Laser NQR's 2008, St Margret's Bay NS

To get all of our boats and gear to the east for the event Chris Cowan and I drove the big trailer with 13 lasers and the coach boat to Nova Scotia (over 6000 km with our new truck, 8 provinces , an excellent road trip).

The NOR was one of the better events of our sailing season - from Friday through to Sunday, the wind blew! Thursday saw a gale force wind prediction and sure enough the wind came in a solid 25 kts with gusts to 35 plus kts and sideways rain. Despite the conditions a group of six sailors did a pre regatta session. (The 25 kts + of the first day of the regatta didn’t seem that windy)

When the sailors reached the club on Friday for the first day of racing, the wind was already gusting well into the 20+ kt range. On course, it was a solid 22 knots with gusts to 25 in the morning then to 28 in the afternoon but it was sunny and relatively warm. With the steep chop and ever present weeds, running downwind was a difficult at best for the sailors.

SMSC provided 4 excellent races. (Yes 4 races 45+ minutes each in 25+kts, tough work indeed!)

In the Radial, at the end of day, Jen Spalding had sat in 2^nd .Isabella was strong thru the first day, with her fitness coming into play later in the day; Keamia and Alanna were well in the hunt too. All four Girls were handling the conditions beautifully.

In the full rig, things were tight, Abe Torchinsky was in 2^nd, Luke Ramsay 7^th and Great sailing by Andy Wong in the conditions was 9^th.

Alex Heinzman , Ben Scott, Ricardo Montemayor, Chris Tulip and Kyle Martin were all vying for the Youth Worlds spot, as well as Isabella in the Radial, (she didn’t have much competition).

These boys fought hard thru the first day and the rest of the windy event to put on a real show of their abilities to handle extreme conditions at a young age (16-17)

Following racing the first day, Paralympics Gold medalist Paul Tingly gave an inspiring talk on how he put together his campaign for Qingdao

Day two and the fleet was a little tired and hoping for a break in the wind but it was full on again with steady 18 with gusts to 22 from the SW and a short steep chop. The Radials only got 3 races because of start delays and general recalls and by the final race only 16 boats were left to start. Keamia Rasa (RVYC) won the day, with Jen had a 3, 1 OCS, Isabella a 2, 2 OCS. All the girls were solidly in the mix!

On the Laser course Abe won the day with a 4,2,1,1, the last few races he won with authority! Luke broke his vang and had to sail his 2 drops, till we got him a new one. Andy kept sailing a personal best event and was impressive thru the day. Alex had a 10pt lead over Ben in the youth worlds race .The guys had 4 races so by the end of the day everyone was pretty excited to get back to SMSC.

Day three and the wind let up slightly and became a little shiftier. Wind was from 280 -300 on the compass and ranged in velocity from 8 to 15 kts - another great day on the Bay. The race committee got 3 races in for the Lasers to take them to 11 races and a second drop while the Radials did 4 races and got their 11 races also.

Abe was impressive ending in second with 27 points Luke had a solid last day and finished 7^th, Kevin had 2 4’s on the final day and finished 11th and Andy struggled to find the right side on the beats and fell to 13^th, still an excellent event for him.

In the Radial, Jen continued her winning ways, and had a battle with Danielle Dube thru the end of the final day, beating her in the last 2 races to win comfortably, Taking 1st place overall with 17 points. Keamia was 3rd, winning 2 races on the final day and making a strong run for the victory, Isabella was solid thru out and ended 5^th, Alanna was 7^th. All these girls will likely end up carded on the National Team. Very Dominant!

SMSC held a fine event and the bay provided excellent conditions on all the days. The laser worlds are being held there in August next year.Look forward to it!

Thanks for the support

Al