Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta, June 6-11, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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