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