The 2008 Optimist North American Championships took place over the week of June 26th through July 5th.  The location for the event would be the Netherlands Antilles located on the Island of Curacao.  The BVI Team consisted of 4 racers, Dontae Hodge, Jason Putley, Mollee Donovan, and Jonathan Woods.  This would be the first time in the history of the BVI Optimist Sailing team, that we would have a complete team of 4 competing in the regatta.  The regatta would host a total of 25 countries, with 204 participants.  This event is a closed event, were in order to attend, one must qualify within their country first.  Spots are given depending on population size, with BVI given 4.

After 2 days of racing, 6 races in total, team BVI's  North American team, and one of the youngest at the event, performed at a very accomplished level. Windy conditions didn’t favor allot of the smaller less experience sailors on the first day, but did prepare them well for the remainder of the competition.  Senior sailor Dontae Hodge would show that his speed and skill level is world class and put some top half finishes in on day 2. While getting around the 60 min race track proved to be a challenge within its own, BVI sailors would out sail older more experienced Opti racers, to score racer were others could not get around the challenging course, which had 22-25knt breeze, and 3-4 knots of current moving in the same direction of the wind.

The final 2 days saw many changes in the scores.  While others began to fade on the score board, Team BVI sailors continued to rise.  With a total of 15 spots gained on the final day alone, Team BVI showed that gains were made on a large scale.  Highlights include Dontae Hodge scoring his best international score to date, with an impressive 11th in race number twelve.  As well Jonathan, Mollee and Jason, saving there best finishes for the end of the regatta, with many results that had half of the large 204 boat fleet behind them.

At the awards ceremony Jason Putley would receive an honorary award for being the youngest competitor out of the 204 competitors.  The team will continue to train hard over the following year, and while other sailors are aging out of the 15 and under Opti, our sailors still have many more years to race, with as many as 5 more competitive years ahead.  Also many thanks to our two main sponsors, NLP Development of Virgin Gorda and Arifa Trust for their assistance in making this event happen, and all other companies and individuals too numerous to mention.

Results: Out of 204 sailors, and 25 countries

Dontae Hodge: 97th

Jonathan Woods: 178th

Mollee Donovan: 187th

Jason Putley:  196th