Winter Sailing in Canada... (called: boat work)

Time to knock off all the to-do that we're to-ignor all summer. luckily its the shortest list I've had yet. Still only one thing crossed off...

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That was easy...

Alright, it looks like winter did come this year, against my predictions. Time to put the boat away. This year that was really easy, thanks to the new equiptment! Just got it today and can't wait to fit it out for hauling boats.

Note my awesome truckin' hat and safety gloves.

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Its not winter yet...

Despite the frost on the windows yesterday morning, it turned into a great day for sailing... its no joke! The afternoon was warm and the wind was perfect for a range of sailing conditions without getting too wet. We could have held a regatta! I had hopped to spend the day on the water again today but the rain washed away our ambition. There is always next weekend.

looks like a good day for sailing.

Anyone want to join?

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snow sailing

Wow, going fast in flat water and 10-15knts. Perfect conditions, well except for the snow.

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Canadian Nationals

Another great event in Toronto. We saw 20+ knts and huge waves out in the lake on day 1. John and I were not about to wait on the docks for racing to start (or wind to soften). Even though we were in the sub 300lb club we spent a few hours ripping around in the lake and then the harbour before racing started at 2:00pm. Too bad that we had a break down just before the first race, we still had a LOT of sailing! And luckily the photo boat was there too!

Day 2 had less wind and three races, but it was very close racing with lots of lead changes.

Photos by Joaquim Santos: www.eye4photos.ca

Newport!

Just touched down in the Ocean State on my way to watch th C-Class finals of CAN vs AUS.

Go CANADA!

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RCYC Junior Club Night

Thanks to Jason, Morgan, Greg and all the parents who helped out with the JC sail night last night. What a talented group!

I can't wait to see these kids on the race course.... I'm thinking 2013 Worlds!

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Thursday Night Racing @ RCYC

Wish I was there instead of at the airport!

congrats to everyone at CBI Regatta, it looked like a blast. See you at club champs!

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RCYC Open & RCYC Skiff

It continues to be a great season in Toronto.  RCYC Open had one great day of sailing in 10-15knts.  Most of the fleet was breaking in new crews which left Peter Hayward and I to battle it out for the Regatta win.  Good speed alone couldn’t best Hayward’s no mistake sailing.

At the RCYC Skiff this past weekend, new crews were well practiced for the lighter air event.  What incredibly close racing in the mid fleet.  The veteran team of Andrew Yates and John Curtis left no question that they were the fasted over the weekend, but behind them the fleet was close with lots of passing and positions changes.  Jason Lemieux and I were head to head all weekend tied after day one.  Both of us were sailing with new crews but 2 days of training, including a day in the lake with Canadian Team Coach Rob Fox had our boat handling nicely sorted giving us the edge over the many other teams.  The weekend finished with Andrew Yates in first - 7pt, Peter Hayward second 21pts, myself and John Hudson in Third 25pts, Lemieux fourth 28pts.

Feels like summer

Feels like summer outside and I've already done a lot of sailing, practicing, and Thursday Night Races. The first regatta of the year is this weekend in Ottawa with more training Friday before hand.

Sydney Worlds Report

Its starting to warm up and my recent home renovations are almost done - I'm starting to think about sailing again! I missed sending out an update from the Sydney Worlds so I am going to kick off my new blog with that report.
The event was in Manly, on the North shore of Sydney Harbour at the 16ft Skiff club. There isn't a large local 14 foot fleet but to help establish the class in Sydney and because it was a cool venue, the Worlds was hosted there. A little more then 100 showed up for the event, which was more then the organizers expected, this caused some last minute format changes. The two biggest changes were splitting the fleets and eliminating the reaching legs (normally the 2nd leg of the race across the wind). The problem was space, with 100+ boats and a ferry passing through the race area every 20 minutes there just wasn't enough room.

The first day of racing Nick and I were quite excited to get on the water and race - so was everyone else. The fleet we were randomly assigned for the day had a good chunk of the top guys, which was intimidating but fit with our strategy - follow the fastest guys around the course! We had never sailed in Sydney and they had, so we thought this was a safe bet.

The first two races didn't go off as smooth as we expected. There were between 50 and 60 boats on a short line and everyone was very aggressive. This caused a number of general recalls (false starts). We found ourselves in the heat of the aggressive guys (remember our strategy!) and during one of the recalls, in the midst of confusion about the time remaining before the start ended up on the wrong side of the starting line. We were over early and the 'black' flag was up (meaning, if you are over early before the signal you are disqualified) . That was not a good way to start a regatta. We weren't the only ones who got a black flag penalty, a former world champion (who we were trying to follow) also was given a black flag. However, not all sailing is won or lost on the water. We knew we were over and accepted our fate, several others felt that the judges made a mistake and protested their results. Their penalties were overturned, but we still had to carry 100+ points!

Day 2 was another hard day of sailing. Again we were randomly assigned a group to sail with, on this day we were in the afternoon fleet. The day had started off nice (as it usually did in Sydney) and got windier and windier. On this day by the time we got out sailing it was blowing over 20 knots with some 30 knots guts. This was as close to being too windy to sail as it gets at the worlds. On the water, it was tough work (luckily I had been going to the gym, regularly - thanks Phil and ExF!). However, it wasn't our day, we had a few gear issues and breakdowns that led to us not finishing the race. Another 100+ point day, ouch.

It was hard to get over the disappointment that I lost the chance to make it to the finals and no hope of a PB which I had been training for. However it was still early in the regatta so there was a chance to save a few good results and have some fun sailing.

After the fleet split into Gold and Silver, we started to feel our sailing kick into top gear. In the rest of the races we were fighting with the top boat and nearly matched for speed. They were a German boat who had a similar fate to us, so it was nice to have some close racing. In the end we placed 4th in Silver fleet it would have been a cool 2nd if we didn't still have to carry the penalty points from the qualifying round.

Now starts another season and new goals for the UK 2011 and Toronto 2013 World Championships.

See you on the water.

Chris