Pumpkin Regatta

The trip across the bay was alot of work for 10 km as the crow flys.

We loaded the big trailer on Thursday night after training, it rained hard all that evening but we got it done.

We had 25 lasers for the event , a massive turn out. A good group of Opti's were there as well, probably 40 members of our race team were in attendance!

The weather didn't co operate all weekend and we ended up with just 3 races over two days, oh well you cant control the weather.
West Van put on a good event and the dinner and prize giving were top notch

Results are at www.wvyc.bc.ca

One result of note was Thomas winning the first and only race on Saturday in the first race he ever sailed in a full rig and ended up 3rd overall, well done Tom!

Also Beckey Powers, a new member of our team from Newfoundland, won the womens Radial division.
Jon Scott won the mens.

Thanks
Al

NQR's PIC's

NQR's PIC's

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

Fall Dinghy Championships

The fall dinghy championships was held at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club from September 27 to 28.
Many members of the race team had already left for the NQRs in Halifax, however a small team of sailors did get to go and race.
Saturday was a frustrating day for the sailors, after a couple of hours of postponement on the water the races were blown off for the day. Sunday we did manage to get in 6 races though, which was really great. There were varying conditions, earlier in the day the wind was a bit steadier and hiking conditions, with the winds easing out through the day to very light and shifty by the last races. We had a great showing for Royal Van, in the laser radial flee, Alberto Rengifo finished 2nd overall, Gabe Frame finished 4th overall with his best result to date. Jamie Bone was 5th overall, Alexander Shepard finished 7th and Alexander Kroitzsch finished 8th. In the laser full rig fleet one of our newest members of the race team, Cohen Penderson - Wood finnished 16th overall.

September report

With all of the amazing weather that September has had to offer Vancouver, the race team has had some really excellent training in the past couple weeks. We are really pleased to welcome back Tamara, the race teams fitness trainer. She has started to work with the group on Saturday mornings before training. She was working with the team last spring, and we are really happy that she will continue to work with us through the winter.

There are a couple fast approaching events which the race team is planning on attending, the National Qualifying Regatta, which will be held from October 3-5 in St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. The team has been putting in a lot of time to be at top form for this very important event. This event will be the qualification for the new senior and youth national team. It will also be the qualification for the 2009 Youth World Championships.

Those sailors who are not going to Nova Scotia will be heading over to Victoria for the Fall Dinghy Championships, which will be held from September 27-28. The regatta is hosted out of Royal Victoria Yacht Club, sailed in Cadboro Bay which always poses some very tricky conditions so it should be a great event to sail!

Don't forget to check back for results and pictures from the upcoming events!

Sept 6 training pictures

The Royal Van Race Team gets out and enjoys the last of the summer weather in Vancouver for some weekend training two weeks ago.

Jaime Bone wins Cadet National Champs

Jaime sails Radial with our team and is a Cadet as well.

Very versatile .

He sailed their national champs in the Pirate Class and cleaned up.
He had eight first over ten races and with two drops finished with a perfect score.

Well done

Al

More Youths Pics

Canadian Youth Championships, Halifax

We had a good group of sailors competing in the Regatta this year with Jen Spalding as the Coach and Team Leader. Jen, Gina and Natalia flew from Los Angeles after the PCC's in Monterey . Alex Ninow, Alex Shepard, Tony Henderson and Gabe Frame fly directly to Halifax Sandra and Micheal Shepard (Alex's parents) accompanied the team. The Team training in the YOTs pre training camp, as Jen was one of the guest experts. The regatta began on Saturday August 9th , ending on the 13th. Generally a light air event with high points for the team depending on the race. Tony finished in 2nd overall in the 4.7 Laser. Gina was 8th , Natalia 13th ,Alex Ninow 14th in the Women's Radial. Gabe 25th and Alex Shepard 33rd in the Mens Radial. Overall a great success for the team with good breakthroughs for Tony and Gina.
Good experience for all the sailors , with sights set on next years regatta in Victoria.


AL