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