ROYAL VAN RACING

Laser National Qualifying Regatta 2011

2011-10-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-20T14:52:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-27T08:23:00.002-07:00

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

2011-08-27T08:23:00.001-07:00

Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston, Aug 2011

2011-08-27T08:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-24T03:22:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-24T02:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-06-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-02T15:56:00.001-07:00

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

2011-04-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-05T23:04:00.000-07:00

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

Royal Van 470 Campaigns

2011-03-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:04:00.001-07:00

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

2011-03-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

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

2011-01-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

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

Christmas Camp 2010

2010-12-20T19:32:00.001-08:00

Day one of the camp was good with wind, (some years we have been shut out), and we had a total of 30 or so sailors in Optis, Lasers, 4.7's and 420's

The weather was seasonal, about 5C , and overcast. We had Alex K , Gabe , Ben and Cam in the Lasers.
We did a buch of starting practice and lots of mark roundings.

The second day , Sunday we had a breeze that seemed to be fading so the Laser group decided to tow out to the straight, where we found a frigid northerly, Isabella , Ben , Gabe and Thomas were out , we spent 2 2 1/2 hours at it, (thank goodness the sun came out later in the day) .

Day 3 saw a proper easterly , with 10 -14 kts of breeze, we did alot of mark roundings , mixed with some long up and downs , Gabe, AK, Isabella and Ben were out in the Lasers

Day 4 seemed a little more "balmy" than the last few days, we had a solid easterly again and batted 1000 for the camp, 4 for 4 ! Could be the first ever.

Gabe made it 4 for 4 too and I'm thinking of a proper prize for the dedication, AK did 3 days , Ben did 3 too and Bella was in for 2 days

The Opti's,420's and 4.7s had a good turn out all thru the camp and we were thrilled to have Eric's wife Jenny coach the double handed team for 2 days, (nothing like a Gold medalist to get their attention).

All in all a very good camp , only the Laser team has training thru the next few months , see the rest of the team in March.

Al

Laser/Opti crossover

2010-12-17T17:37:00.000-08:00

Bruce Millar wins 2.4 North Americans

2010-12-15T17:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a report that was on SailKarma:

The 2.4 metre North American Championship was held at Edison Sailing Center Dec. 9 - 11. The fleet of Olympic and Paralympic champions where greeted with bone chilling COLD temps and rain. Twenty boats traveled from all across the US, Canada and two British ladies to compete in Ft. Myers, Fl.

Day 1, after a brief poll to race or not, this hardy (crazy) bunch of sailors completed 4 races. Very tight racing in a shifty 7 to 12 kts. With a strong ebb providing some interesting results. Bruce Millar ( Vancouver, CAN) found these conditions to his liking as did Allan Liebel ( Toronto, CAN) ending the day tied for the lead. A WARM welcoming reception was held at Royal Palm Yacht Club , a good time was had by all.

Day 2, Much warmer but no wind…. After a lengthy postponement 3 races completed under sunny and warmer skies.. Daily winner Megan Pascoe of Great Britain sailed smooth for 8 pts, Helena Lucas (GBR) consistency of (3) 3’s for 9 pts. And Johnny ( NO OCS’s) Ruf sandwiched a 8th with a couple of bullets. Edison SC founder Ross Webb provided a Great BBQ for all sailors and volunteers.

Day 3, FOG and no wind… An hour delay and the fleets off to races , well only one. Paul Tingley (Halifax, CAN) wins his second race of regatta.

Bruce Millar is the new North American Champion, followed closely (tied) by Paul Tingley with Megan Pascoe placing third. Regatta sponsor Mark Bryant Sailing presented contestants with spar, rudder and keel covers. PRO and Edison coach Mike Alexander along with his gang of kids did an outstanding job organizing and completing 10 races in trying conditions.

Way to go Bruce

Al

Prize Giving 2010

2010-11-24T22:51:00.000-08:00

Another huge extravaganza of a prize giving with so many highlights I just couldn't count. Winners of a wide assortment of categories went up to collect their prizes. The new members were honored as well as club champ winners.
Our new 4.7 team was made mention of. The coaches were thanked as well as the parent volunteers. All and all a great evening with a real nice spread of food put on by the Club.

Thanks Tine for organizing the festivities again this year.

Al

Club Champs 2010

2010-11-09T12:21:00.000-08:00

The annual club champs were held in conjunction with the Blue Nose Regatta at Kits YC over the November 6-7 weekend.
We had a good group out with some of the new members, Matt and Alec , also some of the 4.7 team, Adrian and Alex Fritz sailing radial rigs.
The wind was next to non existent on Saturday , with rain later in the day. Sunday the sun came out and a OK southerly developed.
Isabella, Joanna , Gabe , Alex Kroitzch, Alec , Adrian, Alex Fritz and Natalia in the Radial Fleet.
Ricardo, Ben, Thomas, Matt, Alex Heinzman and Kyle in the Standard Rig Fleet.

Results aren't available from KITS yet

Al

Pumpkin Regatta 2010

2010-10-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

A big group of sailors from the Royal Van Race Team attended the annual Pumkin Bowl in West Van.

The weather was fantastic, sunny both days with solid outflow winds in the mornings and westerlies in the afternoons.

There were over 200 sailors in total , making it the biggest event in the BC Circuit. Ken Cutting did a great job managing all the controlled chaos.

The Eric Stibbe CYA had a clinic for the Radial Team for the week prior and brought the girls over , so the Radial fleet with 40 entries was very high quality.

We had 13 sailors in Lasers and Radials and had good success in both fleets. Ben Scott was 3rd, Thomas Roehrl 4th and Matt Percy (just joined the team) was 8th.

In the Radials Luke Ramsay (normally in a Laser) was 2nd behind Olympic Sailor Lisa Ross, Joanna Moore was 3rd, Natalia Montemayor 5th, Cam Ho 6th, Becky Power 7th , Alex Kroitsch 9th, Gabe Frame 10th.

Results are @ http://www.wvyc.bc.ca/images/stories/documents/racing/Pumpkinbowl/2010/Alpha_results.htm

This was the final travel regatta of the season and ended on a high note , well done to the team!

Al

Laser Worlds Report: Ben Scott

2010-10-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

The World Laser Championships held in Hayling Island, England in September was my first European regatta I have participated in.

It was the first time they have had a junior division which is for ages 21 and under. Hayling Island Sailing Club did a great job hosting all of the 270+ sailors. The management was fantastic with absolutely no unnecessary waiting and always on time with the scheduling.

The racing was amazing,large 60 boat starts with long upwind beats made for a 60 minute battle for every position. The race committee did not hesitate to administer the black flags to those who decided to push the limits of the line, in one race they caught 15 boats, me being one of them.

During the majority of the regatta, it was about playing a side of the course and deciding the right time to make your move. To be successful in this style of racing it’s not about being 1st in one race but being conservative. A couple of top 15 races was good enough for a top 10 placing.

I had a difficult qualifying series which put me in the middle of silver fleet. This allowed me to use my upwind skill and really sail in a comfortable area. The last few days we saw a steady 15-20 knots with big waves that really made this the best sailing of my life and I think everyone else would agree.

Overall I really pleased with this regatta and I have come away with plenty of knowledge and great memories.

Ben

National Qualifier for Laser and Radial 2010

2010-09-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

8 sailors from Royal Van went to Kingston the last weekend in September to attempt to qualify for the national sailing team and selection for the Pan Am games in Mexico next fall.

The regatta saw decent breeze the first day and then real solid 25 kt breeze the next 2 days, the final day was light and we only had one race. In the end a excellent test for any one trying to make the national team, very little luck involved , just lots of time sailing and in the gym needed.

Luke Ramsay led the group with a 3rd place podium finish, Alex Heinzman ended 8th, a career best, Kyle Martin was top for his age group and completed a break through year with many races near the top 10, Kevin Greirson came back from sailing the 49'er and did well considering his absence, Chris Cowan took a little time from coaching Opti's and remembered how much work it takes to drag a Laser around ther course in 25 kts of wind.

Isabella Bertold won the Pan Am Games spot and secured her senior national team card by winning the event convincingly. Becky Power had a solid event finishing 8th in he women's and Joanna Moore sailed hard thru the event and was top for her age group.

Results are @http://www.cork.org/results_2010.html

This was the end of a long trip for assorted members of our team, the trailer went east the end of July and arrives back in Vancouver the first of October.

The team shared the use of the boats on the trailer and I commend the team with their spirit of cooperation

We stay in Vancouver till the end of the year and spend time in the gym training on the water only on weekends in November and December.

Al

Italian Match Race Championships

2010-09-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Alexander Heinzman, Kyle Martin, Eric Servais and Cameron Ho attended the Italian Jr match race regatta in Italy, here is there report:

We got invited again to attend the Italiana Cup Match racing regatta, this was my third year attending the event and second year skippering. For the rest of the team; Kyle Martin, Eric Servais, Cameron Ho; it was the second year attending this event. Kyle and I flew in directly from the Laser Junior worlds not giving us a lot of time to prepare.

The first race we sailed we made some unnecessary mistakes and thus lost our first match. We improved every match we sailed, and ended the round robin in third place; we fought hard in the semi final and led off the start in the first race, but got passed downwind by the British team, although we managed to keep it close all the way to the finish. In the second match, of three, semi-final we had a decent start and first lap, but lost distance when we had a poor mark rounding at the leeward mark.

The next day we fought for third place against the best Italian team. We won the first pre-start and led to the first mark, though we got passed downwind due to the fact that we did not notice the leeward mark was skewed to the wind. At the leeward mark, we forced them close to the mark and covered their wind, as a result we managed to make them do a slow speed, wide rounding letting us sneak inside the mark.

We led to the next windward mark and after a nice gybe set we managed to win the first race. In the Second race, we again led off the start and through an aggressive move by the Italians gained them a penalty though they did manage to take the lead by doing so and thus I was very surprised when they did not receive a red flag.

When they rounded the leeward mark, the Italians made sure that we didn’t think of going inside them again by shooting up into the wind as they rounded the mark. By doing this they slowed down significantly letting us shoot out underneath them when we rounded outside of them.

When we reached the port lay line they were too close for us to tack in front so we had to wait for them to tack first and go towards the mark. I was very surprised when they tried to give us a penalty and even more when they did their penalty and came back at us on starboard, but because of how we had positioned ourselves before they had completed their penalty gybe they did not give us enough room to avoid them and we had to avoid before they had gained right of way.

So we put up the Y flag and the umpire flagged the Italians giving them another penalty just seconds after they cleared their last one. We lead the rest of the race and ended up taking third.

At the end of the event I personally was very happy with how we had performed and I think the rest of the team was as well. We improved a lot throughout the event and considering how much preparation we had, we did perform well.

I would like to thank Tony Martin for coaching us at this event; his knowledge of keel boats was invaluable.

Laser Worlds 2010

2010-09-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

We had six sailors go to the Worlds this year in Hayling Island in the UK.
Alex Heinzman, Ricardo Montemayer ,Kyle Martin and Ben Scott sailed in the Jr worlds (under 21). This is a new event for the Laser class and is run in conjunction with the Senior Worlds, where Mike Leigh and Luke Ramsay represented Royal Van.

These are some of the toughest events in sailing, the senior fleet is incredibly tough and just getting into the Gold fleet is an achievement onto itself. The weather was perfect with sunshine everyday, increasing thru out, with over 20 kts on the last day.

Our Jr team struggled after a solid first day in the lighter air, Ricardo hung in there the best and made it to the Gold fleet finishing with 23rd, Alex 64th, Ben Scott 79th and Kyle 70th of 120 competing. I think that we all learning a lot and that the team sailed better each day from the half way point on. The European style of racing is largely boat speed and good starting, this work ended up helping Alex and Kyle in the upcoming NQR's in Kingston.

The senior fleet is such a dog fight that even the slightest error of bit of lost concentration can cost you 20 positions, as usual the best of the best were competing and with solid breeze each day for 7 days. Mike had lots of high points but in the end couldnt convert on a few solid races and was below his goal, Luke came within a hair of making Gold fleet, (lost out on a count back), and finished in the top of the silver fleet. Final score- Mike 28th and Luke 63rd overall of 160 competing.

Results - http://www.laserworlds2010.co.uk/events/35495/juniors.htm
http://www.laserworlds2010.co.uk/events/35495/seniors.htm

Thanks to Lillah Martin for all the help at the house we stayed at. Good work to the whole team.

Al

CORK 2010

2010-08-25T20:41:00.001-07:00

Radial Worlds Report from Isabelaa Bertold

2010-08-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

Prior to attending this event I had set expectations for myself primarily on how I have sailed in the past. I was concerned with my ability to get off of the start line, but felt confident in my speed and tactics.

I can proudly say that in the 6 races sailed and countless general recalls my worst start was the first one, and it by no means was a terrible start. I would grade it a B minus simply because I set up in a sag and failed to recognize that I did.

I never got to test my big breeze boat speed, the thing that I had been focusing on all season long, simply because the condition never occurred. The first race was the windiest and was sailed in gusts of 15 knots, steady 12ish.

I was quick all around the race course but I was sailing by the tactics that I had memorized, often sailing semi brainless. It was after the first day that I realized that to get to the next level I had to turn my brain on and actually begin to understand the game of sailing, rather than memorize it.

Just to clarify, this was not the first time I had thought about this. I had started making more educated decisions on legs of the race course particularly down winds this past winter, this was just the first event I was able to clearly identify the need I had to actually begin to understand tactics.

The following day I did an excellent job of identifying reasons for everything I did out on the race course. I started down near the pin because I believed it was favored despite 80% of the fleet starting at the boat. Sure enough, in both races the gun went and we all flipped immediately and I found myself on top of the fleet.

Following the start I sailed the remaining race asking myself, where is the pressure, am I on the lifted tack? And where is the rumb line? In the first race it worked beautifully and I finished almost winning the race and wishing my final roll tacks wouldn’t have been complete duds.

It was the second half of the second race however that I fell back into my routine. I had planned on going high road on the first downwind but the final puff filled in on the low road and I lost somewhere around 15 boats on that downwind. The second upwind was then sailed by my memorized tactics of, well I think this looks good, and I think I see a lane over there, better get to there.

With all my focus on where the fleet was and where my boat was relative to them in comparison to past events that have occurred in my sailing life I managed to sail myself, on a knock, into the dead right corner… loosing essentially the remainder of the fleet.

The following day I went back to focusing on what I now refer to as the basics. Get a good start and the end that I have decided is the favored end, and then sail my boat to where I want it to go almost ignoring the fleet. I had a fantastic start and won the left side of the racecourse. Unfortunately I had played the wrong side as a right wind shift that came in halfway up the beat stayed for the remainder of the upwind. Despite winning my side I rounded the top mark 25th. I continued to chip away, however, that final beat I fell into my routines, memorized method of one tacking the last little upwind out to the right corner… I lost 8 boats on that last upwind only to finish 21st in the race.

The next day I once again had an excellent start tacked when I wanted to and made sure that I played out my game plan. I miscalled some lifting pressure and had to double tack halfway up the first beat costing myself around 8 places. I rounded the top mark in 20th and continued to work hard in the dying breeze to pass boats. On the downwind I focused to try and stay near the rumb line and I sailed much more aggressive reaching gybe angles than the fleet and reached the bottom gate in 12th.

It was the following upwind where I really could not have done anything differently… partway up the second beat the wind shifted approximately 100 degrees to the right and then continued shifting right. I lost half the fleet on that upwind and unfortunately no further marks on the racecourse were moved, and the wind never came back. I continued fighting to pass the boat in front of me but never caught back up to a decent finish.

And those six races where the only races sailed at this years worlds.
It was a bittersweet worlds this year. I left the event frustrated, eager to race, and disappointed in my result. There were many moments from the first day that I wanted back, but I have not yet invented time travel and therefore will never have them back. I successfully executed my starts and for the first time ever I can give reasons for why I did things out on the race course with relevance to the wind, marks, and current, in comparison to my usual reasons being memorized fleet positioning items.

When I put myself under results pressure I fell back into my usual way of sailing, and by usual way I mean my level of trying to sail a little practice race at Saturday training, which never seemed to help the situation. I still wish that I had more consistent downwind boat speed, and of course I can always be faster all around the racecourse.

Looking forward I feel that the way to improve my results is to go and race. I need to feel much more confident still on the start line, and particularly making decisions up along the race course.

Lastly, there is one thing that is for sure. Never have I felt as motivated as I do now, never have I wanted to go and race this bad, and never have I felt more ready to reach the next level.

Isabella

Canadian Youth Champs 2010

2010-08-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

The team had planned a big trip out east this summer, starting with the CYA Youth Championships which was held at Neapean Sailing Center in Ottawa from Aug 1-4th. Kyle Martin, Alex Heinzemann, Joanna Moore, Gabe Frame, Alex Kroitzsch, Sophia Miller-Vedam, Tom Roehrl and Dominic Fritz flew out to compete in the regatta.

Sailing on the Ottawa River was really tricky. The first couple days of racing was really light and shifty. The sailors were all very patient though with lots of waiting on the water for wind to get some races off. The last day of racing started off light, but there was a super quick switch and it got up to 18 knots for part of one the races. It was really great to have a bit of wind finally!

The kids learned very quickly they had to stay on their toes and keep an eye out up the course looking for the puffs and shifts. On day two the wind shifted to the south and now the puffs appeared to be dominated by the clouds so we all spent a lot of time looking up trying to figure out which side of the course would be favored for the next race. The other key to success was looking a long ways up the river to see what would be coming down to the course for that race.

Alex Heinzemann dominated in the Laser fleet, having just come back from the Youth Worlds held in Turkey. Kyle Martin also got off to and exceptionally good start and sailed one of his best regattas. At the last minute Dom decided to switch over to full rigs for this regatta, as it was the Youth Worlds qualification event for 2011. It was a bit of a change but he was sailing really well and getting on great in the new boat. Tom also sailed well, having great starts and some really good results.

In the Radial girls fleet, Joanna Moore was also at the front of the fleet. Sophia was learning lots; it was a very big learning curve for her as this was her first ever away event and her first ever National regatta.

In the Radial boys fleet, Alex Kroitzsch was a bit up in down with his results but he had some great races, and Gabe Frame was putting in a strong showing with some really great moments and really good starts.

In the end Alex H finished 1st, Kyle finished 2nd and qualified for the 2011 Youth Worlds which will be held in Croatia. Tom finished 8th overall and Dom finished 12th.
Joanna sailed a great last day and finished 1st in the girls fleet, and Sophia learned lots finishing 25th. Alex K and Gabe also had an exceptional last day and moved up to finish 5th and 8th respectively in the boys fleet.

Jen

Laser US Nats 2010

2010-08-18T17:53:00.000-07:00

After the youth champs was finished, we packed up the trailer in a massive thunderstorm and got everything ready to head down to Milwaukee for the US Nationals. After the 16 hour drive to get there we were all ready for a day off.

The rest of the team started arriving in Milwaukee on Aug 6th. 11 sailors competed in the US Nationals; Becky Power, Isabella Bertold, Natalia Montemayor, Alex K, Alex H, Tom Roehrl, Kyle Martin, Dom Fritz, Gabe Frame and Cameron Ho.

The conditions in Milwaukee for the regatta were really tricky. The first couple days of the regatta the mornings were foggy and really humid with hardly any wind on the water. The first day of racing, the full rigs got 3 races off in really light tricky conditions and the radials sailed 2 races.

Friday, the second day of racing, there was lots of fog and no wind. The sailors were postponed ashore due to threat of thunderstorms and limited visibility on the water. It was a long day of waiting, and at 3 pm they blew racing off for the day.

On Saturday the races were set to start one hour earlier at 10am. It was another really light day; there was a postponement on water well we waited for the wind to fill in. The wind started off offshore, but half way through the first radial race, it died and did a 180 to the seabreeze direction. That race was abandoned and more waiting was done while the race committee reset the course. Only one race was sailed on Saturday.

On Sunday, there was no fog on the lake, which was a good sign. The day started with a 12- 15 knots offshore breeze and steadily picked up from there. Four good races were sailed on Sunday. It was a long day and was a definite test of fitness for the sailors. Isabella dominated in the Radial fleet, winning 3 of the 4 races by a ways. Which also moved her up to finish 1st overall.
Becky was up and down on Sunday but had a couple great results and finished 12th overall. Natalia also had a great day on Sunday, but unfortunately she was black flagged in the last race and ended up 20th. Cameron had some really good moments, especially in the lighter races and finished 33rd. Alex K was 36th, Gabe was also unfortunately black flagged in the last race and ended up 39th.

In the full rigs, Alex H finished 5th, Kyle was 15th, Tom was 26th, and Dom was 27th.

Congratulations to all the sailors on some exceptional results at these events!

Laser Gulfcoasts and NA's 2010

2010-08-04T13:41:00.000-07:00

Harold Fritz went to the Gulf coast championships the weekend prior to the NA's and sent a quick report

"Its 34+C & humid here in TX, starts right out in the morning and keeps burning all day. Unbearable without a breeze. Gulf coast regatta not bad - wind wasn't there on the second day till about 1pm. 5 races - no drop (needed 6 for drop). 65 Radials, some international kids too in prep for NAs. Dom finished 17th and Becky 23. We're getting used to the heat...slowly."

Dominick Fritz, Becky Power, Kyle Martin and Ricardo Montemayer attended the North Americans , both the events were held in Galveston Bay in southern Texas. The event had well over 200 competitors across 3 fleets of Lasers , Radials and 4.7's.

Many of the top Caribbean and central American teams were there in preparation for the central American games. (Ricardo and Natalia are planning to compete for Mexico).

Racing was called off the first day with thunderstorms caused by the exteame heat (40 C). There was no sign of any oil as some had predicted, a pleasant bay to sail in that gets a nice sea breeze most days except when a regatta rolls into town.

The second day the racing went off fine with generally light to medium winds. 3 races for the Lasers and 4 for the Radials. Becky and Dom sailed well in the Radial fleet , unfortunately Dom was OCS in one race and with only 4 qualifying races there was no drop (bad idea). We got into the dock at (pm that day after getting to the club at 8 am. Everyone was ready for bed after a quick dinner.

The final 2 days in the separated fleets was excellent , both Ricardo and Kyle climbed the ranks steadily and Ric finished a strong 9th and kyle a career high 15th.

Becky had great moment in the gold fleet with some tough races and ended a respectable 17th , Dom was disappointed to be in Silver fleet but sailed well to finish 4th.

After a week of 40 plus degrees temps and high humidity it was great to get back to Vancouver summer!

Results are @ http://www.lasernorthamericans.com/

Al

Laser BC Champs 2010

2010-08-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

The Kamloops sailing association once again put on an awesome event. There was a great turnout from Royal Van with a trailer full of Opti's and one Radial- Joanna Moore and one Laser Kyle Martin. On the first day of racing there was no wind until around 4 o'clock. The time spent waiting was not wasted, as most of it was spent either tubing behind the coach boat or swimming. At 4 the wind came in and we got 3 races off. The first was in about 20kts of wind and it got lighter after that. We were in around 6:30 just in time for dinner. Kamloops Sailing put on a good show with one of the best regatta dinners I have had in a while. The next day brought more sun and great wind. With racing starting at 10 we got off 4 really solid races in building breeze. By the last race it was up around 30kts according to the race committees wind ex. In the end Joanna won the Radial fleet dropping a 3rd all the rest were bullets and Kyle won the Laser dropping an OCS and winning the rest. The RVYC Optis also brought home a lot of hardware.

by Kyle Martin

2010 BC Summer Games

2010-07-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

From July 22-25 the Royal Van racers traveled to Langley, BC for the 2010 BC Summer Games. Our racers checked into the accreditation centre Thursday afternoon to begin a few days of buses, ceremonies, speeches,group accommodations, and tight schedules. Each day the sailors were bussed from their accommodations to breakfast, then to the sailing venue, back to the meal hall, then back to the accommodations.

Racing began Friday morning with light conditions. Winds were constant around 6knots for most of the morning. Shifty conditions kept the sailors alert s they traded positions all the way up the first beat. As the day progressed the wind increased and eventually topped around 12knots. In the Optimist fleet Lloyd Lyall dominated the races. Lloyd was consistently almost a minute ahead of the entire fleet and won 2/4 races that day. Following close behind were Eric Lyall and Jake Cullen who battled hard for 2nd and 3rd place positions. After 4 races the Optimist fleet was sent ashore for showers before loading back onto the buses.

In the Laser fleet Kyle Martin dominated the fleet. Five very short races were completed on the first day. Eric Servais followed behind and consistently finished 2nd place.

Day two of the event brought more of the same conditions. Light winds building to roughly 10-12kts during the day. Lloyd Lyall continued his great sailing in the Optimist fleet, as did Kyle Martin who won 3/4 races that day.

In the end Royal Van sailors took podium positions in every fleet we entered. Our sailors had a great time over the weekend and are keen to compete in the games again. the BC Games society put on a great show.

A huge thanks to Royal Van Yacht Club for their continued support.

Chris Cowan
Opti Coach

Radial Worlds 2010

2010-07-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

The Radial Worlds were held in Largs Scotland this year. It is a small town 40 minutes drive from Glasgow.

Isabella Bertold was representing Royal Van in the championships, and had worked extremely hard on the water and in the gym to prepare herself for the seasons main event.

She flew to Scotland three days before me and got her boat charter and trained with the rest of the Canadian team in strong breeze.

I arrived after the Waves Regatta and we went forward with our plan to have a best ever result at a worlds.

We had chartered a coach boat from Ben Remoker's "Port Tack Charter" company. We fully stocked it with spare parts and daily food and water supplies.

The weather appeared to be consistently breezy and rainy and it seemed that we were in for a tough pysical event. Of course wind before an event can be deceptive , as we went out in fairly light wind the first day.

Isabella had some decent starts, (for North American events) but still struggled to get to the weather mark in good shape. She was hovering around the middle of the fleet after the first day.

The second day was a hair lighter again and after a long debrief the night before Isabella cracked a sweet start and led going up the first beat.
She fought hard all the way thru the race and finished 4th. A real milestone in her career. She had good confidence started the 2nd race of the day and was 15th to the top mark but unfortunatly fell thru the race working the wrong side and ended in the 30's.

The final day of qualifiers started late and only one race was sailed , it was light and tough throughout and Isabella ended in the teens.

She had shown that she was ready for racing in the front of the fleet. Unfortunatly the Gold fleet series that she had qualified only materialized into one race that was fluky with a major wind shift during the race. She got a 30 and moved into 47 (5 points from a senior Canadian team card).

There was alot of waiting around and no racing for 2 days, very frustrating to say the least. Isabella stayed upbeat and was a real pro all the way through.

This was the toughest event she has competed in and I think that with her excellent work ethic and determination she will break into the top ranks of her discipline.

The next worlds is in Perth Australia in December 2011.

Thanks Royal Van for the support

Al

Sail-West Championships, July 15-18

2010-07-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

The Royal Van Optimist Team headed to Lake Wabamun Sailing Club for the annual Sail-West Regatta. Sail-West consisted of kids and parents camping, a two day training camp with CYA guest coach Rob Douglas, followed by a two day regatta over the weekend. Sailing was on Thursday as glassy conditions prevailed for the day. Our kids enjoyed some very light wind 29er Sailing and swimming that day. Friday began with approximately 5 knots of wind. The opti fleet was split up into groups. Royal Van coach Chris Cowan ran some drills for a group of roughly 15 sailors until the wind completely died. The kids went ashore for lunch and waited until later in the day for the start of the event’s practice race. Tara Yuen was the big story in the practice race. She led the fleet for most of the race until eventually Jake Cullen snuck in front of her.
Saturday’s Racing conditions brought shifty winds of approximately 20 knots. Three long races were completed before heading ashore for lunch. Again, Tara Yuen was on fire in the first race before she missed a wind shift. Tara made up missing the shift and ended up finishing 2nd in the race. After lunch the sailors headed back out to the course for 3 more races. Lloyd Lyall dominated the racing all day as he finished the day with six 1st place finishes. Following close behind were Jake Cullen, Ellie Shaw, and Tara Yuen.
Sunday’s conditions were glassy water with no wind. Racing was abandoned for the day at 11:30am. Lloyd Lyall won the regatta convincingly with a total of 5 points. This was a great success for Royal Van sailors who took the top 8 positions, and Kyle Gerrard took 10th place.

Thanks for everybody's support as we travel to these events.
Chris Cowan

BC Junior Championships- Merritt, BC

2010-07-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

From July 8-11 the Royal Van Optimist team travelled to Nicola Lake for the BC Junior Sailing Championships. The trip consisted of a two day training camp followed by two days of racing. No sailing took place Thursday as there was no wind and very hot temperatures. Friday’s training brought strong winds. Our sailors teamed up with West Van Yacht Club for 3 hours of starting practice and some fun racing.
The regatta began Saturday morning. The sailors hit the water in hopes of getting a race off. Unfortunately the wind died in the middle of the Laser start sequence and racing was postponed on-shore. Around 4:30pm that day, the wind increased to around 8 knots and three races were conducted before dinner. Alex Fritz, Jake Cullen, and Tara Yuen were consistently leading the pack that night.
Sunday racing brought winds gusting to about 25 knots. Four races were completed that morning. Alex Fritz dominated the Opti fleet, winning 3 of the 4 races that day. Following close behind were Ellie Shaw and Jake Cullen who were battling hard for 2nd and 3rd place. The racing concluded and our sailors headed back to shore for lunch and trailer loading. The regatta was a great way for our sailors to prepare for Sail-West in Edmonton and our kids had a great time spending the weekend together.

Thanks for Royal Van's continued Support.
Chris Cowan

WAVES 2010

2010-07-02T17:14:00.001-07:00

Waves was a popular event again this year. Cory Wright did an excellent job of putting together a well oiled regatta. There was good turnout in all the Race Team classes including the Laser, Radial, 0pti and 420

In the 420 class our team continues to impress under the supervision of Mark Patcky.
Kia Meiklejohn and Emma Toone tied for 1st and were just nipped @ the tie breaker, Joren Jackson and Leif Peterson were hot on their heels in 3rd overall.

In the Laser class we had 11 sailors, Ricardo Montemayer sailed a very consistent event in trying conditions (light air with plenty of current) to win comfortably. Kevin Greirson was 2nd , Royal Van sailors owned the top 5 positions. 7 of the top 10.

In the Radial class Joanna Moore continued to impress with a solid win of 15 points, Cameron Ho was 2nd with 30 points, 6 of the top 10 were from Royal Van.

Opti's had a successful weekend,our best result was Eric Lyall 1st in the blue fleet. We had a solid group of 8 kids attend the regatta, many of our top sailors were at the Opti NA's in Kingston during this time.

Results are @ http://www.royalvan.com/racing_results.asp?TID=3&RID=143&SID=282&DID=3

Well done team!

Al

Laser European Championships 2010

2010-06-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

We travelled to the Laser Europeans a few days after the finish of the Delta Lloyd Regatta.
This event was held at the Olypic Sailing site of 1980 (the one that was boycotted), in Tallin Estonia.

It is a beautiful city with a fully restored "old town" dating back to the 13th century.
The venue and facilities were top notch , as well as the regatta organization.

150 Lasers and 90 Radials came north for the event! This was as high caliber fleet as you will see, only a worlds would be a hair tougher.

Luke Ramsay towed our coach boat from Holland to Tallin on a route that took him thru Copenhagen and Stockholm. He took an over night ferry from there directly to Tallin.

All the teams from over 50 counties arrived a few days prior to the event and we prepared for measurement. A few days training were sqeezed in , then the regatta began.

Luke Ramsay and Ricardo Montemayer were in the Laser class for Royal Van and Isabella Bertold in the Radial.

It was a six day event with generally wind on the moderate side, there was a breezy day the third day in. Results for the group were encouraging with highlights on certian days. Luke placed 5th in one of the heats and made the gold fleet (top third), ricardo had a few decent races but still ended up in the bronze fleet ,(with excellent international experience gained), Isabella hung in really well in the international field and made the gold fleet, keeping good scores coming in that fleet.

The Regatta Website is excellent with Photos and video from the event, Results are there too- http://www.laser2010tallinn.eu/web/

Delta Lloyd Regatta 2010

2010-06-03T02:40:00.000-07:00

The regatta formerly known as the SPA regatta was held over the week of May 26th to the 30th.

Royal Van had a solid group of 9 sailors spread over 6 Olympic Classes.
Mike Leigh, Luke Ramsay, Ricardo Montemayer in the Laser
Isabella Bertold and Jen Spalding in the Radial
Nicola Girke and Zak Plasvic in the RSX
John Romanko in the Finn
Hunter Lowden in the 49er

The event had a good variety of conditions with breeze most days a only a few canceled or delayed races and was an excellent tune up for the major summer events coming in Europe for the team.

Results were up and down for most. Highlights for the team- Nicola"s 12th and Isabella's 13th overall. (Isabella won the final race of the event).

This event, along with the other world cup events, is always a bit of a spectacle , with the major sailing countries, like Britain, France, Spain, Australia bringing their full support for their National team. A great environment for our sailors to hone their skills and well worth the trip.

Results are found @ http://www.deltalloydregatta.org/

Al

RVYC Opening Day 2010

2010-05-11T15:19:00.000-07:00

This year’s opening day was a great success. All the sailors looked great in their yacht club whites, some even sailed past in them!

The weather couldn’t have been nicer and we had great turn out of race team members for this years sail past.

The lineup was lead by Kyle Martin in a 420 sailing with the junior vice commodore. Followed by a very large optimist team from wetfeet all the way up to senior opti raceteam. Next in line was the 4.7’s and the Lasers, followed by 3 420’s and finally Past junior commodore Chris Tulip brought up the rear of the line.

This was a great start to the upcoming season for the sailors. We are looking forward to a really great year ahead with lots of sailing and racing in 2010!

Spring Dingys 2010

2010-05-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

It seemed a week before heading over for our semi anual event in Victoria that we would have a small group but ended up with 18 Lasers , 3 420's (6 sailors), one 29er and 11 Opti's.

35 sailors all getting on the ferry with parents boats and gear is a super turn out.

We had great weather this year, with a strong sea-breeze the first day and a rainy westerly the second. It felt like March , more than May on Sunday, but great to have wind both days.

For some of our older sailors , they are just finishing exams at UBC , so a few we haven't seen in weeks came out.

We had a number of very new Laser sailors making one of their first appearances in a regatta. This is part of a transition group coming up through the Opti fleet and entering the Laser group with the 4,7 and the Radial.

The Opti fleet is growing and seems very vibrant at the moment, Tine and Chris are doing a great job motivating their charges.

All in all success in all the fleets,

1st in 29er's,

3rd, 5th and 6th in the 420's,

2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 11th in the Laser,

2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th in the Radials

1st in 4.7 fleet

1st ,2nd ,4th ,5th ,8th ,10th in the Opti's

Results are at -http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1272842043.htm

Al

Kitten Cup 2010

2010-05-03T13:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the Team sailed the Kitten Cup, held at RVYC. Royal Van's biggest youth oriented event of the season.

On Saturday the sailors experienced really tricky conditions with a super shifty southerly. In the laser fleet, 5 races were sailed and with Jason Rhodes, Luke Ramsay, Al Clark, Alex Heinzemann and Kevin Grierson having a great day.

Kyle Martin, Thomas Rhoerl, Andy Wong and Ben Scott were also well in the hunt challenging the leaders at every opportunity. Sebastian Fritz and Alex Shepard showed their starting skills having great starts in almost every race of the event.

Sunday brought a light easterly wind, which lasted long enough for one race before completely dying off. It was another tricky race, which hinged on having a decent start and getting a good lane. Al Clark lead this race with Ben Scott coming in second and Alex Heinzemann coming in 4th.

We ended up with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th in the top 10

In the radial fleet on Saturday 4 races were sailed, Dominique Fritz had a great day finishing top 3 in every race.

Cameron Ho, Natalia Monetemayor, Alex Kroitzch and Eric Servais sailed really well also. In the last race Cameron port tacked the fleet and lead for the rest of the race. Tony Henderson was well in the hunt, but ended up upside down a few times, which was hard to recover from. Gabe Frame also had some excellent starts, showing that all his hard work at training is really paying off.

On Sunday, the radials also only had one race. Natalia dominated, winning the pin and leading for the rest of the race. It was a close race after that with Cameron, Tony and Alex Kroitzch right in the race, finally finishing 2nd, 4th, and 5th respectively in the race.

We had 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th in the top 10.

The Opti fleet had a good weekend as well with 5 races over the 2 days. We had good success in both the blue and Red fleets. A total of 16 sailors came out. Our Opti team has a busy summer plan and it seems the young sailors are starting the season well.

1st in the Blue fleet and 1st , 2nd , and 3rd in the Red fleet.

Congratulations to all 46 sailors!

As a side note it was nice to see Rob Douglas back in town with his group from Comox.

Thanks go out to Rob Scott for all his efforts putting together another fun regatta for everyone.

Results are at-http://www.royalvan.com/racing_results.asp?TID=3&RID=139&SID=270&DID=2

Jen

Flights of Spring Regatta 2010

2010-04-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

We had a good time racing over at Jericho this past weekend, with 9 races done over the two days.

Andy Hunt and his crew ran an excellent regatta and made quick adjustments to the course for the changeable winds.

Most of Saturday we hiked, with the breeze peaking at 16 kts mid day. As far as the race teams participation , numbers were down with alot of the team either away or studying for exams.

Alex Hienzman. Kyle Martin and Thomas Rhoel came out and sailed well , with Kyle getting third overall. royal Van member Jason Rhodes put on a bit of a clinic and won the event comfortably.

The prize giving was fantastic , with a number of sponsors giving out sweet swag! Thanks to Rooster and SEA for the great gear.

A good tune up regatta for the upcoming Kitten Cup next weekend, where we traditionally get as many as 25 of the team out.

Mids West March 2010

2010-04-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

We had a little smaller group than in past years that headed to California for the Mids West laser regatta.

Kyle Martin, Alex Kroitzch and Alex Shepard drove down with me in the truck and Alex Heinzman flew in from training camp in Mexico a day later. Alex's dad Mattias was there as well with a trailer.

We began training on the Monday prior to the regatta. The breeze in Richmond doesn't turn on till into the afternoon, so we had some decent light air training in the mornings with plenty of heavy air training in the afternoons. All in all a productive training camp fpor the group and good strrides were made in preparation for a windy event. Gabe Frame flew in the Thursday night and got an early start the next morning getting his boat ready for the racing.

Of course the regatta began with less wind than was first predicted and we had a generally light air day with some unusual course shapes that put a premium on experience. The group worked hard all day and learned some valuable lessons.

The second day was a good one with the breeze filling in from the sea breeze direction and all the group sailed well and enjoyed the conditions.

This years regatta seemed consist of Master aged sailors (many that were very good in their day, ie. 2 were silver medalist at Olympics) and youth sailors. This was excellent for all involved because they fitness of youth against the experience of age was tested throughout the event.

The final day started very light but the race committee hung in their and got the races off in nice breeze and everyone sailed in happy. Our group definitely reached their goals and it turned out to be be quite a nice event at a small club on San Fransisco bay.

Thanks to Lillah and Tony Martin who were a big help at the event.

Our next events are closer to home with the spring regattas - Flights of Spring at Jericho, Kitten Cup at Royal Van and Spring Dingys in Victoria, all on consecutive weekends ending on May 2nd.

Thanks for the support Royal Van

Al

March Madness 2010

2010-03-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our annual first of the season regatta was a success this past weekend.
We had over 20 Lasers and Radials come out and were treated to a good southerly (10-14 kts) the first day and a light easterly the second, (we actually had moments when we saw 20kts on the beam on one of the windward legs, lasted about 20 seconds).

Luke Ramsay led the way with a 2,1,1,1,1 on the first day in the Laser fleet, Isabella Bertold had a slight lead over Becky Power after day one in the Radial fleet.

Luke and Isabella held onto their leads after the second day and everyone was happy to hit the showers as the more seasonable March weather had arrived.

Thanks to Brett Wilson for being the PRO for the event, he did a great job getting races off quickly and made the smart decision to end the day after 2 races on Sunday.

The final results were:

Laser: Luke Ramsay 1st, Ricardo Montemayer 2nd, Al Clark 3rd, Kyle Martin 4th, Andy Wong 5th

Radial: Isabella Bertold 1st, Becky Power 2nd , Jaime Bone 3rd, Natalia Montermayer 4th, (She recently qualified for the youth worlds in Istanbul), Eric Servais 5th, Alex Kroitz 6th, Joanna Moore 7th

Al

Training Early March

2010-03-07T18:31:00.000-08:00

Mids East Feb 2010

2010-03-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

We drove the big Trailer from Fort Lauderdale to Clearwater beach right after the Radial and Finn regatta.

The weather forcast was bad but I had a chance the next day to patch the Joker coach boat before it began raining for the next 5 days. Temperatures went down to 3C at night with highs of 9 in the days, this made training very similar to Vancouver in the winter so we should have been used to it but it still seemed cold!

The bulk of the group arrived on the Saturday the 13th. We had 11 sailors at the event: Mike Leigh, Alex Heinzman, Andy Wong, Chris Tulip, Beckey Power, Joanna Moore, Isabella Bertold, Jaime Bone, Jen Spalding, Ricardo and Natalia Montemayer.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were hard training days. We had plenty of breeze with tired bodies at the end of each day. Some of the best Laser and Radial sailors in the world had hung around after the Miami/Ft Lauderdale regattas,(something to do with such a cold winter in Europe, I suspect). This allowed for some excellent training opportunities for all our team.

The regatta started with solid breeze, both the Lasers and the Radials were split into 2 fleets , so there were 5 starts for each race, (with the 4.7 ).

My job at this point was to be at each start for the 4 starts our sailors were in then maybe a quick shot to the weather mark and then down to the finish line.

2 races on the Thursday and 3 on Friday , the breeze was less the 2nd day but it seemed to be the coldest day by far, many were afraid they wouldn't last the day.

By mid regatta Mike and Jen were well up in the standings with good moments from the rest of the team. Excellent training regatta in a high caliber fleet.

The weather improved for the last 2 days and were becalmed prior to the racing on the Sunday. The race committee did a nice job all thru the event getting the races off and had 2 races in decent breeze to end the regatta.

Jen finished the event 4th with many races in the top 2, Isabella was going great prior to the event and had some real highlights but couldn't quite put it together , she ended 29th.
Mike was his consistent self ending in 5th overall, winning one race and 2nd in another.
Ricardo had some real bright moments and finished 27th, right on the heels of most of our National team sailors.
Chris Tulip had a number of great first beats but had issues getting to the finish up the fleet. Andy and Alex did well and made the Gold fleet, but struggled after that.

Becky , Natalia and Joanna all were in silver fleet and all seemed to improve thru the event with Natalia making a charge to lead this group at the end. She was 8th and Becky 9th.

The rain held off for the trailer loading on Sunday afternoon and a few hours later we were set to go. Chris Cowan came out to help drive the rig home and after a drop off at the airport Monday morning we were heading north on the 95, only 6,300 kms to go.

The next event is the Midwinter West Laser Champs in Richmond California on March 26-28.

Al

Mids East Photos day 3

2010-02-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Mids East Photos day 2

2010-02-19T15:19:00.000-08:00

Lauderdale Race Pictures 2010

2010-02-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

Florida Training 2010

2010-02-17T08:19:00.000-08:00

Women's NA's and Finn Midwinters 2010

2010-02-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

The Fort Lauderdale YC hosted the event again this year,back to it's original dates of Feb 5-7,(the weekend after the MOCR).

John Romanko, (in the Finn) Isabella Bertold, Keamia Rasa and Jen Spalding (in the Radial) attended the regatta under the Royal Van burgee.

We picked up Isabella on the Monday and began training for the 4 days prior to the event, this included gym workouts , on the water sessions and continual discussions about sailing strengths and weaknesses. John had stayed in Miami over the Final weekend to train with Chris Cook and others, (he had a poor regatta in Miami and was keen to get up to speed again with a different boat).

On the first day of racing we had 20kts of wind from the south east. This direction produces large ocean waves with swell and was a true test of sailing and fitness.

There were quite a few significant wind sifts as well that could really make or ruin your day , and a pretty solid push of current out in the left corner that could get you to the weather mark a little quicker.

John looked very comfortable in the breeze and after a few hickups, (over early in the first race and a capsize near the finish), he found his stride and was well up the fleet. Zac Railey , the Silver Medalist, and 3 of the top British sailors were there to guage his speed.

For the Women, we had some time before the event to work on large wave technique but the racing on Friday was invaluable to assess where we were at. The Dutch sailor put on a display of heavy air technique and won all 3 races comfortably. She was 5th at last years worlds.Keamia, Jen and Isabella fought hard and were in the top 10 thru the day.

The next day of racing brought off shore wind from the West in the 15 to 20 kt range. Flatter water with plenty of "auto" tacks. The trick was to carry a lift as far as possible then quickly get onto the other tack and continue up the beat. The downwinds were a completely differnt technique as well, less carving , more point and shoot.

John was gaining cofidence thru the day and was in the top 5 a number of times and looked to be able to finish right behind the top 4 sailors.The women fought hard and learned valuable lessons on a very different day. Keamia, who has liked the breeze in the past had a few bright moments in the top group.

The final day we saw another solid offshore wind with a little more north in it. 15 kts most of the day. This was a day when you had to head to shore and then decide weather to go all the way in or short tack up that side.

John did a nice job thru the day and only stumble slightly in the final race to end the event in 6th overall (top Canadian), a satisfying result after a tough Miami.

Keamia made a nice charge to be the top Canadian thru the day and was in the top 5 a number of times. Isabella , who had excellent boat speed thru the event, had good moments , but was capsized and hit in the head by the boom in a big blast of wind in the final race. Jen had become ill with flu on the 2nd day, fought hard but given the conditions slipped in the standings, out of the top 10.

The final synopsis for the regatta was that Fort Lauderdale has conditions that are important for our team to train in and the event this year tested the fitness as well as assorted techniques necessary to win at the highest levels.

We packed up the boats on Sunday afternoon and droped John and Isabella at the airport.
Next stop is Clearwater Beach, Florida for the Laser/Radial Midwinter's where we will have 13 sailors.

Finn results -http://www.lyc.org/files/finn10.html
Radial results-http://www.lyc.org/files/radial10.html

Al Clark

Pictures from Miami OCR 2010

2010-02-04T15:22:00.000-08:00

Miami Olympic Classes Regatta 2010

2010-02-04T15:19:00.001-08:00

The first of the World Cup of sailing regattas of 2010 was the Miami event. Royal Van had a good representation of sailors attending.

In the Laser class Mike Leigh, Luke Ramsay, Ricardo Montemayor, Alex Heinzman, Ben Scott and Derik Vranazan

They had the early start each morning at 11 and it was on the water at 9.30 , then sail out to the race course, the breeze was solid most days,(day one we waited ashore for a storm to blow thru and were eventually out on the water till sunset, towing back in the dark!)

There was a fair bit of hiking each day but never windy. The fleet was divided into 2 groups because of size (105 boats), so I followed the 2 starts with our boys split into both.

Mike , Luke and Derik had plenty of International experience and all had decent races with Luke leading the charge near the front of the fleet. Picking your way up the first beats proved to be very challenging and few got it right each time. The key was to be in OK shape at the top mark and have the ability to come back thru the race.

Rick, Alex and Ben gained experience and all had a few good highloight but eventually ended up in the Silver fleet.

Luke entered the Gold fleet in the top 10 and Mike in the mid teens, Derik in the 30's.

The Gold fleet racing is always great spectating, with many of the top 20 Laser sailors in attendance. Luke continued to battle hard and was rewarded with a spot in the final medal race (top 10 sailed a Medal race on the final day), he finished 4th in that and ended the regatta in 8th overall, a real breakthrough, his best major result after many hours of training over the years.

Mike was close to the medal race going into the last day of fleet racing but slipped a bit and ended the event in 20th, showing the toughness of the fleet. (Mike won the final event of the World Cup in Melbourne Australia in December).

The other class I followed later each day was the Radial where Jen Spalding was competing, Jen was in the top 10 all thru the week and was more consistent then many of the women. She climbed as high as 5th at one point and she too qualified for the medal race in 8th.
Jen sailed well in the final race and finished the event in 7th overall, an excellent result in a high caliber event,(the World Champion from last year was 11th and many of the top European women were there).

We had Zac Plasvic and Nicola Girke sailing in the RSX board fleets and given the lighter than preferred breeze for them , they faired pretty well, with both sailors in the early teens just missing the metal races. Zac was telling us the level of cardio fitness required for the lighter air they experienced during some of the event, some of the sailors getting their heart rates over 200 beats a minute. The commitment to fitness in this discipline is enormous!

Hunter Lowden, just recently, joined with Gord Cook from Toronto in the 49'er class. The team had sailed one event prior to Miami, the Worlds in the Caribbean, where they finished 21st (a excellent result!). They were in the hunt each day and had good consistency thru out. They qualified for the medal race and sailed well with a 4th , finishing 9th overall.

John Romanko competed in the Finn class and struggled with boat speed thru the week finishing a disappointing 30th overall. He continued to be upbeat and is working hard to get back on pace for the Finn Midwinter the next weekend.

Bruce Millar sailed in the 2.4m class and sailed into the top 5 a number of races finishing 8th overall, in a tough fleet.

We didn't have anyone sailing in the Star fleet but of note was Ross MacDonald's result at the recent worlds in January in Brazil: 14th overall in a very high caliber fleet!

Overall a successful regatta for the Royal Van team. Each one of these sailors are working hard to reach their dream of a Olympic Gold Metal and I was impressed with their commitment and determination.

Their were a few Royal Van national team members who weren't in attendance because of school commitments; Isabella Bertold and Alanna Vittery in the Radial and Abe Torchinsky who has moved to the Finn from the Laser.

Our next event is the Woman's North Americans and Finn Midwinter's in Fort Lauderdale in early February, then on to the East Coast Midwinter's in Clearwater Florida, in late February, (many of our development sailors will be at this event during the Olympic break).

Results are found at the regatta website- http://rmocr.ussailing.org/

Thanks again Royal Van for all the support.

Al Clark

Miami Olympic Classes Regatta 2010

2010-02-04T15:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas Camp 2009

2010-01-04T15:07:00.001-08:00

The Christmas camp was held a little earlier this year than in years past.
We sailed December 19th to the 22nd.

At some point we had fitness, on the water training and theory , (depending on the breeze).

Generally it was a light air camp with strong breeze only one morning, but we had a good turn out and the temperatures were quite livable considering what we had the year previous.

All 3 teams were out in force, lasers , Optis and the 420 team.

The final event of 2009 was a success and now its onto 2010!

Al

Race Team Banquet 2009

2009-11-26T14:00:00.000-08:00

The banquet was another success this year , with a big group of Opti, Laser and 420 team members in attendance.
Tine MC'ed the proceedings , with Chris and Jen handing out trophy's to the many winners thru the evening.
All in all a fun time was had by all , with an beautiful spread of food put on by the kitchen.
The Opti and 420 team are largely done for the season and we will see them in March.
The Laser team is planning for the regattas in florida in January and February.

Al

Blue Nose Regatta/RVYC Club Champs

2009-11-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

The Club Champs was sailed at the Blue Nose Regatta hosted at KYC on November 7 and 8th.
It was a very cold weekend! But we had a great turnout, with Alex Heinzemann placing 1st, Isabella Bertold placing 2nd and Kyle Martin placing 3rd in the Laser fleet. In the radials Jaime Bone was 1st, Joanna Moore was 2nd and Natalia Montemayor was 3rd. The 420s also competed in the event, but it was not their club champs, Emma and Alana placed 1st and Kia and Leif placed 2nd.

Next we have the RVYC Race Team banquet held on Tuesday November 24th at 6pm. Tickets can be purchased at the front desk.

Laser Halloween Training 2009

2009-11-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

We had a great weekend of training, with sunshine and breeze both days!

A total of about 15 sailors came out at least one of the days.

Were onto our winter training season for the next few months and this was likely the last of the sunny mild weather!

Al

Pumkin Bowl 2009

2009-10-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

The Pumpkin regatta took place October 17-18th at West Van YC.

A real fall regatta with heavy rain, wind and even some sun shine. Over 200 sailors came from across BC, Alberta and Washington to participate. The most amazing fleet was the Opti fleet with over 70 racers competing!

It was quite a sight seeing all of them leave the docks!
Royal Van faired really well in the regatta.

In the light green fleet (first regatta ever) there were 24 racers. Tara Yuen won the whole fleet, followed by Nicholas Donaldson in 3rd, Max Cameron in 8th and Jamie Bennett in 12th.

This fleet sailed different reaching courses and had a great time. In the dark green fleet, Katrina McCallum was 2nd,Mikaela Frame was 10th, Dim Dimitrov 13th and Julia Ho 23rd. It was so much fun seeing these sailors race to the far away windward mark in the wind and the rain.

In the championship fleet, Alex Fritz won the entire event just like last year. In second was Lloyd Lyall who won the blue fleet. In second in the blue fleet was Andrew Moreno. Third in red was Graham Harney followed by Ellie Shaw in 7th, Jake Cullen in 8th and Hailey Linton in 9th. In the blue fleet was Eric Lyall 4th and Jim Donaldson 7th. In the white fleet ( 10 and under), Henrik Moberg-Parker was 3rd followed closely by Michael Mastracci in 5th and Dylan Cochran in 6th.

In the 420 class, Royal Van did great with Joren Jackson/Leif Pederson finishing second, Emma Toone/Alana Tacy in 3rd and Kia Meiklejohn/Elizabeth Hardy in 5th.

In the 29’er class, Sam Gustin with crew Ian Woodbury were 2nd.

In the Laser full rig class, Chris Tulip was 5th, Thomas Roehrl 6th, Sebastian Fritz 8th and John Tulip 12th.

The Radial class was big with 31 racers. Natalia Montemayor was 4th, Cameron Ho 5th, Joanna Moore 8th and Tony Henderson 11th.

A lot of fun and a great event for all our sailors.

Results:

http://www.wvyc.bc.ca/racing/pumpkinbowl/opti_results2009.html

http://www.wvyc.bc.ca/racing/pumpkinbowl/alpharesults_2009.htm

Pictures:

http://s899.photobucket.com/albums/ac199/WVYCsaildir/

Tine

National Qualifying Regatta 2009

2009-10-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

The NQR (Sport Carding from the CYA, read money) was held in Victoria October 1-4 for the Lasers and Radials (Men and Women).

We had a big group over for the event, with a number of sailors well in line for these Cards,(this was also a qulaifier for the youth worlds too).

The event started out a little slow on the Thursday with light wind and 2 races , the Friday saw even lighter wind and one race sailed.

Luke Ramsay (Lasers) and Jen Spalding (Radials) took the lead early in the event, and both never relinquished it.

The Saturday we say good breeze out of the north and we sailed 5 races, a very full day.

Abe Torchinsky in Lasers was now in a solid second and in Radials Isabella and Alanna vitery were well in the hunt, with Keamia Rasa just a hair off the pace.

The final day of racing saw again a good northerly with 3 races sailed and a 2nd drop coming into play.

In the end Royal Van was 1st, 2nd, 6th , 7th and 9th (5 in the top 10!) in the Lasers.

Alex Heinzman was 7th and earned another spot to the youth worlds next year in Turkey, (he competed in Brazil this past year).

In the Radials we had 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th

Results are @http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1254704219.htm

Well done team!

We will have as many members of the National team as ever this coming year.

Names include- Mike Leigh, Luke Ramsay, Abe Torchinsky in Laser, Jen Spalding, Isabella Bertold, Alanna Vittery in Radial, John Romanko, in Finn, Zak Plasvic and Nicola Girke in boards.

An end to a successful year of competing for the Race Team, we head into the winter training season with our next trip in Miami in January.

Al

Fall Dingys Regatta 09

2009-10-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

The team went over to Victoria for the annual fall dingy regatta September 26th and 27th. We had a big group this year with the Double Handed 420 team coming out in force.
Mark Patacky has a keen group that are training regularly on weekends and thursday evenings.

We also have a active 29er campaigning on the circuit, Sam Gusin and Ian Woobury, they've been busy getting good results in the Youth Champs and at CORK this past summer.

The Laser Team also had a big group, (14), with a number of sailors keen on using the regatta as a practice run for the upcoming NQR's regatta the following weekend.

The regattas had one light air race on the Saturday and then 5 good medium breeze races on the Sunday.

We won all the classes we entered and had top finishes as well in all the classes!

Joren Jackson and Dylan Sanderson 1st in the 420 class

Sam Gustin, Ian Woodbury 1st in the 29er Class

Luke Ramsay was 1st in the Laser Class,

Isabella Bertold 1st in the Radial Class,

Results are @ http://rvyc.bc.ca/results/1254100495.htm

Well done team!

Fall Training

2009-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

The summer season has come to a close and after one of the busiest ever the team is ready to into some solid blocks of training leading up to the National Qualifying Regatta for Lasers and Radials Oct 1 thru 4 in Victoria.

We have had decent weather for the first few weekend as well as the evening sessions.

The new team members meeting on Thursday September 10th went well and quite a number of new sailors came aboard in the Opti's , Double Handed (420's) and the Lasers.

Chris Cowan has taken over for Rob Douglas in the Optis and has some big shoes to fill as Rob had done an fantastic job raising the participation of the team to new heights!

Thank you Rob for all your efforts , you will be missed.

We look forward to great sucess with Chris doing his best to follow in Robs footsteps.

Of course Tine stays on working specifically with the highest performance sailors and the wet feet program she initiated.

Another note is that the double handed team seems to have reached critical mass and is going great guns with Mark Patacky at the helm.

The team took part in the Canadian Youth Championships this summer and is off to Victoria this coming weekend as well as a few more events of over the coming year .

Thanks Royal Van for all the support
Al

Optimist Canadian Championships 2009

2009-09-08T22:24:00.000-07:00

Report from Canadian Optimist Championship 2009 in Victoria

The 2009 Canadian Optimist Championship was held in Victoria the last week of August. With excellent conditons for those who love light air, the sailors raced for 5 days straight right outside the yacht club. The parents had excellent views of their sailors from shore as well as from all the parents who brought over their boats for housing.

It was really fun for our team to have 24 racers competing in the fleet of 95 sailors. We were over 25% of the entire event! Most of our sailors attended their first ever Canadian Championship and it was an exceptional experience.

CHAMPIONSHIP FLEET
Our top sailor was Lloyd Lyall in this his first Championship. He sailed an excellent regatta and despite a very unfortunate finish in a race where 50 boats all crossed the line on a reach within 15 seconds, Lloyd used his brilliant tactics to stay in clean air throughout the regatta.

Veteran sailor and retiring after the event, Laura Konitzer, finished 15th and made the national Optimist team. She was hoping for a bit more wind as she just returned from the worlds with the same light air conditions. Laura was an excellent role model for all our Optimist sailors and will stay involved volunteering for the race team program in the fall.

Eric Lyall finished 30th and as one of the youngest in the blue fleet, Eric was impressively fast being able to concentrate throughout the entire regatta. Alex Fritz finished 31st, a bit disappointing as he was hoping for wind to use his strength. Ernesto Rengifo also sailed his last Optimist event as he aged out and is now sailing Laser Radial and had some excellent finishes. Ernesto was outstanding selecting the correct side to go upwind in the current ridden bay.

Sam Atkins and Graham Harney sailed better and better as the event went on. Both put a lot of pressure on themselves, but the learning which came out of this event was so worth while and will take both of them in a great direction in the future. Sam and Graham were 39th and 41st respectively.

Andrew Moreno finished in 48th and sailed some excellent races throughout the series. It is a very long event with 6 days including one day for measurement for our young sailors. It was a great event for growth though.

Jake Cullen and Jim Donaldson who just started on the race team in September finished right beside each other as best friends often do. These two boys have come so far and having been to the training and regatta in San Francisco in June with our team, both Jim and Jake have taken huge steps in their sailing abilities in less than a year.

Ben MacVicar with his excellent attitude and leadership skills came in the 50s. Ben was also hoping for more wind, but the event went better and better for him as the week went by, showing strength in his sailing and personal skills.

Hayley Linton finished 60th in this her first big regatta. She also started last year and has brought a lot of enthusiasm to our team. Connor Black had an excellent regatta and sailed so well. He is a delight on and off the water. Ellie Shaw had a tough time getting of the starting line and getting out to a side. The ping-pong sailing in the middle of a big fleet with very light air was a hard lesson to learn, but nonetheless, an important one she will benefit from later having done at the Canadians.

In 65th place with the same score were Dylan Cochrane and Henrik Moberg-Parker. Dylan is 9 and Henrik is 8 years old. Both boys had raced where they were in top 10 around the first marks and in 3 of the cancelled raced (as the wind died) the boys were often in the top 15. Both loved being part of our huge team and learnt so much from all the older role models on our team.

Michael Mastracci and Robert Tulip were excellent representatives from Royal Van, bringing a fighting attitude and willing to soak in the new skills throughout the entire week.

With only 2 of our sailors retiring this year, we have 22 sailors returning for another year plus a whole new gang starting out! We are hoping to get up to close to 40 sailors on the Optimist team.

GREEN FLEET
The green fleet is for sailors who are new to our sport and where coaching is allowed while racing. Katrina McCallum finished in an impressive 2nd place overall. There were 20 racers. This is her first year and she brought along Julia Ho who finished in 10th place.

Cody and Fraser Buck raced in their first ever regatta and we have two budding stars coming up. Nick Donaldson was the biggest winner of all, he raced his hardest and spent the entire time loving the time on and off the water.

Graham Harney also took home the biggest prize of all, the SPORTSMANSHIP trophy. Graham was the most outstanding role-model for all the younger sailors, including and caring for every new sailor on and off the water. Graham was rewarded with a beautiful trophy and a spray-top. We are very proud that our sailors win on and off the water.

On a different note, after the awards were finished, Rob Douglas who has been coaching these sailors for the past 8 years and has been instrumental in the successes of the Optimist race team members, told all the sailors and their parents that he had decided to move to Comox to pursue his teaching and coaching future. We are so grateful for all the time Rob dedicated to the Royal Van Optimist race team and we will for ever feel the positive impact Rob has had on all the sailors, parents and co-coaches lives. We wish him and his wife Katrina the very best and we are sure he will come back to race of do training camps with us again.

A huge thank you to all the parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles who helped with the event. We were a great team, the biggest ever!

From the 4 coaches, Rob Douglas, Chris Cowan, Cameron Ho and Tine Moberg-Parker

Laser Worlds 2009

2009-08-31T14:00:00.000-07:00

A strong team of Royal Van sailors qualified for the mens Senior Worlds Championships.

Mike Leigh, Luke Ramsay, Abe Torchinsky, Andy Wong, Ricardo Montemayor and Alex Heinzman.

The regatta was preluded by ten days of training , with upward of a hundred competitors doing "rabbit" starts. fantastic training, especially for the Jr members of the group.

The event was started in perfect sunshine and a eighteen knot sea breeze. Two races were sailed and the results were good for Mike and a few of the others.

The second day dawned with a dense fog, we went out and tried racing thruout the day but in the end one race was held that remained and the other was tossed in a protest , all in all the day was a near loss for most.

The Saturday morning we saw a solid 18 plus knots of breeze and a schedule of three races.
All the money was on the line on this day. The fleet was to be split into Gold , Silver and Bronze.

Mike sailed very well and entered the gold fleet portion of the event in 7th, Luke and Abe had touger days and were in the middle of silver fleet, Andy, Alex and Rick were at their first worlds and were in the bronze fleet.

After the final qualifying day we had to store the boats away indoors in anticipation of a hurricane, (that never amounted to much). Three 75 minute qualifying races with a few hours of putting boats away made for some very tired sailors by days end.

The Sunday was alot of waiting for the hurracane to blow thru then monday was more waiting on the water for wind that never appeared.

Finnally we were back to racing on the Tuesday with 3 good races, (10-14 kts) and then 2 races on the final day in 14 to 18 kts.
Both of these days we sailed out thru the fog to find our race course.

The final scores showed the top sailors being at the top and the rest falling in line. This is , in my opinion, the tougest sailing regatta on the planet and the sailor that wins it must be skilled and fit in every possible way.

Mike Leigh had a very solid event finishing 10th, Luke finished 6th and Abe 10th in silver , Rick, Alex and Andy gained valuable experience for their next wortlds.

A sucessful event that was tough because we had plenty of delays and our share of fog, but not unusual.

next year the worlds are in the UK and the team is off to more events to try and qualify.

Al

Canada Games 2009

2009-08-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Day 1

The first day of racing took place in light to no wind in PEI. We started the first race with a solid 6 knots which lasted for one race for the double and single handed sailors. Both the fleets races a second race, the double handed finished the race, the single handed did not finish, it was cancelled half way through.

In the 29'er, Jonathan Scott and Mark Pataky had a great day, finishing in 2nd and 3rd after having led in both races.
In the single handed classes, both Kevin Grierson and Isabella Bertold won their races. Kevin won by only a few inches over Nova Scotia while ISabella was far ahead despite being last at the start.

Day 2

The wind stayed longer today and we got 3 races in for the single handed sailors and 4 races for the double handed sailors. The light breeze which blew 4-7.5 knots and shifted left throughout the day gave for some good light air racing.

In the single handed class female class, Isabella Bertold continues to dominate and sits 1st overall with 3 first and one second place. She was over early in a start and went back with 3 other boats and sailed herself back to a close second race. In all the other races she as dominated from start to finish.

In the single handed men's class, Kevin Grierson sailed a solid 3 races and finished with a 3, 1 and a 4th. .

Jonathan Scott and Mark Pataky had a rougher day and are sitting 4th overall.

So far, Isabella is 1st overall, Kevin is 3rd with another 3 days of racing to go.

Day 3 at the Canada Games

The single handed sailors raced 3 excellent races with hiking conditions in all of them.

Isabella Bertold was over early in the first race, but went back and came back to win the race. She also won the next 2 races easily. She is sitting first with 6 points after having won 6 races and one second. There are 3 races to go.

Kevin Grierson finished second twice and won the last race. HE is also first overall, but tied in that spot with Nova Scotia.

Mark Pataky and Jonathan Scott got a 2,3,4 and are tied in third. One more race for them to sail today.
We have two more days to sail. We have a great team spirit and feel great about the way we are sailing.

Final Report

Canada Games 2009 is over with a complete series of races finished a day early.

Thursday gave us excellent breeze and our sailors worked hard to either extend their leads or hold on to a medal.

In the Laser Radial class, Isabella Bertold easily won the first 2 races and went in.

Kevin Grierson won all 3 races today with great distance and claimed the gold medal so Royal Van swiped the single handed gold medals.

In the 29er class Mark Pataky and Jonathan Scott got a 3-3-4-4 and got the bronze medal, well done!

The regatta was run by excellent race committees and our sailors and coaches are looking forward to 2 days with taking part in the games and watch other events.

For pictures and complete results, please go to www.teambc.org

Tine

Opti North Americans 2009

2009-08-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

Event report by Alexander Fritz
North American Optimist Dinghy Championships, Boca Chica, Dominican Republic
June 26th to July 9th

After travel by bus to Seattle, flying overnight to Newark, NJ to meet up with some of the other Canadian team members, the final flight took us to Santo Domingo, DR. Boca Chica is just 15 minutes away from the Las Americana’s Airport, in the South West of the Island.

Arriving at the airport, it was hot and very humid. We arrived at the hotel Hoteur, which was accommodations as well as event site in one for all competitors, coaches and parents. While the hotel was older, rooms were ok and more importantly food was good and plenty. We were told not to leave the hotel grounds and in fact it had armed security guards all around, even at the beach where all the equipment and boats were stored. The people we met everywhere were very friendly though.

The Canadian team consisted of 11 sailors, the biggest in recent North American Optimist Championships for Canada, since there was no 2009 Canadian Euro team this year. Our coach was Fran Bellocchio from the Nova Scotia based “COAST” and Rhode Island based “FAST” Optimist teams. Fran arranged a 4-day on-site race clinic to get us used to the sailing area, and conditions. It also allowed us to checkout our boats early and we were first to measure everything.

Some other countries had already arrived for training, some as much as 2 weeks earlier, including from Japan, Germany, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Where we initially thought we would sail inside the bay, behind a huge protective reef, we learned from the other teams quickly that in fact we would sail on the outside in open waters, which meant a long sail/tow as well as big 2+ meter swell and current. The swell was so bad that some sailors and later many parents on the spectator boats became seasick.

Winds during the training days were light – usually 8-10kn. With the steep swell it was tough to make the boat go fast, sometimes you couldn’t see the marks or other boats would come up on you last second. It was constantly steering up and down the waves.

It was also hot and humid, we all definitely had to hydrate and some of the sailors on many teams had trouble getting used to the conditions, having upset stomachs and trouble sleeping. During the event several sailors even ended up in the hospital for infusions.
The Opening Ceremonies were done on an old Military Base but very nice. Over 200 sailors attended the event from 26 different countries around the world. Overall everyone cared a lot for the sailors, they had even built huts for our gear and to provide shade at the beach and all kinds of food and fruits were plenty.

Racing days were long because of the daily tows out into deep water. Once the regatta started winds actually increased significantly, especially in the afternoon when on some days major local thunderstorms developed. The increased wind unfortunately also increased the short choppy waves developing white caps slapping into our Optimist from all directions and sail & bail was key.

Fran always setup a debrief after dinner with video footage of the day. We learned a lot from that and also laughed about some of our mistakes, its good to see yourself on TV doing things you don’t think you actually are doing, or doing good things you don’t realize. For example Fran had also taped one of my starts where all was going well except the last 5-8 seconds where I accelerated way faster then the boats around me and I got an OCS. Starts were very critical and many sailors were very aggressive.

On our lay-day the Canadian and Swiss teams together booked at trip on open trucks into the interior of the country, which is part rural, part jungle. We went to a big waterfall for swimming and a BBQ. Because it was Sunday it was crowded with local people.

While driving along the often gravel country roads, I was shocked about the poverty we saw and kids begging not for money but school supplies, simple pencils and paper, books. The Swiss team had anticipated that and came prepared. The truck would stop along the small villages and we all together handed out all kinds of things to kids often not even having shirts or shoes. It was certainly quite the contrast to us lucky kids sailing and being able to go to school at home.

Overall the event was very well organized and good facilities, going home I will miss the warm water and beautiful white sandy beach. I learned a lot, made a lot of new friends and certainly improved my sailing, especially the starts in a big fleet.

I also want to sincerely thank the RVYC Corinthian fund, which helps support my training and attending an international event like this. I hope I have the chance to go back to the Dominican Republic, and next time I will for sure bring lots of school supplies to hand out to the kids there.

Results @http://www.optinam2009.org/app/do/results_view.aspx?id=1123

Laser Europeans 2009

2009-08-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

Mike Leigh , Abe Torchinsky and Ricardo Montemayer attended the Laser Europeans in Sweden from Aug 1 to 8th, with Kevin Black as their coach.

The group did a training camp in lake Garda the week prior with some world class sailors. All in preparation for the upcoming laser worlds in Halifax beginning Aug 20th.

It appeared to be generally a light air event that was hard fought with the best in the world in attendance. Mike ended up 20th with a few tough races and Abe 57th in the gold fleet.

Ricardo sailed in the youth europeans and ended up third in the under 19 portion of the regatta. A very good result! Way to go Rick!

Results are @ http://www.nordicweek.se/resultat_2009.asp

The boys fly direct to Nova Scotia for the build up to the Worlds.
We have a big team this year who have qualified: Mike, Abe , Rick, Luke Ramsay, Alex Heinzman and Andy Wong.

Kevin black will be coaching, Good Luck Guys !

Al

Opti Worlds daily report

2009-08-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

We finally had a start and the first race got off with a mountain of OCSs in 5-6 knots. Max and Devan got off the line with excellent speed and space, while Linor and Laura were shot out the back and there is no catching up at the worlds. There are some very aggressive sailors on the line with regards to skulling, something Cameron experienced as a Polish sailor propelled away from him.

The jury catched one or two per start. Cameron also had a great start but was caught over early. There weree about 40 OCS boats in race 1. Race 1 was short with light air and shifts and puffs coming in from both sides. Our sailors got some of the shifts and missed others. The downwind stretch was tough too.

The second start was great for most of our sailors. Devan was in start one and struggeled a bit to get off the line. The rest of our team were front row. THe problems arose as the race progressed with no wind and puffs coming from the left. There were boats going upwind, downwind and reaching all within 100 metres of eachother. Max rounded the reachmark in first, but the wind collapsed and he lost 25 boats.

The last two fleets did not even complete the whole course, it was shortened at the bottom mark. All our sailors sailed their best race in race 2. We are back on shore with postponement, hoping for wind. As we are watching from our bed, it is glass out there. Cameron and Linor are the only ones who know their scores, they were both OCS in race 2. It was impossible for the others to tell as fleets were all mised up and coming together in huge lumps of different fleets.

The sprits are great, we are improving from one race to the next.

Hope to get another race in today.

Tine

Canadian Youth Championships, Victoria 2009

2009-08-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

Aug 6th 2009

2009 Canadian youth championships Report
by Francois Hebert BC Provincial Coach.

The Royal Vancouver yacht club Laser race team was at the Canadian youth championships in Victoria BC from Aug 1st to 6th 2009.
Over 150 competitors from 7 provinces were competing at this event at Royal Victoria Yc. Light air predominated during the event with an average wind speed of 6 knots.
!3 Athletes from the Royal Van Race team were present in the Laser and Laser radial Classes.
Very tricky conditions were the story of the week here in Victoria. Strong tides combined with light and shifty winds made the game quite complex at times. The race committee did a great at getting the sailors racing. 15 races were completed in the 5 day series.

The smart sailors with consistent starts and slightly more conservative tactics did well.

Alex Heinzeman sailed a solid series, capitalizing on his local knowledge of Victoria, won the laser full rig with a 14pts lead. Ben Scott sailed well, however a few mistakes combined with an episode of food poisoning, kept him away from the top spot.

In the Laser radial male Dominic Fritz sailed a good series coming in 4th place only 2 pts from 3rd. Good tactical decision combined with good light air boat speed allowed him to reach this result.

In the Laser radial female Joanna Moore, despite a few inconsistencies and a protest, had a respectable top 5 finish, reaching her pre-regatta goal of top 6

Results:
Full Rig:

Alex Heinzeman 1st
Ben Scott 2nd
Kyle Martin 8th
Chris Tulip 9th
Sebastian Fritz 11th

Laser Radial Male

Dominic Fritz 4th
Eric Servais 6th
Tony Henderson 7th
Alex Kroitzsch 9th
Gabe Frame 13th

Laser Radial Female

Joanna Moore 5th
Natalia Montemayor 8th
Alex Ninow 10th

For Full Results see http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1249600705.htm

Optimist Worlds 2009 , Brazil Update

2009-08-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

Day one started with no wind, continued on with no wind and ended up with postponement back on shore. We started the day with breakfast and a coach's meeting. After a team meeting, the sailors were sent on the water in no wind. The wind came from the north at about 2 knots for 5 minutes at a time before dying every time. After a few hours of meeting new friends, eating (Cameron) and hanging out we learnt a few things: the lunches provided were not for people and that the water is extremely dirty. The sailors are not allowed to wash their boats with soap, so the dirt will just add up over the next 7 days.

Back on shore the sailors went in the pool and it is actually nice we have overcast so we do not get as hot. There is a slide with a great pool right beside the boats, so the sailors are getting wet regardless of lack of on water racing.

All our sailors are in great spirit. Speaking English and most of the sailors at least one more language helps in communicating with other nations. There are 47 nations present here. The sailors are divided into 6 groups, sailing against eachother two against two groups at a time.

We are hoping for better sailing tomorrow,

Tine

Optimist Worlds 2009 , Brazil

2009-08-05T21:11:00.000-07:00

The first official day of sailing brought us 4-6 knots from 145 degrees which meant from over the hills in the small bay we are racing. The hills are steep and the wind comes down in puffs, making it a challenging place to sail with quick shifts from both sides of the course.

Our team plan was to go on the water 3 hours before the practice race for extra time, but the organizers had the ramp closed off so we had to wait with everybody else. As with most practice starts at Opti Worlds, the sailors are not just pushing the starting line a bit, they are miles over. This was also the case today, but all our Canadian sailors came back and the coaches organized for a third start where the coaches were on the line keeping the sailors back.

It was hard to tell how it went as sailors were joining in as they saw fit, but we learnt that even the heavier sailors can point high because of no waves and that the puffs came from the sides. We also learnt that the water boat (to give the sailors water on the water) never came and other minor things. The pin boat has a very long achor line despite the entire bay being 4 meters deep only.

One hour late, the opening ceremony started. The pictures will come soon. We looked like a great team with by far the best jackets. Our pants were left in the room, it was too hot. The opening ceremony was right on site, small and efficient compared to many the other years. Then we had a team meeting and a de-brief before dinner. We love the meet down here and are experiencing a new juice every day just about.

Stay tuned, racing starts tomorrow. We have not been told what fleet the sailors are in yet, hopefully they have that sorted out at the coach meeting in the morning.

Tine

Radial Worlds Photos

2009-08-04T22:57:00.001-07:00

Women's Radial Worlds 2009

2009-08-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

Royal Vancouver YC sent a team of women sailors to the Radial Worlds in Karatsu,Japan this year.

The group consisted of Keamia Rasa , Isabella Bertold and Jennifer Spalding.

We flew from Vancouver on July 18th to Tokyo and traveled to Karatsu via a local flight and a subway, instantly appreciating the heat and humidity of Japan in the summer months.

The plan was to arrive for the early boat charter and get as much time on the water to be acclimated to the local conditions. Isabella came a few days later on route from the Youth Worlds in Brazil (she finished 4th!).
I had chartered a coach boat and we were on the water by the 20th, giving us a week to get sorted.

We trained with the other Canadian women as well as some of the other countries.
Everyday at 2 pm the race committee had a organized practice race, which was great and unusual.

We saw every wind direction and strengths of 2 to 15 kts . There was a few days of sunshine but most days it was overcast and trying to rain or just raining hard, (there was flooding in many placers in Japan while we were there).

We all felt confident as the regatta approached that good results were possible.
We took the day before day 1 off and attended an excellent welcoming party , where the Japanese hospitality was in full display.
Day 1 of racing started with arrival at the club at 9.30 then on water at 10.30 first race at 11.30.,(I attended the coaches briefing at 9).

All our sailors were in the second start, so it was easy for me to observe the whole race.
Keamia made her mark early and sailed an excellent race through out finishing 4th, Isabella and Jen were solid in the mid teens. This race we saw the wind from the north at 8kts with a number of good oscillations.

The second race the breeze had picked up a bit and the current had switched. It turned into a go right parade and continued thru the race. Our girls were caught left and struggled to get back in the hunt. Jen got flagged on the bottom reach.
Day 2 saw more of the same wind direction and similar patterns, as in go right or at least rightish. Boat favored most every start. The wind was 8 to 12 from about 25 degrees.

We saw the first of the ocean swell that rose to 10 feet from time to time.
Isabella continued to get good races in and had an 9th the first race , Jen caught up and just nipped Keamia in 14th , so all was well for all 3 to get in Gold fleet.

The second race the wind went left at the start and temped many to start down at the pin , but as we saw before it was important to get right by half way up and all 3 of our team was stung by this , Jen got a 2nd flag on the run and had to head in.
Day 3 was stronger breeze from the north again and big swell, classic racing conditions, and overcast as usual, near raining from time to time.

My group had been in the blue fleet, second start for the last few days but today Keamia was in the first start. This mad it a little tougher to follow all. Thank goodness I had a good RIB!

The day started promising with a 16 and a 17 for Isabella and Jen and a 20 for Keamia , not great but qualifying scores. Jen was still very much on the bubble and needed a good final race.
The 2nd race was more of the same, the top girls knew the routine and really put on a boat speed clinic, with large separation in the fleets , Isabella had another decent race ,19th , Keamia was 9th to the top mark and ended 21st with a few unlucky events, but made gold fleet comfortably. Jen was 29th and missed the Gold fleet by 12 points, a shame.

Keamia is excited because her starts have been excellent and much discussion has been tossed around at our end of day debriefs regarding eliminating small mistakes. Isabella is very fired up, she is top Canadian at the moment in the low 30,s and
I think she can move up, she has had the most mature regatta to date I believe, she deserves it for all the hard work she has put in for the last few years!

The 1st day of gold silver split racing was another solid wind day out of the north again, actually at between 30 and 40 degrees consistently with pressure of 15 to 20 kts and good size seas

Isabella worked very hard after a tough first beat and climbed back to as good as 19th and ended in the low 20’s, she was saying how physically and mentally exhausting the gold fleet is!
Keamia had a tough start followed by a not too hot result but was keen to go again.
This regatta has been characterized by the need to get a good start, normally near the boat then a quick tack and hike hard out to the right side or right corner, depending on your nerve.

Jen was at the front of the sliver fleet all day and was on form against a few highly ranked women.
The second race of the day was just as tough and Isabella and Keamia pushed as hard as they could, but arrived at the weather mark towards the back and ended the race in the 30’s.

This put Isabella in 30th and Keamia 41st, Jen was 3rd in the Silver.
So we rode our bikes (the regatta organizers arranged for every competitor and coach to have a bike to ride for the regatta!) to the club for the 2nd day of the split and low and behold wind same direction and building to solid teens in speed, a bit like Groundhog Day!

Isabella had a couple of cracker starts but unfortunately she had a port tacker foul her and she ended up capsized, then later in the race she had to do a 720 so she was only ahead of a few boats, she keep her sprits up and finished the 2nd race with a 23, even with a very sore back. Keamia struggled again and stayed in the 30’s most of the day.

Jen again had excellent downwind speed and sits in 2nd in her fleet.
The final day of racing we mere met with overcast sky’s, wind building to 18kts out of the north , actually around 25 degrees , so a little left of usual, and good size seas.

Pretty close to a groundhog day. The Finnish girl won the opening race and headed in , having the regatta won. Isabella had an excellent start and went to port heading to the favorite right corner. She didn’t quite have the wheels and rounded the top mark in the high 20’s , Keamia was close behind her and had an excellent run only to go thru the bottom gate the wrong way , and fell back to the high 20’s. In the end Isabella had a low 30 and a high 20 to finish the regatta in 32nd place overall, an excellent result for an 18 yr old .

Keamia was in the low 40’s and would have liked to be the top 40% to receive the national team card that Isabella did.
Jen fought hard to the end and finished 3rd in the silver fleet.

All in all a true test for a classic world championship, where the leader were fast, fit and started well.
Our team went home with a solid list of things needed to reach their goal of being top 10 in the world. Training begins shortly to get ready for Scotland next July.

Thanks to Royal Vancouver YC for all the support

Al Clark

Summer Sailing

2009-07-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

The past couple of months the team has been keeping really busy sailing regattas all over the world.

After the Detla Lloyd regatta, there were a couple training camps held out of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club to prepare for WAVES and for some the Laser North Americans.

The Laser NA's took place at Buffalo Canoe Club. The Buffalo Canoe club put on an excellent event and the team was billeted by members of the club. We saw wind of most strengths and assorted directions.

The first day of racing was cancelled eventually after we headed out to the race course twice then back in due to thunder storms. The next three days were good racing , with one day of qualifying then on to the gold fleet racing.
From the beginning Luke Ramsay was well in the hunt for the trophy as well as Jen Spalding, both fought hard for the trophy.
In the end Jen was a close 2nd to fellow national team member Lisa Rossafter a match race in the final heat, Alex Heinzemann (on his way to the youth worlds) finished 3rd overall. Luke finished 5th overall in a hotly contested Laser fleet. Luke is training hard for the upcoming Laser Worlds in Halifax.

This year WAVES regatta was also the Laser Canadian Championships. We had great conditons for it and were really happy to have the whole team out for the event! 25 team members competed in the event!

We had 3 days of great racing, westerly breezes and plenty of current. PRO John Culter did an excellent job of getting a maximum number of races off.

Congratulations to Luke Ramsay who is the new Canadian Champion in the Laser class! Luke really dominated and was well on form. Derik Vranizan from Seattle,(another Race Team member) was a solid 2nd, Ricardo Montemayor, top youth, also had a great event finishing 3rd overall, with Abe Torchinsky in 4th and Jason Rhodes in 5th, (keeping the young guys honest!).

In the radial fleet Alexander Heinzemann is the new Canadian champion! Dominque Fritz finished 6th and Chris Tulip finnished 7th. Results are @ royalvan.com

After the Canadians the team packed up the trailer to head down to the Gorge for 2 weeks of training and racing. We started off with 2 days of training to get warmed up for the Laser District 6 regatta. The trip to the Gorge is going really well, and its great to see everyone out there getting some heavy wind training.
The trip to the Gorge will finnish with the Blow Out, a 20 mile downwind race which starts in Cascade Locks and finishes in Hood River. That will happen on Thursday July 16th. The Blowout is followed by the Pacific Coast Championships which are from July 17-19.

Opti's in San Francisco Racing Update Day 2

2009-06-22T12:00:00.002-07:00

We started an extra hour earlier than usual to get some races in as we lost 3 races yesterday due to the heavy weather. It was jsut like racing in Vancouver, light and shifty with current and tricky conditions. After 5 races in all kinds of conditions, the wind arrived. IT was terrific. After 5 long days practicing sailing in 20 plus winds, our sailors embraced the wind. Our entire team did amazing with Cameron winning the last race with Alex in second, Graham in 7th and Jack in 10th. Jake went in but made it without difficulty, Jim finished the race in style. Alex capsized 20 seconds before the start in the first race today after a huge and strong windshift hit his boat. That was a tough one to recover from. Cameron started off the day with poor starts in the middle of the line and after 2 of these starts, he change to start at the pin with clean air. It worked so well, everybody is for sure learning heaps.
We raced 6 races! Sam and Andrew were troopers as they worked so hard and long finishing almost all the races. Sam finished all, Andrew almost all.

We are looking forward to the last 4 races tomorrow, starting early again. Then we have to pack the whole trailer and the truck. We have 9 parents here so it should be just fine.

Opti's in San Francisco Training Update Day 2

2009-06-22T12:00:00.001-07:00

Day 2
After a light air yesterday, we started off the day with a light but very strong current and back eddies all over day. It was an amazing experience for all the sailors when we finally made it to the windward mark and sailors were trying multiple times to get around the mark. After a few tries, practice makes perfect and all the sailors were comfortably understanding laylines with massive current.

After a couple of hours, the true San Francisco breeze showed up. It was a blast. We were practicing 720s and Andrew kept trying in the 20-25 knots of breeze. His determination resulted in improved 720s but also 3 capsizings.

The heavy wind gave us the opportunities to hike and surf. Our sailors became very comfortable with hiking, despite the pain and the ones who forgot their hiking pants at the hotel had to tough it out. At the end of the day, the whole group was going up and downwind, it was a great sight for the coaches. We stayed out an additional half an hour to surf extra waves.

Tomorrow we are training with 25 other OPtimist sailors from the bay and we are doing starts. It is a different skill to start with the current pushing you back 20 feet for every tack you do.

So far it has been a fantastic 2 days and we have 2 more days of training before the regatta starts.

Take care
Rob and Tine

Opti's in San Francisco Training Update

2009-06-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Day 4 is often the most tiring day with already 3 long days on the water and sailors getting exhausted. This morning, the sailors went to Fisherman's Wharf and rode the cable car before we went on the water for a 2 hours session in 20-25 knots of breeze. THe improvements since Monday were dramatic and all the sailors could identify themselves how much they have learnt in 4 days.
The older group of the team with Cameron and Emily are setting the stage with strong commitment to focus and hard work. Emily is injured and might not race starting tomorrow, she has re-injured her wrist and is presently at the hospital to check it out.
The rest of the team has taken to all the training very well. The coaches are very pleased with the progress and we are not concerned about the results of the regatta, rather with the skill improvements and being able to successfully race in the heavy winds. Unfortunately, the weather and wind predictions are 35-40 knots for tomorrow, a bit much for even our team after such a great camp. Time will tell if this is going to happen.
The club here, St. Francis YC has been more than exceptional in welcoming us and the dock master told us today that summer has finally arrived when the Opti team from Royal Van comes for their one week of wind and current in San Francisco.

WE start racing tomorrow, 3 long days with some exciting racing ahead. Rob took pictures today which we are hoping to upload so they can go on the RVYC blog.
Rob and TIne

Delta Llyod Regatta 09

2009-06-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

This years version was unusually pleasant most days, the first day of racing was the exception , with offshore stormy winds reaching over 30 kts.

The team that competed were Luke Ramsay, Abe Torchinsky, Ricardo Montemayer, Chris Tulip and Andy Wong in the Laser class,Isabella Bertold and Keamia Rasa in the Radial class.

Luke Ramsay ended up 2nd Canadian and 25th overall in a real world class fleet! Well done Luke.

Isabella was 23rd and had some real high points (a 2nd in the last race), Keamia Rasa was 25th overall.

The younger group of Rick, Chris and Andy had good moments thru the event and gained valuable international experience.

Overall a positive few weeks in the highest level of competition possible.

Next for us is training thru June in Preparation for the Laser Canadians held at Royal Van as part of the Waves Week.

Then off to Hood River for 2 events in July.

Isabella and Alex are working hard in preparation for the Youth Worlds in July, with Marcia MacDonald going as their coach.

Laser Results - http://www.hollandregatta.org/2009/tablecloth/results/results.asp?show=LASE

Radial Results-http://www.hollandregatta.org/2009/tablecloth/results/results.asp?show=LASR

Holland Regatta Training

2009-05-22T14:32:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Holland on Tuesday the 19th of May.
Luke and Chris Tulip spent the first few days training with some of the other teams from Australia, Spain, Netherlands, and USA
Keamia arrived today with the rest of the team coming over the next few days.

Spring Dingys 2009

2009-05-04T16:07:00.000-07:00

The team traveled over to the Island on either Friday evening or Saturday morning.

2 29'er teams, 9 Lasers, 11 Radials and 11 Optimists, a total of 35 sailors and 3 coaches with assorted parents helping with trailers and logistics in general.

The regatta saw strong winds and 4 races on the Saturday and lighter breeze with sun on the Sunday.

Kevin Greirson sailed well in the Lsers and sucured his Canada games spot. Andy Wong gave him a run for the money.

In the radial Alex Heinzman , who just got back in the class to tune up for the youth Worlds in July, won with Isabella Bertold 2nd, also going to the Youth Worlds.
She secured a spot for the Canada Games as well.

They fought hard all weekend and had huge leads.
Natalia Montmeyer ended as the alternate for the Canada Games and have improved greatly!

In the 29'er class Mark Patacky and Jonn Scott won the event and sucured their Canada Games berth. They seemed to improve each race , getting the rust off from being away from the boat for a while.

In the Optimist Laura Konitzer won the event with Alex Fritz 2nd ,Emily Dale-Johnson 3rd and Cameron Ho , very dominant! Well done!

All in all a successful weekend for the team.

Results are at http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1241393072.htm and http://www.rvyc.bc.ca/results/1241393105.htm

Thanks for the support
Al

Pics Day 1 Spring Dingys Victoria

2009-05-02T22:28:00.000-07:00

Kitten Cup

2009-04-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

This years version of the Kitten cup was a very high caliber event with strong fleets in the Laser,Radial,Double Handed and Opti classes.

Being the first Canada Games qualifying event, many of the sailors well keen to put on a good showing.

In the Laser class a number of the veteran sailors grabbed some laser gear and got out on the water.
Dan Slater from New Zealand (Dan sailed in the Olympics in the Finn in China), Tommy Warton, (Laser National team coach), Jason Rhodes, (Royal Van Member and Olympic Coach in China).

At any rate the young guns were going to have their hands full all weekend.

In the end Dan was first with Ricardo Montemayer second and Luke Ramsay third.
It went right down to the last race and was fantastic to see three generations of laser sailors fight it out.

In the Radial Isabella Bertold dominated the fleet with mostly first place finishes.
There was a large group of new Race Team members out, (13 in total).

Eric Sevais had an excellent result ending 4th overall. Natalia Montemeyer was 2nd girl and 5th overall.
8 of the top 10 were from Royal Van!

On the Double handed course the 29ers were fighting for the Canada birth.
Mark Patacky,(our Doublehanded Coach)and Jonn Scott ended 2nd and lead the trials so far.

In the Opti class Royal Van dominated with Laura Konitzer winning and Cameron Ho 2nd (6 of the top 10 from RV).

Results are @ http://www.royalvan.com/racing_results.asp?TID=3&RID=127&SID=240&DID=2

A excellent weekend of racing, with excellent race management.
Thanks to all the volunteers and Rob Scott for heading up the event.
Thanks Liliah Martin for doing the sailors swap!

On to Victoria for the team this coming weekend for the 2nd Canada Games Trials.

AL

Kitten Cup 09 Pics

2009-04-27T10:09:00.001-07:00

Pics from SF Optis

2009-04-21T21:05:00.000-07:00

Final Report from SF Opti Regatta

2009-04-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

After two fantastic days with 14-20 knots of breeze, ebbing currents and fantastic training and racing, San Francisco gave us on the last day a heat wave. Having spent a great amount of time training and sailing in San Francisco over the past years, this was the first time it was glass.

The sailors got rigged and we had a postponement on shore for a while before we were sent out. Hoping for wind, we headed to the same racing area outside Angle Island, but we had to anchor not to drift away. After pizza for lunch on paper plates again and more food for Cameron (he can eat!) and Alex, we were asked to tow over to Sausalito waterfront where there was a little bit of wind (a small patch).

The race course was set up as a windward leeward and the current was so strong against the wind that the sailors were 100 feet below the starting line until 15 seconds when they could head up. After a general recall, the start went and the sailors flew upwind, way past layline and then we had the downwind. The front of the fleet went towards shore hoping for less current while our team of Cameron who rounded in 15th, Alex who was 25th, Graham in 30th and Ellie about 35th all went downwind on the rhumb line where there was more wind.

All our sailors gained big with Cameron rounding in 5th place and the others gaining boats. It was one of the slowest and hottest down-winds our sailors have every done. The last upwind was quick with some of our sailors being washed upwind so fast, they were reaching to the finish line after overshooting the layline.

Unfortunately the race committee decided to start a race at 3.25 and without any wind and too much current, we realized that with the long commute to the airport and traffic, Golden Gate Bridge and flights at 7.30, there was no way we could make the last race. It was the right decision as were left before the rest of the boats had struggled to get around and towed in.

It was an amazing weekend, worth all the travel, the training and what a great way to start the season. We met some terrific people, got some new friends we will be staying with when we return to San Francisco for one week in June and we must thank San Francisco YC for hosting us, lending us a coach boat for the whole time without cost and for great race management. From our experience, this is worth doing again next year.

Tine

Optimist team training and racing in San Francisco

2009-04-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

4 Optimist sailors from Royal Van flew down to San Francisco Thursday April 16th to train for one day and race for 2 in the first of a series of events in San Francisco. On Friday we trained in 15-18 kots of breeze and it was fantastic. Cameron Ho, Alex Fritz, Graham Harney and new member Ellie Shaw were all loving the surfing, the hiking and the current. They spent 4 hours working hard and even went for a couple of swims in the bay. Racing starts today and unfortunately, the racing portion of the event takes place in Richardsons Bay which has no current but also no wind. We are expecting 70 racers so we will really get great starting practices. IF the wind really does not cooperate, the racing will be moved into the bay (we would love that) but the organizers are concerned about the depth for mark setting.
On our way in yesterday we sailed by a dead whale which is anchored to a mark. It was a great science experimence to see it float and how big it was. The marine biologists are doing research on it to find out how it died.

The first day of the Optimist San Francisco YC regatta took place outside Angle Island. There was a lot of fog at the Golden Gate Bridge which made sailing conditions in Richardson's Bay impossible. The RVYC sailors were very pelased about that decision as we trained there yesterday and were used to the steep waves and wind conditions. The first 2 races had a heavy ebb while we had a great flood for the last two races which made rounding the windward mark a challenge.

50 Optimists were in the championship fleet with a whole pile in the green fleet. This was all our sailor's first regatta since October and we were all excited to finally be racing. The first race was very light and Alex Fritz was in the top 10 to the first mark but lost a huge amount on the second upwind by not going to the left close to Angel Island., Cameron Ho sailed a good second beat and was 14th with Graham Harney, Alex Fritz and Ellie Shaw following close behind in the 20s and 30s.
Race 2 started and the wind was coming and going. We had everything from 20 to 2 knots within 20 feet but all our sailors handeled it well. CAmeron was 3rd but was OCS after an excellent start, something he had a goal for the weekend. Race 3 was 15-18 steady wind where Cameron did finish 3rd and the final and last race of the day, all the boys really picked it up in the heavy current and wind and Cameron was 1st by 1 min, Graham was 7th and Alex 11th. Ellie had a great reaching leg and it was really fun to see her enjoy the speedy rides and roler coaster rides downwind. After we all finished, the RVYC sailors stated out and did another long windward just to really get exhausted. Alex was working on hiking, he got hiking finally on the last race while Graham improved his hiking technique too. Cameron was very fast today working hard throughout the day with absolutely fantastic starts.

The sailros were served pizza on paper plates on the water in 16-18 knots winds, interesting menu. We were very lucky we had made our own lunches and Tine was creating sandwiches on the coach boat. Despite the sun, the sailing conditions, wind and fog makes it cold on the water. We are really looking forward to racing tomorrow.

Tine

Trailer Repair in Louisiana

2009-04-04T22:19:00.000-07:00

On the drive home from Florida I had a breakdown with the Big trailer.

Basically I was on my second day in Louisiana making good time , hoping to make Dallas by that night.

I heard a bang and pulled over to find out that the coupler had broken away from the trailer and it was on the ground.

I had stopped at an overpass and began to get tools out of the trailer, next thing I know two fellows have stopped and are helping (without being asked).

At any rate we got the coupler reattached after help from my friends power grinder.

Next thing I know were done and they're on their way.

I was only stopped an hour, I couldn't believe my good fortune!

Thanks again guys!

AL

Pics from Mids West

2009-04-03T23:01:00.000-07:00