water.

However, after the calculator did its work, it was Ian Braham’s Enigma that took top honours by nine seconds.

  • Rockley Watersports held an open morning to showcase their selection as the only centre in the world to run the ISAF/IOC-backed scholarship course.

Rockley welcomes students from as far afield as Fiji, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique, UAE and Madagascar for watersports training.

The open morning also featured information on Rockley’s BTEC course, backed by LeAF (Leaning and Achievement Foundation).