The past couple of months the team has been keeping really busy sailing regattas all over the world.
After the Detla Lloyd regatta, there were a couple training camps held out of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club to prepare for WAVES and for some the Laser North Americans.
The Laser NA's took place at Buffalo Canoe Club. The Buffalo Canoe club put on an excellent event and the team was billeted by members of the club. We saw wind of most strengths and assorted directions.
The first day of racing was cancelled eventually after we headed out to the race course twice then back in due to thunder storms. The next three days were good racing , with one day of qualifying then on to the gold fleet racing.
From the beginning Luke Ramsay was well in the hunt for the trophy as well as Jen Spalding, both fought hard for the trophy.
In the end Jen was a close 2nd to fellow national team member Lisa Rossafter a match race in the final heat, Alex Heinzemann (on his way to the youth worlds) finished 3rd overall. Luke finished 5th overall in a hotly contested Laser fleet. Luke is training hard for the upcoming Laser Worlds in Halifax.
This year WAVES regatta was also the Laser Canadian Championships. We had great conditons for it and were really happy to have the whole team out for the event! 25 team members competed in the event!
We had 3 days of great racing, westerly breezes and plenty of current. PRO John Culter did an excellent job of getting a maximum number of races off.
Congratulations to Luke Ramsay who is the new Canadian Champion in the Laser class! Luke really dominated and was well on form. Derik Vranizan from Seattle,(another Race Team member) was a solid 2nd, Ricardo Montemayor, top youth, also had a great event finishing 3rd overall, with Abe Torchinsky in 4th and Jason Rhodes in 5th, (keeping the young guys honest!).
In the radial fleet Alexander Heinzemann is the new Canadian champion! Dominque Fritz finished 6th and Chris Tulip finnished 7th. Results are @ royalvan.com
After the Canadians the team packed up the trailer to head down to the Gorge for 2 weeks of training and racing. We started off with 2 days of training to get warmed up for the Laser District 6 regatta. The trip to the Gorge is going really well, and its great to see everyone out there getting some heavy wind training.
The trip to the Gorge will finnish with the Blow Out, a 20 mile downwind race which starts in Cascade Locks and finishes in Hood River. That will happen on Thursday July 16th. The Blowout is followed by the Pacific Coast Championships which are from July 17-19.
