Miami OCR 2011

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

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

Bruce Millar wins 2.4 North Americans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.