Laser National Qualifying Regatta 2011

The team of Recardo Montemayor , Alex Heinzman, Kyle Martin in Laser Standard and Isabella Bertold , Becky Power and Joanna Moore in the Radial arrived over the weekend of September 24-25 to St Margaret's Bay Sailing Club, Nova Scotia in preparation for one of the key regattas of the season, (Sport Canada carding - read money for training).

We had the truck and trailer with all our Lasers and coach boat at the club , left there after the Canadian Youth Sailing championships in August.

We trained for a number of days prior and then the racing started on the Wednesday carried thru till Saturday.
The regatta was run with windward leeward courses each day , 3 races most days with 4 on the Friday, and one on the final day.
We saw winds ranging from 8 to 18 knots and had a good series with the best Canadian Laser sailors fighting for the top spots.

Isabella had a fantastic series as the defending champion and kept the title with a sting of bullets. She is clearly the odds on favorite for the Olympic selection. Becky had an excellent series and finished 9th and Joanna sailed well and was 10th.

In the men's side our guys had good moments with Ric getting a 2nd and Alex 2 4ths in an early races , in the end Alex was 9th, Ric 10 and Kyle 16th

A solid showing for a developing team, were hoping the event will be @ Royal Van next year , finger crossed.

See results at http://smsc.ca/images/raceresults/2011cyayouths/results.html


Al

Rocky Point Regatta

The annual Rocky Point Regatta happened this past weekend. The regatta was plagued with very light winds. Saturday saw 1 race sailed for the Lasers, Radials and 420's. Unfortunately for the 4.7 fleet the wind completely shut off right at their start.

The highlight of the regatta was Miranda MacGillivray who won the one and only race of the regatta. Great work Miranda!

Fall Dinghy Champs are happening this coming weekend in Victoria. Hopefully we will get some great wind.

Chris Cowan

Canadian Youth Championships , Aug 2011

We (Gabe, Alex Shepard and me) drove from the CORK Regatta to St Margrets bay for the Youth Champs , arriving on the evening of the 26th of August. Kyle arrived an hour later with the Manitoba truck that he was helping to drive.

Cameron and Ellie flew in on the Saturday 2 days after us. The first day of racing was the Monday with Hurricane Irene forcast to arrive the Sunday night ( not much came of this , a little wind and no rain) . We sailed for a few sessions prior to the event and everyone seemed ready.

Day one saw real nice breezes of 15 to 20 kts and most of the team loving the fresh stuff. Kyle came out with a 1,2 and Gabe was top 5 twice sitting 4th overall .

The wind was light the next few days and we didn't see any real hiking breeze the rest of the regatta. As the days passed we settled into the routine, staying at a cabin right beside the club was a real bonus, we had our own dock too. I was using the new Rib Craft Inflatable and was more impressed each day.

So we gelled well as a team and had a good time racing against the best youth sailors in the country. As we finished the last day Kyle had the regatta in the bag without having to sail the last race which he won. Cam put together a real quality event and finished 8th (could have been 3rd without a small error), Gabe's regatta kinda fell apart after the first day but he saw many improvements in his game. Alex Shepard improved though out the whole time he sailed and finished 8th , Ellie Shaw was real good considering her newness to the Radial finishing 10th .

See results @ http://www.sailing.ca/features/trihedral_cya_youth_national_sailing_championships/

We had Liliah (Kyle's mum) for the last few days and she was a big help on the final pack up and the trip out to the airport .

Congratulations to the whole team that ventured out to far away places this summer , thats all except the NQR regatta for a group trying to stay on or make the National Sailing Team in late September at the same club.

Canadian Opti Championships Aug 2011

Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston, Aug 2011

The CORK events have been going since the 1970's and the event is broken into 2 portions now.
The international and the OCR , held over a 10 day period with a day off between.

We drove the trailer from Gimli Manitoba from the Sail West Regatta and then dropped the trailer in the Olympic Harbor. Our team of sailors competing in the events were Gleb and Rachel Spenelli in the 29'er , Alex Heinzman , Alex Shepard and Kyle Martin in the Laser Standard, Luke Ramsay (taking a break from 470 sailing for a few weeks), Gabe Frame, Cameron Ho , Ellie Shaw and Becky Power in the Laser Radial.

The youth event started on the 15th of August and concluded on the 18th, 4 days of racing with a mass of boats , a total of nearly 500 sailors in assorted classes.

The weather was generally light and variable through out the event. Our team faired very well in the end with Kyle Martin dominating the standard Lasers , counting only first place finishes, Alex Shepard was 7th . In the Radials Cameron Ho was 6th , Gabe 20th and Ellie (very new to the boat ) 29th in a 150 boat fleet. Very impressive results, Cam and Gabe are trying for the Youth Worlds spot at the Canadian Youths so nice to see them do well. Ellie was the most pleasant surprise , she led a race all the way to the finish and sailed very well with a few bad races that dropped her back.

The second event was the senior regatta with a number of Canadian National team sailors in attendance. Ellie went home, Becky and Luke flew in , Alex Heinzman also arrived ready to go after a successful tour down the west coast at the Gorge regatta and the US Nationals in Cal YC , where he was 4th.

We saw good breeze for a portion of the event then some light. We had a stormy day on the Sunday when we didn't sail then a breezy last day where sailing was cancelled , so really a 3 day event from a 5 day.

The team sailed well, Luke dominated the radials with a number of wins, Becky was back from knee injury and had some top 5 finishes mixed with some deeper results and a missed few races from gear problems but looked good , Cameron had boat issues but sailed well without getting a good result, Gabe was solid especially in the breeze. In the standard rigs Alex was well in the hunt and finished 7th (he is a national team development sailor), Kyle Martin was 15th and is well on his way to making the national team. Alex Shepard hung in there well against top guys.

All in all a successful time in Kingston with wins in a few classes and top results though out, thanks for the great hospitality we'll be back soon.

Al Clark

4.7 Worlds , San Francisco July 28th-Aug 2nd , 2011

In July, three RVYC 4.7 Laser sailors, Graham Haney, Adrien Vlasic and Alexander Fritz travelled to San Francisco to compete at the North American 4.7 Laser Championships hosted by the South Beach YC and TISC, and thereafter the 4.7 Laser World Championships hosted by the St Francis YC.

Thanks to Peter Harney lending the team his truck, logistics could be pulled off in light of other Canadian events drawing on both vehicles and trailers resources.

With 50 boats entered the 4.7 Laser NAs provided an opportunity to train one more time in the usual San Francisco Bay winds, and with some of the Worlds sailors attending a very good stepping stone. The wind delivered with the usual strong breeze, especially in the afternoon, in the shallow waters in front of Oakland causing significant chop as the day went on. Tides were tricky at times as it affected the race course from the sides. All 3 sailors put together a solid start, with Adrien leading 2 races at the windward mark and finishing 4th overall.

The lay-day after the NAs was utilized to sail the boats across from Treasure Island, making for a great sail past the San Francisco waterfront and Alcatraz Island. The team arrived at St Francis in time to put in an afternoon training session.

Next day Coach Al had the team go over their boats, several things needed fixing, and optimizing in preparation for measurement. Measurement was stringent down to having to modify letters on the sail numbers and straightening out top sections and booms. After going over sailing instructions for the 4.7 Laser Worlds, the boys were especially happy about being able to sleep in every day due to the fact that girls’ races were to be in the morning and boys the afternoon.

However the smug celebrations were cut short when at the Opening Ceremonies announcements were made about the final format, changing to alternating starts at 11am and 3pm. Many of the 28 countries had clearly brought older and heavier sailors in expectation of the conditions and both boys and girls were well prepared to compete in the usually stiff San Francisco Bay afternoon breeze.

This alternating start time made it important in the mornings to study the tide charts very closely, as conditions varied every single day – in fact every single race, usually ebb in the morning race, then slack tide and flood from the early afternoon onwards. Winds in the morning were lighter, starting at 8-12kn and very shifty, increasing, and steadier throughout the day to 20+kn of wind.

As with other regattas previously, St Francis did a terrific job accommodating the over 250 Youth sailors, with their coaches, parents, all the gear and everything ran very efficiently.

Graham, Adrien and Alexander certainly benefited especially on race day 1 and 2 from the previously (as Optimist sailors) gained knowledge and sailed the 4 day qualifying races very well. Races were very long, lasting 1.5 hours and spanned the entire waterfront between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

In the end all 3 just missed the Gold Fleet, but had 2 final terrific days in Silver Fleet, all with top 10 finishes in individual races.
During the final 2 days, a lot of things coach Al focused on in training and the earlier racing days came together nicely. Overall, despite having just been out of the Optimist for barely a year, all 3 were able to compete very well, testimony also to the high level knowledge gained from RVYCs (coaches Tine and Chris) Optimist race team program.

Thanks to Coach Al Clark for the work and education on and off the water, nutrition and ice baths included. The biggest learning was certainly also boat specific knowledge.

Thank you to Susan Harney for the team shirts and Bruno Vlasic for the great sailing team bags.

It was great fun having had the chance to accompany the team.

Harald Fritz

Jr Standard/ Radial Worlds, La Rochelle, France 2011

We decided after the good experience last year in Hayling Island , UK, that we would go again to the Jr Standard Worlds (under 21) this year in La Rochelle. The Mens Radials Worlds were held in conjunction.

We had Alexander Heinzman, Ricardo Montemayor and Kyle Martin in the Standard Rigs. In the Radial we had Alex Kroitzch, Gabe Frame and Cameron Ho.

The plan was to fly to Paris and drive down 400kms to La Rochelle, we ended up with 5 in the car with Alex H driving from Germany and meeting us on July 12th . Lilliah Martin (Kyle's Mum) had booked us 2 nice apartments right beside the marina and we were happy to have full kitchens in both. We did all our grocery shopping the first day and were out training for 4 days prior to the start of the event on the 18th July.

Of course the weather was sunny , warm and light breezes for the early training, that changed to the opposite by the weekend.
The wind came and eventually the rain and stayed for the regatta with the exception of the last day, when we still had plenty of breeze but with sunny skys, ( a nice way to end an excellent event).

The racing was pretty standard for a Worlds, 2 races a day running about an hour or so long, generally we started around noon, (they posted the schedule each night at 6).

The routine was awake 3 hours before sailing, then breakfast, then walk to the dock,get course assignment, rig the boats, get all gear to coach boat , sail to the race course, plan to be there 30 to 45 min before the first start , (the fleets were split into 3 starts).

So the racing commenced and it soon was clear that Ricardo and Alex were well in the hunt, (they were posting single digit results all thru the qualifying series). Kyle had also improved greatly since last year and was in the low teens many races.

The Radial boys were in tough with a high calibre fleet , (some were full rig sailors too old for the Jr Worlds), but improved daily and hung in till the end.

As the regatta heated up fine tuning was needed to increase boat speed in the heavy air, as well as a lot of work on starting techniques. The boys worked as a team each evening and as we got to the club each morning to help each improve, (it was a pleasure to have such a agreeable group of sailors).

In the end Alex H had a super event finishing 12th , (very close to the top 10), Ricardo was 20th and Kyle was 67th in a 147 boat fleet. Excellent results and both Alex and Kyle will have another chance next year.

Alex , Gabe and Cam learned heaps about big fleets at a worlds in heavy air and had very respectable results for their age and experience. Mostly I think it was the experience of living together in a foreign land competing against the best in the world.
With close to 300 sailors with many coaches and parents at the site and it was quite a spectacle.

Always nice to see our up and coming sailors representing the club in a fine fashion on the world stage.

Check out the results @ http://www.srr-sailing.com/world-laser-radial-and-standard-results/



Al Clark

Youth Worlds, Croatia 2011

Kyle Martin (Laser) and Natalia Montemayor (Radial) qualified to go to the ISAF Youth World Sailing Championships in Croatia July 7-16th. They both had a great experience and represented Royal Van admirably.

Here is the report from Kyle Martin
The 2011 ISAF Youth Worlds were held in Zadar, Croatia from July 7 - July 16. I was sailing radial, a change from my usual full rig so was hoping for big winds. There were two sailors, Natalie Montemayor and Kyle Martin from Royal Vancouver YC as well as a team in 420 and 29er from back east. There were 49 countries represented in the boys Radial fleet and 41 in the girls.
For the first 3 days there was check in, training, and a practice race. The winds were light, 3 - 7kts and the temperature was in the high 30's. The opening ceremonies were spectacular. They were done from a barge at night with a "Beatles Yellow Submarine" theme. I got to carry the flag for Canada so was taken to the barge by boat. There was an incredible fireworks display with hundreds of people from the town crowding along the sea wall to watch.
The first 3 days of racing were in the same very light wind and high temperature. The race committee managed to get off all the scheduled raced despite some long days on the water. By the time the lay day came around we were all starting to think that it would never get windy.
On our lay day we did touristy things. We walked in to the old part of town, which is still surrounded by ancient walls. We walked up the spiral stairs of an old bell tower and got an amazing view of the city.
Racing the next day (day 4) was in the same very light winds but for the last 2 days the wind came up. We had 16kts for the first race on day 5 building to 18kts for the second race. I finally got to hike and I led to the first mark and finished 5th. Day 6 also had wind, with me finishing a 9th in one race, so it was a great way to finish up the regatta. Natalia sailed very well finishing 21st overall with her best result a 3rd on the last day. I finished 38th overall. I had a lot more fun in the wind and was wishing the entire event was windy.

go to-> http://www.isafyouthworlds.com/ to see the results and news

Squamish 2011

The team has been busy after the end of Waves regatta, we had 2 training camps in Squamish , the first was run by Kevin Black with Alex Heinzman, Ricardo Montemayor , Gabe Frame , Joanna Moore and Isabella Bertold sailing, they had fresh breeze each day and all improved their heavy air performance. One goal of the event was to prepare for the Jr Worlds in France July 16-23.

Chris Cowan ran the second camp , July 11-17 , and had the 3 sailors going to the 4.7 Worlds in San Francisco later in the month, Adrian Vlasic, Graham Harney and Alex Fritz , they had a few days of no breeze but got in plenty of breeze training. We have developed a nice relationship with the Squamish YC and hope to do more camps there in the future.

Waves Regatta 2011

We had a real nice weekend of sailing July 1-3 , winds were generally light except for the last day in the morning when we saw 14kts for a bit .

Royal Van sailors were well represented in the event with over 40 sailors on the water for the weekend. We had 26 Lasers sailors in the 4.7 , Radial , and Standard fleets. 3- 29'ers , (a new fleet for us that has been developing over the past 6 months ) , 3- 420's and 10 opti sailors.

The battles were hard fought in all the classes with victory in the Laser going to Alex Heinzman by a few points over recent Laser Canadian Champion , Ricardo Montemayor , with Michael Schalka in 3rd .
In the Radial Isabella Bertold won and was closely followed by Natalia Montemayor and Joanna Moore in 3rd.
The 4.7 fleet was dominated by Royal Van sailors with Alexander Fritz prevailing over Jake Cullen , Hayley Linton 3rd.
Our next generation Laser sailors are doing the club proud!

In the 29'er class Sam Gustin and Ian Woodbury were the class of the field and ran away with first , counting mostly first place finishes, they have been very helpful tutoring the new sailors to our 29'er team coming out of our 420 team.
The 420 was won by Kia Meiklejohn and Heather Strain , with Royal Van having all 3 top spots.
Our double handed team seems to growing and developing at a great rate, thanks Alex Edgar and Kevin Black for your efforts .

The Opti fleet was won by Eric Lyall , with Andrew Moreno 2nd , thanks for the coaching from Anne Marie Kroitz

Next for us is a busy July with many sailors doing World Championship Events -
ISAF Youth Worlds in Croatia -Kyle and Natalia ,
Jr Laser worlds in LaRocelle France -Kyle , Ric, Alex H , Alex K, Gabe and Cam
4.7 Worlds in San Francisco- Graham Harney, Alex Fritz, and Adrian Vlasic

August brings a trip east starting with the Sail West in Gimli , then the 2 CORK regattas and ending with the Canadian Youth Championships in Halifax the final week .

Laser Canadians 2011 Lake Wabamum Alberta

Several members of the Royal Van Racing Team traveled to Wabamun, Alberta for the 2011 Laser Canadians over the past weekend. The event was very well run with great food and great racing. We were excited to have winds in the 14-20kt range, and big waves each day which made for some very exciting racing. Full rigs, Radials, and 4.7's each had their own separate courses. Each day we had a large group debrief, and I was quite happy to see how much the older and more experienced sailors were helping the younger ones.

In the full rig fleet Ricardo Montemayor and Kyle Martin dominated the racing. Ricardo Montemayor won 8/10 races, and Kyle Martin was very close behind with a convincing second place finish. The gap between Ricardo and Kyle and the rest of the fleet was significant.

In the Laser 4.7 class, Graham Harney, Jake Cullen, Rachel Spinelli, and Alex Fritz swapped turns winning races and fought hard for the top places. Graham Harney ultimately won the regatta after sailing a spectacular last few races. Alex Fritz finished in second place after unfortunately suffering from a broken nose on the last day of the event. Being a very small person, Rachel Spinelli had to work very hard and finished 3rd place overall. Jake Cullen, Hayley Linton, and Jim Donaldson each had their moments in the races and all seemed to be much more comfortable sailing in heavy wind. Hayley finished in 4th place, Jake in 6th, and Jim in 7th place.

Racing on the Laser Radial course was very exciting to watch. Each of our sailors had their moments at the top of the pack. In the end, Natalyia Montemayor finished 3rd, Joanna Moore in 4th, and Gabe Frame in 5. Adrian Vlasic finished in 9th place. Miranda MacGillivray finished in 13th place, and unfortunately broke her bottom section on the first day which never helps the results.

We're very happy with the results from the team. A job well done. This was a great event for our sailors leading into a busy summer season. Next up is the Waves regatta in Vancouver, followed by a training camp in Squamish.

Thanks to Royal Van members for their continued support.

Results for 2011 Laser Canadians can be found here:
http://www.wabamunsailingclub.ab.ca/Media/Multimedia/2011%20Laser%20Nationals.htm

Chris Cowan
Royal Van Racing

Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, June 6-11, 2011

We travelled from Holland to England to do the second of the World Cup events of our trip, a short flight over to Heathrow , then a 3 hour drive down to Weymouth in the south of the island.

Ric and I stayed in a bed and breakfast for the first 5 days then into a house for the remainder of the trip. Weymouth / Portland is a nice community by the sea that was a one point a military base. The British changed the harbour into a massive sailing complex designed for there high performance dingy sailers to best the world, (and it seems to be working). This is the site of the 2012 sailing portion of the Olympics.

The weather was quite sunny and warm prior to the first race but of course went back to cold and windy by day one. Again this regatta was characterized by strong winds and tricky geographic shifts and a nice tide running most of the time. A good place to run a regatta!

We did have delay waiting for breeze the first day and only completed one race. After that we sailed on schedule with an extra make up race on the Tuesday. We really found out who had been working the hardest in the gym all winter and Ric was sure that he needed to do more in that regard.

Ric finished again in the silver fleet and was quite ready to get home by the final day, plenty to take away from the experience, (he will be back in August for the test event ).

All the countries had their teams competing and Canada was no exception. Royal Van had all our Olympic hopefuls there, including Zak Plasvic and Nicola Girke in the RSX, Mike Leigh, Luke Ramsay and Alex McCorkendale in the 470, Bruce Millar in the 2.4, Isabella Bertold in the Radial, Alex Heinzman in the Laser, Hunter Lowden in the 49'er .

This was also a qualifier for many countries for the Olympic test event and Royal Van did very well to qualify Nicola, Zak, Mike and Luke, Isabella , Hunter and Ricardo . So we will be represented in both boards, the laser and radial , the 470 and the 49'er , very exciting times. A big thank you to the Corinthian Fund from all of our sailors pursuing their Olympic dream!

Delta Lloyd Regatta May 25-29, 2011

The Delta Lloyd regatta is one of the 7 world cup events held each year in the small town of Medemblik north of Amsterdam. I went to the event primarily as Ricardo Montemayer's coach. Ric has been busy at university for the last two years and has been sailing generally in the summers with training in Vancouver in the winter months. This past January he qualified for the Pan Am games in Mexico in November and the Olympic test event this August. He has decided to take the next year off school and take a run at the Olympics for Mexico. This was the first of 5 major events he has planned for 2011.

We had a real windy event this year , with many days winds pushing 30kts. We arrived a few days before the first race and had 3 days of good training. There were over 120 of the top sailors in the Laser class split into 2 fleets, With the exception of the 2nd day we saw winds 20-30kts, Ric got better with each day and I was impressed with his work ethic. In the end he missed Gold fleet by a few points and settled for more training with a high caliber silver fleet. We packed up the gear on the Sunday (Ric chartered his laser for all the events from Sail Coach and I chartered my RIB from Ben Remocker's company Port Tack Charter).

A number of other sailors from Royal Van were at the event, the teams of Luke Ramsay sailing with Mike Leigh and Andrew McCorkendale sailing with Oliver Bone from Halifax, in the 470. Hunter Lowden sailing with Gorden Cook from Toronto in the 49'er class . Zak Plasvic in the RSX class (he was 2nd overall! )

Check the results @ http://results.deltalloydregatta.org/

Al

Pacific Coast Championships

Royal Van Racing headed down to Seattle, Washington for the Pacific Coast Championships (PCC's). The weather was great and we experienced all different types of wind conditions. No full rigs in attendance from our team, but we were well represented in the radials and 4.7's. In the Radial class Natalya Montemayor finished in 1st place after an exciting and tight finish in the last race to seal the deal. Joanna Moore finished in 3rd place after dealing with some tricky shifting conditions on the last day. Alex Kroitzsch finished 4th place and won the last race on day 1. Cameron Ho finished up in 7th place and moved up and down throughout the fleet. Adrian Vlasic finished in 11th place, and Miranda MacGillivray finished in 14th.

In the Laser 4.7 fleet, Graham Harney finshed in 2nd place after fighting hard with SYC's Jack Toland. Jake Cullen finished in 3rd place, and actually won two races throughout the regatta. Connor Black finished in 5th place for his first Laser class regatta.

Well done team! Next stop for the Laser team is the Laser Canadians in Alberta.

Results for PCC's can be found here:
http://www.seattleyachtclub.org/files/Laser%20PCCs.htm

COSA Regatta

Royal Van Racing headed to Kelowna, BC over the May long weekend for the annual COSA Regatta. The event showcased light and shifty wind conditions. The start of racing on Saturday was postponed until roughly 1pm when one light, slow race was finished. Robbie Tulip was hot in the Optis, finishing in 1st place by quite a ways. Alex Fritz battled with Hayley Linton, but ultimately pulled ahead and won the regatta.

Sunday saw 4 races sailed, but had the last race abandoned for most of the fleets that were stuck at the windward mark. The wind was about 5-7 knots for those races so some decent races were sailed.

Next up is the Cultus Lake Regatta this weekend, followed by the Pacific Coast Championships in Seattle.

Until next time...
Chris Cowan

Spring Dinghy Championships

Last weekend Royal Van Racing headed over to Victoria for the annual Spring Dinghy Championships. We had good participation from our team spreading across six different fleets; Lasers, Radials, 4.7’s, 29ers, 420’s and Optis. Being only the 2nd regatta of the year, excitement was high and everyone was keen to get out racing.

Saturday brought winds of up to 20kts gusts with big shifts, and cold temperatures. Sunday remained cold with very light drifting conditions. On the Bravo course seven races were completed in each fleet. Races were long, especially for the Laser 4.7’s who experienced windward legs that were on par with a major championship regatta. In the 29er fleets Sam Gustin and Ian Woodbury showed their experience in the strong winds, but fell back a bit on Sunday during the light air, and ultimately finished in 2nd place. In the Laser fleet Thomas Roehrl remained consistent throughout the regatta finishing in the top five every race, and earning himself 5th place overall. In the Radial fleet Adrian Vlasic, Miranda MacGillivray, and Gina Chen all fought their way through the fleet. Adrian remained in the top 5 and finished with a 3rd place overall. Miranda sailed consistently and finished 8th overall, followed by Gina Chen in 9th. The laser 4.7 fleet was entirely from Royal Van. Hayley Linton sailed a very good regatta winning five races. Jake Cullen was following close behind, and also followed by Ben MacVicar, Jim Donaldson, and Connor Black.

On the Alpha course, eight races were sailed in the 420 fleet, and 9 races for the Optimist fleets. Kia Meiklejohn and Alanna Tacy sailed a good regatta and finished 2nd overall. Lief Pederson and Joren Jackson were close behind, followed by Heather Strain and Daniel Jay a few boats behind.

In the Optimist fleet Lloyd Lyall fought hard and was the winner of a tie-breaker at the end of the event to capture the 1st place finish. His brother Eric was only a few points behind in 3rd place. Tara Yuen finished in 7th place, Kyle Gerrard in 15th place, Henrik Moberg-Parker in 16th, Benjamin McMaster in 20th place, Katrina McCallum in 24th, and Luke Rushton on 25th.

Keep watching the results as our team will be busy throughout May. Next on the agenda is the COSA regatta in Kelowna, followed by the Cultus Lake regatta the following weekend.

Thanks to all Royal Van members for their continued support.


Chris Cowan
Race Team Coach

Kitten Cup 2011

The weather cooperated this weekend with sunshine and good breeze both days.John Coulter ran 9 races for the Laser fleet (7 for the Radial and 4.7), so we were suitably tired by the end of the weekend. The other fleets had a similar number of races.

Thanks to all the volunteers and race officials for giving of their time to put on such an enjoyable event on the 3 courses

Our team had 43 sailors competing in this season opening event, (excellent turn out!).

In the newly revitalized 29'er fleet (thanks to Kevin Black of BC Sailing) there was 5 boats sailing with the top 2 from Royal Van. Sam Gustin and Ian Woodbury dominated most of the racing winning comfortably.

Our 420 team was well represented by 5 teams (thanks to Alex for all her hard work this past winter), we had 1st thru 4th in the 8 boat fleet. Emma Toone and Cammila Loughlin won on a tie breaker.

In the newly formed 4.7 Laser class (Thanks Chris Cowan for getting this team going), Royal Van had 6 of the 7 boats on the score sheet, Alex Fritz beat Jake Cullen by 4 points with Hayley Linton 3rd (in her new boat).

Radial had a big fleet of 31 competitors with Royal Van having the top 7 spots, Isabella Bertold won with 8 points counting in 7 races, Cameron Ho was next sailing a consistent series, with Alex K (ak-> AK ) hot on heels in 3rd.

The Laser Standard fleet has thrived since the inclusion of all ages to the regatta, we had Master (over 35 yrs ) competing with the Juniors (a great idea for the young to learn form the old and for the old to be rejuvenated by the young).

My 35 years experience in the class helped me stay ahead of another Master sailor from Victoria Bob Britten, with Kevin Grierson completing the podium. Thomas Roehnl was our top junior in 5th overall.

The Opti turn out was excellent, 34 sailors in the Red+Blue fleet and 10 in the White fleet.

Eric Lyall was back from a winter of ski racing winning with a 4 point margin. His brother Lloyd ended in 3rd. (We had 6 in the top 12).

In the white fleet Henrik Parker,Tine's son, won. (as usual, Tine is doing a fine job building up a group of excited young sailors).

The next event on the BC Sailing circuit is the Spring Dingy's Regatta in Victoria May 7-8

Al Clark

Easter Camp

Royal Van's annual Easter camp wrapped up this past weekend. The camp was well attended and lived up to its reputation of always having a large Optimist fleet. Nearly 35 optis took part, as well as Lasers, Radials, 4.7's, and a few 420's.

We were lucky to have two nice days of weather before the rain and cold returned, but all of our sailors were keen to be out there. The optimist fleet was split into two groups- novice, and racing fleets and the all the Lasers sailed together. On the Saturday, the Lasers sailed several races with any varying factors to keep it interesting.

Next up for the team is Kitten Cup happening at Royal Van this coming weekend (April 30/May 1). Then followed by a trip to Victoria the following weekend.

More reports will follow as our events unfold.
Until next time...

Chris Cowan

Elvstrom Regatta , April 16-17

Two weeks after our trip to California we decided to head down the I5 for the Elvstrom Regatta in San Fransisco. This is an event we have been intersted in going to for some time and was a good chance to reaquaint ourselves with the bay. Kyle Martin and Alex Shepard sailied in the Laser , Cameron Ho in the Radial and Alex Fritz in the 4.7, (I sailed as well in the Laser).

We had a good trip down and stopped at West Coast Sailing for some gear , arriving in SF the Friday evening. Racing started the next morning at 11 and we had 3 good races with the breeze building through out the day.

The Sunday we saw classic SF conditions with winds peaking in the high 20's and 3 races again. A highlight was Alex Fritz getting 2nd overall in the 4.7 class , The team fought hard and finished every race, (Cam missed the start of the last race after a wipe out but sailed around the course anyway).

I ended up winning the Laser class , remembering that its better to stay upright (than not) to win races.

Results are @ http://www.regattanetwork.com/clubmgmt/applet_regatta_results.php?regatta_id=3932

We will continue training on the weeknights and though each weekend leading into the Summer season where we have an ambitious plan to dominate the North American events, with any luck.

Al Clark

Laser 4.7 Update

The Laser 4.7 Team has been busy since beginning the 2011 season at the beginning of March. We are pleased to welcome new members to our team including Jake Cullen and Connor Black. We began our March training with regular Thursday evening and weekend training. Unfortunately English bay had other plans for us as a few of our days came with lighter winds than expected.
On March 20, Jim Donaldson, Graham Harney, Jesse Liu, Rachel Spinelli, Alex Fritz, and Coach Chris Cowan headed to La Cruz, Mexico to train at the International Sailing Academy (ISA). The sailing venue is approximately 15mins north of Puerto Vallarta, and all boats, housing, and meals are provided in the price. Training each day was a mix of everything from drifting conditions to heavy air. The wind typically starts building each day around 11am, and by 12:30 the wind is usually blowing anywhere between 15-20kts. The kids sailed for six days with a focus on both windward and leeward mark-roundings, and finishing the camp with some starting practice. The benefits of a six day camp were evident near the end as each sailor made huge improvements in their sailing. This was a great way for our kids to spend spring break and we’ll definitely be back next year. A huge thanks to Tanya Chamberlain for chaperoning this trip- your help was greatly appreciated.
Next up for the team is our annual Easter Training camp running through the Easter Long weekend, followed by Kitten Cup, then a trip to Victoria the two weeks later. Keep an eye on the results of these events as our kids are hoping to show how all their hard work has paid off.
More reports will follow as events and results unfold. Be sure to check out the Royal Van blog, and Facebook page: Royal Van Racing, for all the latest details about what the team is up to. A huge thanks to all the Royal Van members for all your continued support.
Chris Cowan
Training@royalvan.com

Mids West 2011 final day and prize giving

Ricardo and sister Natalia get their prizes for winning the West Coast Laser Midwinter Championships

Royal Van 470 Campaigns

Andrew McCorkendale has teamed up with Oliver Bone from Halifax to campaign for the 2012 Olympics , they teamed up last August and have spent lots of time in Miami this fall and Winter then they are off to Europe this spring.

Mike Leigh and Luke Ramsay have ended Laser campaigning and begun a 470 Olympic class career. They have both lost copious amounts of weight , (the boat requires the all up crew weight to be 300 pounds total).

Luke went to Australia right after the Laser Mids East regatta, and began a month of training in preparation for the European regatta season.

They have a boat selected from a German builder and sails from Japan on order, we hope both teams the best of luck this year and may the best team qualify for the London 2012!

Go to-

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CAN-Two-Eleven/102427376496824
http://www.mikeandluke.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Leigh-and-Luke-Ramsay/153554274702598

Mids West 2011

We drove to California Saturday morning the 19th of March, with the Opti trailer (7 lasers and the Joker Rib).

Kyle , Alex and Adrian came with me in the truck with Ric , Nat Becky and Gabe to fly in thru the week.

We had an eventful drive down, seeing snow in three different locations along the way, Adrian was most shocked to realize that California gets snow.

We arrived Sunday night in a epic rain storm to the Marina del Rey hotel and parked the trailer for the night. The sun came out in the morning and we began training, that continued with the arrival of Ric and Natalia on Tuesday and Becky and Gabe on Thursday.

Feeling pretty comfortable in the light breeze with large rolling waves, all that was left was some racing to see if we were up to speed.

The regatta started with a nice breeze that built through out the day and made it to 15kts by the end. Becky won the first race in the Radial with Natalia and Gabe close behind, 1,2,3, Royal Van , they were very excited. Ricardo and Kyle were well in the hunt after the first day with Ric getting the rust off after a while off with school being a priority. At the end of the first day Natalia was 1st , Gabe 2nd , (Becky had to go in before the 3rd race because her knee that she operated on at Christmas was feeling sore), so she was down the board with a DNS, Alex was doing well with his best race in the 3rd windiest, Adrian was sitting mid fleet and was performing above expectations being his first Radial regatta.

The second day was lighter and we saw 4 races around 4-8kts. Ricardo put in on a clinic and scored 3 firsts to lead the fleet going into the last day. Kyle flirted with the top 3 a number of races and right on the top 10 mark. In the Radial Natalia continued great consistency and had 2, 2nds and a 4th to put her well ahead of the rest, Becky struggled with the breeze and again was forced to head in because of her knee, Gabe didn't like the conditions as much as the first day and continued to learn how to make the boat go fast in light air (our sport really in the most complex). Alex got to the weather make in the third race in the lead and extended thru out the race to score his first win in a major event (very exciting). He had a good day and was in the low teens. Adrian kept his spot around mid fleet and was learning heaps.

The final day looked bleak with low clouds and not a spec of wind but it cleared up after a short postponement, and we eventually swa 10kts of breeze.

Ric stared the first race well only to have his number called for being a premature starter, he went back but could only get to the high teens , actually quite impressive considering he was a minute behind at the start. He still needed one decent race in the top 10 and the regatta was his. Kyle kept sailing well and finished the event in 10th overall.

Natalia sailed another solid race and wrapped up the event with a race to spare, (she decided to race the final heat),She was very impressive through out the series and we are very excited for her for the summer's events, including the youth worlds, (Kyle is also going to the ISAF regatta).

Becky finished strong and should be encouraged by the good races she had and we look forward to seeing her on the National team by end of September. Alex finished strong and ended in the low teens a personal best for him. Gabe also did well in the high teens and will work on his light air finesse over the coming weeks. Adrian was just fired up to be in the event and says hes keen to do more (he's just 15 and has a bright future).

Ricardo showed his pedigree and won the final race and sealed his winning position in the regatta and we are also excited for Ric for his summer season , including 3 major European events (Delta Lloyd, Scandia Sail for Gold, and the Pre Olympics).

So really exciting times for the team and the Montemayor family! Can't remember the last time a brother sister won the two events at a major Laser Regatta in North America (or even the World).

We had nicer weather for the drive home and got in Monday night the 28th of March, another winter season finished and now a 6 week break from long trips. We will continue training on the weeknights and though each weekend leading into the Summer season where we have an ambitious plan to dominate the North Amercan events, with any luck.

Results are @ http://www.calyachtclub.com/files/2011_LMW_S1-9.htm

Al Clark

March Madness 2011

The annual March Regatta was sailed in classic easterly conditions over the weekend of March 12-13.

We had a good turnout of Royal Van sailors in Lasers and Radials. 4 races on Saturday and 3 on Sunday were run splendidly by James MacDonald.

Results are @ the Royal Van web site

Women's NA's 2011

Isabella Bertold was the lone Royal Van competitor at the event this year in Fort Lauderdale Florida. (Becky Power had hoped to go but her knee was not fully recuperated from surgery at Christmas).

The regatta was well run as usual by Tom Lihan, and the three day series went off with out a hitch. Generally a lighter than average affair with a tight battle between two of the top Radial sailors in the world, Paige Railey and Marit Bouwmeester.

This always a nice event because there a a handful of the best girls racing in a smaller than average fleet, excellent training !

Isabella finished in 6th and showed brilliance in up wind speed and tactics from time to time. She scored two OCS's and had to carry one, so some work to do on the starting front but all and all a worthwhile trip.

Results are at http://www.lyc.org/files/radial11.html

Mids East 2011

The third regatta of the Florida winter trip was Laser Midwinters East held in Clearwater Florida, Feb 24-27.

The annual event has seen plenty of cold weather over the last few years but was back to normal this year with temperatures in the high 20's most days.

The racing began with a clear day and light breezes from the south. The Lasers and the Radials were split into two fleets each for qualifying races on the Thursday and Friday toward the final gold and silver fleet racing on the weekend.

There were 200 boats on the beach the first morning, ( 80 Lasers and 107 Radials, 15 4.7) , all sailing out the channel for the first race at 11 am.

Alexander Heinzman competed in the Laser Class and had been in Florida since early December training and competing. He accomplished the goal of making the National Sailing Team last fall in Kingston at the National Qualifying Regatta.

Luke Ramsay was competing in the Radial class, which is unusual because he was one of the highest ranked Laser team sailors on the national team for the last few years.

Luke decided to make a change and sail in the 470 class with Royal Van's Mike Leigh and he had lost a lot of weight to get to the proper size for a skipper. (The perfect weight for a Laser is about 80 kg and a Radial is about 68 kg).

Isabella Bertold had planned to sail but had a bronchial infection that caused her to jump on a plane and get home.

Becky Power was also hoping to attend but the healing of her knee operation over Christmas was going slower than hoped.

I took this opportunity to sail with the team during the event as we had plenty of on water support in coach boats from, Erik Stibbe , (based out of Vancouver) and Steve Mitchell of the Canadian National Team.

Alex began the regatta with a win in the first race and showed how all the training over the winter was paying off , he continued to impress all thru the event and I sailed near him a number of times and he showed me clearly that he will be a force on the National Team for years to come.

Alex finished the regatta in 11th and was hurt by an OCS where he finished 3rd. He is off to Europe to train and compete for the months of March and April.

Luke's skills in the Laser transferred well to the Radial class as he was very quick around the course even in the lighter air the first day, he was blazing fast in the solid breezes the second day and was held back by a OCS in a race that he won, in the end he had another OCS in a Gold fleet race and finished the regatta 10th.

Results are @ http://www.regattaprocessing.com/CLWYC/LMWE11/index.php

We packed up the trailer on the Sunday afternoon and began the long drive home, I had Chris Cowan again to help with the trip. The drive was uneventful (the way I like it) and we were back at Royal Van for training the next weekend.

The team has continued training at the gym on tuesdays and thursdays and on water on the weekends.

Since daylight saving time kicked in we are back on the water during the weekday evenings.

We are off to the Laser/ Radial Midwinters West regatta in LA , California next and the 4.7 Team is heading to a training camp in Puerto Vallarta Mexico for the week.

Miami OCR 2011

The second World Cup Regatta of the 2011 season was held in Miami from Jan 23rd to 29th.

Chris and I drove the trailer with 6 Lasers , the Joker RIB and a Finn on the roof. We had great weather the whole way down and arrived for the beginning of the national team training camp on the 14th.

Royal Van had 14 sailors in 8 classes, Bruce Millar in the 2.4 class, Hunter Lowdan/ 49er , Andrew McCorkendale/ 470, Zak Plasvic /RSX, Nicola Girke / RSX Womens, Mike leigh, Luke Ramsay, Alex Heinzman. Kyle Martin, Ricardo Montemeyer/ Laser, Natalia Montemeyer and Isabella Bertold / Radial , Rob and Allan Cullen /Star

After a week of training the regatta was set to begin with hot weather and good winds on all the courses. Racing starts on the Monday and runs through till Friday , with the Medal races scheduled for the Saturday, (Its always a big deal to qualify for this race).

The team performs well all week and in the end Luke , Hunter, Zak and Nicola qualify for the Metal Races, and end the event with a bang getting to sail on the final day when a majority of the 700+ sailors from over 50 countie are packing up their boats.

Results are found at the Regatta web site - http://rmocr.ussailing.org/Rolex_Miami_OCR.htm

The Laser team moves to the next event in Fort Lauderdale, the Wonen's NA's on Feb 18th to 20th , then on to Clearwater Florida Feb 24 to 27th

Thanks for the support
Al