Sunday, July 24, 2011

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.

Monday, July 4, 2011

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 .