Spring Dinghy Championships

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