The future of Australian sailing was on display on Waterloo Bay last week and lifelong friendships were being made on the lawns of RQ. Almost 200 Opti sailors from across Australia including 11 internationals came together for the 2025 Musto Australian Optimist Championship proudly hosted by RQYS.

After a rain delay to the opening ceremony the sailors proudly marched along flags avenue led by the bagpiper for the opening ceremony followed a fun filled afternoon of pasta and burgers on the lawn, live music and lawn games encouraging friendships to be formed.

RQ Youth Squad was strongly represented in the championships with 10 Green fleet sailors, 6 intermediate sailors and 17 open sailors this great representation, resulted in RQ winning the trophy for the most represented club the “Bennett Family Club Participation Award”.

We are so incredibly proud of all our sailors, a few notable mentions include the von Bibra children, Naomi 2^nd place girl, green fleet (11^th overall) from a fleet of 34 sailors and Luca 1^st place overall intermediate from a fleet of 50 sailors amazing effort from them both. All our green fleet and intermediate sailors did incredibly well for what was many their first big regatta and they represented the club with determination and outstanding sportsmanship.

For our open sailors, it was their chance to host the best in the country on their home waters. The team has been training hard for this event and have put so much into their sailing over the last few years.  As luck would have it, we didn’t get our usual Waterloo Bay conditions however our sailors put on a very impressive display against the 113 Open sailors in varying conditions. After the 3 days of the qualifying rounds we had 9 RQ sailors in gold fleet.

Josh Dale made us all proud finishing in 3^rd place overall – he has now qualified for the Worlds team to got to Slovenia in June – this achievement for an RQ and QLD sailor is amazing, we have no recent memory any other sailors from QLD making this worlds team, well done Josh. Monte Morse also finished a commendable 17^th and finishes his Opti career on a well deserved high. These two sailors have been racing each other and “hanging out” on the RQ lawns since they were 6 or 7 years old and have grown into leaders in the Open Opti team. Special mention also to Reid Martin (PDSC) fellow QLDer and RQ member who finished 8^th overall and 1^st 12 year old his future in Opti Sailing is looking bright.

We all need to remember our Opti sailors are so young and so amazing, they are learning lifelong skills and most off all they are forming life-long friendships on the lawns of our beautiful club. The RQ “Opti Mum’s and Dad’s” were so incredibly proud of all of our young sailors and we are always amazed by what they can achieve.

A special mention to all the Opti coaches, RQYS staff, parents and volunteers who worked so hard to ensure the regatta was a success and gave our children the opportunity to show case their club that they are all so proud to be a part of. Our future is looking bright.

If you’d like to check out the full image gallery, click here. 

All images by Mike ‘Spikey’ Middleton.