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