Our social director Tom is putting together a few outings this winter while we wait for our warmer weather to return. He also has a number of events planned throughout the summer but more details to come.
If there is enough interest, sometime in March he will be organizing a snowshoe outing in Gatineau, which will take members for a 1hr guided loop ending at a nice bistro. If you’re interested in joining them please let Tom know.
2023 Annual Meeting & Highlights of the Year
This may have been a first: the meeting was held at the Britannia Yacht Club due to a “scheduling kerfuffle” at NSC. Sweet digs! We spent little time admiring, and got down to business.
Commodore Corinne oversaw a Very Very Good year. A few of the highlights touched on at the Annual Meeting below. The entire 2023 KSC AGM presentation can be found online here.
Financial Statements
KSC Financials are looking healthy, and we have hopes and dreams to build on this going forward. There were some minor issues with the CRA but the purser will have those sorted soon. We’re entering into 2024 in a very strong position in no small part due to the grants awarded to the club.
Grants
Fantastic news, we look forward to delivery of our new floating dock in the spring of 2024. The Ontario Trillium Foundation is generously funding this essential infrastructure to support community need for access to recreational facilities on the waterfront in Dunrobin/West March. We call for a party to recognize this OTF Grant in the spring! See the news item on our previous post: New Dock Coming in Spring 2024.
Harbourmaster Steve and Training Director Ken shared instructors’ feedback that the club’s RS Quests were easily the most popular, versatile family-friendly boats that KSC owned, and we could do with more. Having two more would allow members to sail their favourite boat recreationally even while classes were going on. We invested in number four in September, and we have applied for an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant to purchase the fifth. We’ll know by late February.
KSC has received over $146k in grants over the last 3 years, huge thank you to the volunteers who’ve made that happen!
Membership
Membership has grown! Counting every single head, KSC membership stood at 135… a recent record! Another reason we really need two more RS Quests. Single & Family memberships are up this year, and a new member survey results were positive overall.
Comms/Web
Lots of website cleanup and a new membership/training sign-up form was setup for 2023. There are quite a few website updates planned for 2024, if you see any pages that could use some sprucing up please contact Devin our website director.
Site
Members re-shingled the clubhouse roof in a single weekend in late September. If we’d known it was going to be such a source of merriment, we’d have done it sooner. Shout-out to Capital Services of Stittsville who provided much-appreciated expertise and labour-saving heavy equipment. We were fortunate on the day of the big push, in that the winds were as low as they could be at 0 knots gusting to 2… Great for roof work… Tragic for sailing.
Hydro-Ottawa first teased us by installing new poles in April. Then we waited…In Hydro’s defence, the May derecho redirected their manpower, and then they went on strike for 3 months during which time KSC was not a high priority. But, in early November, Hydro completed the final touches, energized the lines, and voila! Hydro is back.
Training
Learn-to-Sail adult and junior training programs went extremely well with seasoned instructors Heidi and Connor at the helm, both of whom are moving on in their lives and careers. Our pleasure at this is bittersweet, as we will miss them and their calm expertise. New instructors will be needed for next year, if you know of anyone who would be interested (and has their CANSAIL training certificate) please contact Corinne & Carla, the new training directors.
Also if you notice new green tags on the board this is a new category for members who’ve completed their first cat sailing course and are eligible to sail the RS Cat 16s. Once they have some experience on those they can take a more advanced cat course to get their red tags for sailing the Hobie 18s.
Harbourmaster
Fleet renewal has had a very positive impact on the club & membership. A RS Quest was purchased at a steep discount at the end of last year and as mentioned we are applying for another grant to purchase our fifth Quest this year.
KSC also welcomed a sporty 470 to the fleet at the end of the season. This boat was a donation (thank you!) and enthusiastically refurbished. It’s a technical boat, and a blast for experienced sailors.
Members try out newly refurbished 470
The RS Cat 16 has had warranty repair to its hull and will be back for 2024 season.
A very sweet white Kevlar canoe was donated to the club, and is another item available to all members. On low wind days, it’s an option if you aren’t in the mood for low-wind practice.
Social
Social Sailing events contended with the full range of challenging wind conditions, high to low, but we enjoyed outings to Aylmer Beach, Pinhey’s Point, and Twelve Mile Island to boot. One particularly memorable September event was cannily re-branded as a high wind monohull training session, with plenty of capsize recovery practice. Beehive manoeuvres, anyone? Sailpast offered fine winds, and Commodore Corinne continued the grand tradition of offering a non-denominational, even secular blessing to the fleet as it sailed past under fine control. The new tradition of BBQ suckling piglet was repeated, and as every part of the animal was well-received, we’re likely to continue. Tony’s roasting program is spectacular. After dinner, two facilitators, Bianca and Barbara, arranged entertainment and made certain that we got to know each other a little better. Bravo: we’d like a repeat!
Sailing
There 6 race nights and 11 races total, unfortunately weather didn’t cooperate well this year but fingers crossed for the 2024 season.
The absolute sailing season this year extended for a total of 204 days (almost 7 months), from April 15 to Nov 4 inclusive. October 27 would have made a spectacular last day, with winds gusting up to 28 knots. Only one experienced sailor ventured out and enjoyed 4 near capsizes in a Laser, discouraging the pair of wafflers on shore. That might have been the last day, but the water was still warm enough for obsessive types in wetsuits who ventured out November 4 in forgiving winds.
KSC Members Facebook Group
If you haven’t yet joined our private Facebook page, consider it. The name of the page is “Kanata Sailing Club Members” and is available to past/present members. It’s where you can post KSC experiences and news you want to share, or announce your interest in having company when heading out sailing / hiking / skating, whatever.
Make sure we can recognize your name! If KSC knows you as Paul, but your Facebook name is unknown to us, lend us a hand figuring out the connection. If you’ve requested to join and we haven’t replied please send Mike our membership director a reminder.
Governance Items
Outgoing Directors: Ken, Rob and Mike
We are losing two long-term directors, Ken Skublics and Rob Zgraggen, who merit standing ovations for their outstanding direction at a difficult time.
You may not have known this, but Rob opened members’ eyes to the dire straits we were in, in the “before-times”, calling for action in no uncertain terms. The club appreciates his directness, as it was so valuable in challenging times. Rob served as Purser for three critical years, starting in 2020, and hands over a healthy reserve to the incoming board!
“Not so much a directorship, more of a lifestyle choice” is a fair description of the KSC Training Director’s role. Ken served as Training Director for four years, and training, you should know, is the front-line mission for the club. Things happen that must be handled, and tough calls made, and Ken was there with the swift well-balanced decision. People needed information, often the same information more than once, and Ken made himself (patiently) available. To give you an inkling of the job, two people will be taking it over now that he’s retiring from the position. If we could just remember the details of his decision-making process and bottle some of his reliability, we’d be solid.
Ken, and Rob: thank you both so much for setting us up for success. What we do with that generous set-up is up to the new board now.
Mike Reece is formally leaving the Sailing/Racing Director position, but we hope he volunteers to return in future to implement his plans. This year, he had to focus on immediate issues, and hand-off this year’s racing agenda to Acting Sailing director, Carla Millar. We so appreciate that Carla stepped in to run the racing program in 2023, not to mention her design of the newest trophy. We’re fortunate that Carla has agreed to second our new training director this year. As mentioned above, that’s a big ask.
Worthy of note is that three new/relatively new club members with plenty of experience, either sailing or board position experience, have agreed to join the new board: Tim, Genevieve, and Olivier. We are very excited to have them. Sailing (aka Racing) is also looking very interesting with Jason returning to direct us. Corinne and Carla will brilliantly cover training challenges, starting with finding new instructors. If anybody knows a potential candidate, do not hesitate to reach out to them.
Let’s welcome back returning board members Mike, Tony, Tom, Steve and Devin in the same roles, but now to fulfill their plans for world domination.
Strategic Planning Committee
Anne-Marie Miller: Lead
Genevieve Segu
Corinne Civalleri
What do we cherish most about the club, and should we make moves to preserve those aspects? Can you see particular challenges ahead? Where do we want to go from here? We’ll hear from the members of this committee in 2024, asking us questions like that. The aim is to tap into members’ knowledge, inspiration and hopes to guide the club’s direction the following five years: 2025-2030.
By-Laws Committee
Tim Stahl: Lead
Liz Prentice-Hudson
Jean Mullan
Deb McPhedran
Our by-laws, articles of incorporation, and related policy items require updating to meet current governance requirements. We’re highly motivated to complete these, particularly the bylaw update, to retain control of the details, and prevent the application of boilerplate government-authored bylaws instead. You’ll be hearing from this committee too, as special meetings will be required for your votes.
Safe Sport Team
Carla Millar: Lead
Olivier Clerc: Screening Officer
Treat others well. Don’t be inappropriate. There are safeguards in place, and rules and repercussions around this matter. The club will continue to advance a respectful sport culture that delivers quality, inclusive, accessible, welcoming and safe sport experiences.
Looking Forward to 2024
With the line-up of volunteers above, and all the generous ongoing volunteer efforts we continue to enjoy, the Kanata Sailing Club is poised for a sparkling 2024!
To all members and their loved ones: Fair Winds and Following Seas! See you on the water!
Deb McPhedran, Commodore
(And a huge thanks to Jean for her help putting this newsletter together -ed)
Land acknowledgement
The Kanata Sailing Club is located on the traditional, unceded territory of the Anishnaabe Algonquin nation. We are guests on this land, and commit to honoring these peoples, lands and waters.
Commodore Corinne Civalleri presenting the KSC Founding Member’s Award to 2018 recipient Tom Saunders, Past KSC Director of Training. Congratulations and thank you Tom!KSC Founding Member’s AwardTrophy awarded to 2018 to 2023 recipientsat Annual Meeting!
Kanata Sailing Club Founding Member’s Award
The Kanata Sailing Club (KSC) Founding Member’s Award was created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kanata Sailing Club in honour of the founding members of the club. This trophy is given to the member who has made outstanding contributions to the KSC and to the spirit of community sailing.
The past few years have been challenging for the Kanata Sailing Club both financially and through all the Covid-19 restrictions. Many members stepped in to help guide us over these hurdles putting the club in a better situation financially and accomplishing some big projects at the same time.
Since this award was forgotten for quite some time (it was above the sign-out board! -ed), the idea to resurrect and award this trophy at the KSC Annual Meeting (AM) for past years seemed appropriate. Thank you to the members who submitted the nominations in a very short timeline and for those who volunteered to be judges on the selection committee. We received 18 nominations! Next year, more time will be given for the nomination process and for volunteers to step forward for the selection committee.
The recipients for the KSC Founding Member’s Award for the past 6 years are:
2018 Tom Saunders
2019 Frank Boyaner
2020 Ken Skublics
2021 Deborah McPhedran
2022 Steve Harrington
2023 Stefan Bilan
Congratulations to all the recipients for your outstanding contributions, leadership and commitment to keep our club viable through these past challenging years. We appreciate your time and dedication.
Congratulations Mark Cooligan – 2023 Winner of the 12-Mile Island Circumnavigation Challenge for the Single-handed Monohull and Catamaran trophies
12-Mile Island Circumnavigation Challenge Awards
Since 2002, experienced KSC sailors have challenged each other to see who can sail 15 km upriver to 12-Mile Island, round the island and return to the club the most times in a season from opening day to closing day. Three trophies were donated to the members by Ken Eaves and the late Harry Adderley, who designed and fabricated the trophies.
This year, there were 16 competitors with 27 roundings of the island, plus an additional rounding after closing day. One of the competitors rounded 12-Mile Island 11 times winning 2 of the trophies – an extraordinary feat! The 2023 winners for the 12-Mile Island Circumnavigation Challenge trophies are:
Mark Cooligan, who won both the single-handed monohull (4 roundings) and catamaran (6 roundings) trophies with a total of 11 roundings as he also rounded the island once in a double-handed monohull with Steve Harrington.
Steve Harrington and Carla Millar won the double-handed monohull trophy for a total of 3 roundings, plus an additional rounding after closing day. Steve also had 2 additional roundings of the island, one solo and another with Mark Cooligan.
Congratulations to all the 2023 competitors for participating in this challenging, fun competition.
KSC Sailing Season – Final Race Series Results
This year’s weekly race series, held on Tuesday nights, went from low/no wind evenings to big winds/waves evenings, where you had to hang on to your tiller and sheets hoping not to capsize!
We had 24 participants come out to compete over the course of the summer series, including many new members. The apres race BBQs were always fun, where stories were shared and bragging rights observed on our newly renovated deck. A big thanks to the instructors Heidi Cloutier and Connor Quinlan for setting up the course and providing the RC boat which occasionally helped sailors needing assistance by righting their boats or towing them back to shore due to the low winds.
The top 10 finishers for the 2023 Final Race Series are:
Steve Harrington
Carla Millar
Mark Cooligan
Liz Prentice Hudson
Jean Mullan
Jason McKenna
Annie Miller
Rob Zgraggen
Mike Lepard
Tom Neumann
Congratulations to all the competitors for coming out each week and a special thanks to Carla Millar for stepping in as Sailing Director when Mike Reece broke his ankle.
Carla Millar presenting Steve Harrington and Mark Cooligan with 12-Mile Island Race Daytrophy
12-Mile Island Race Day
It was a big day for the 12-Mile Island Race Day with shifty winds. There were 15 competitors in 9 boats including one of our new learn-to-sail graduates.
To enjoy the hilarious details of that event, you will want to read (or re-read) the race report by event organizer Carla Millar on the overboard coolers, broken hiking straps and death roll capsize practises.
Congratulations to Steve Harrington and Mark Cooligan on winning the 2023 12-Mile Island Race Day. List of 2023 finishers and participants:
Steve Harrington and Mark Cooligan
Ken Skublics
Rob Zgraggen and Bianca Helmus
Frank Boyaner and Jean Mullan
Heidi Cloutier and Connor Quinlan
Tom Neumann and Xiong Xue
Stefan Bilan
Eric Andrews and Devin Linnington
Jason McKenna – turned back early
Congratulations to all the sailors who took on this challenging race and winds. A big thank you to Carla Millar for organizing the day and creating a lovely new trophy.
Last Saturday’s 12 Mile Is race (held July 22nd) brought with it warm sunny skies with highs of 25c and winds from the west northwest at 10 kts. The wind pouring in from up river promised to also deliver gusts of 20 kts throughout the day and the idea that rounding the island would give the sailors the ability to cut loose and fly downwind back towards the club. With 9 sailboats all vying for bragging rights and the top winning prize, the weather didn’t fail.
The first to cross the start line was Steve and Mark in the Tasar. They did not disappoint as they beated up river towards the island in just under 2 hours. The 50 minute ride back gave their tense and tired muscles a much needed brake as they soared back and planed downwind to a 4th spot elapsed time finish just behind the 3 catamarans. Their sailing handicap placed them at the head of the leader board with several boats yet to finish.
Rob and Bianca in the Hobie 18 repeated their first place elapsed time result from 2 years ago. The wind didn’t allow for any dining on board this time as it was all hands on deck to deal with the winds. The handicap pushed them back into 3rd place while awaiting the other results.
Heidi and Connor, our fearless sailing instructors, very quickly took over the lead on their way up to 12 Mile Is. in the Hobie 18. As they approached the island, they pondered “How does one exactly gybe this beast anyway?” Having not yet read the Cat sailing manual, Connor resorted to a type of “parkour” sailing style as he threw the tiller extension one way around the back of the boat while simultaneously diving under the boom and catching said tiller on the other side. With thoughts of capsizing swirling in her head with each of these maneuvers, Heidi suffered a trapeze wardrobe malfunction and found herself launched and landing on her skipper Connor in the middle of his parkour maneuvers. A miraculous third place finish would have to suffice for the time being.
Frank and Jean, sailing the stylish RS cat, set out with hopes of an exhilarating ride, planing and surfing their way back to the club. The winds delivered but denied them their lunch experience on the water except for a quick snack of boiled eggs that Frank exclaimed was “the best thing ever!“
Ken, racing in his Laser, streamed across the finish line in quick time, shortly behind the Tasar despite the death roll practices he performed on the way back to the finish, proving again that one can be ejected from a laser and make it back in the boat in just under 1 minute.
Stephan, in the “Bomb” Bombardier, settled in for a full day’s sailing along with his construction cooler filled with a days allotment of food. Finding himself hungry before arriving up river to Pinhey’s Point, Stefan reached for 1 of the many items packed away in his cooler only to have his boat simultaneously give up both hiking straps. While tumbling upside down into the water, Stefan could only think of one important thing: My Cooler! A few successful man overboard maneuvers brought back the food bin into the boat, while Stefan faced some tricky sailing for the rest of the trip without any hiking straps.
Tom and newly qualified sailor Xiong set out in the Quest for the challenge of rounding 12 miles Is. With Tom sporting an old but new bright orange Dry Top, it was sure to allow us the ability to spot him where ever they sailed on the river. He was heard exclaiming that it was now “his new best friend.” This is Xiong’s first rounding. Congratulations are in hand.
Eric and Devin brought up the rear in the other Quest. The two red heads left in a pale condition when they set out only to return in a lovely shade of “pink lobster” upon arrival. 5 hours and 30 minutes in the sun was a challenge to both but they made it safely back to the club. Well done.
Special thanks to Jason who escorted the flotilla as far as Pinhey’s point in his sporty Musto.
What started out to be another drift fest for race night with about 4 kts of wind quickly became a challenging windy race event. With 5 sailboats set to hash it out for top spot on the leaderboard, the wind picked up to 10 kts towards the start of race 1 with gusts of 18 kts then held steady throughout the rest of race 2. Carla and Steve on the 29er didn’t disappoint as they demonstrated to the fleet how to capsize in the middle of a spinnaker kite dousing while simultaneously being nailed by a gust. Jean, with Annie flying by on the RS cat, saw an opportunity of pulling ahead especially since Jason on the Musto Skiff adopted the same capsizing tactics as Steve and Carla. Unfortunately hope of a win for Jean and Annie were dashed once Carla and Steve managed to douse their kite in the water then right the 29 er and sail on to victory in Race 1. Fear of running over the entire fleet Jean and Annie settled for a 3rd place finish. Mike L, happily sailing in the laser and full of McDonald’s hamburgers, passed by in second place while Tom, Marc W and our newbie and ever so keen learner Ruth (welcome Ruth) held tight in 4th place. Race 2 didn’t disappoint either. Jason felt a few more capsize practices are always a good thing so proceeded to carry on. Annie and Jean heard a cold bevvie calling their names so bailed after race 1 and the trio of Marc, Tom and Ruth held steady to capture 3rd place. Race Results are as follows.
RACE 1
STEVE AND CARLA
MIKE LEPARD
JEAN and ANNIE
MARC, TOM, RUTH
JASON
Race 2
STEVE AND CARLA
MIKE LEPARD
MARC, TOM, RUTH
JASON OCF
– Carla Millar acting sailing director
[Editor note: Our current sailing director Mike Reece was injured in a hiking accident, Carla will be taking over race nights for the summer.]
The Kanata Sailing Club celebrated our 2022 Sailpast on Saturday Aug 20, and used the occasion to celebrate our spring 2022 Trillium Grant, with speeches, dignitaries and media invited down to the beach to view the boats, and a suckling pig BBQ event running into the evening.
We thanked Ontario Trillium Foundation for a generous grant of $36,100 that allowed the club to purchase three new RS Feva sailboats for Learn-to-Sail training, and post-graduate recreational sailing, even including Wednesday night races. They’ve already ventured several times as far as the Aylmer marina beach, and to Pinhey’s Point historic site, and performed heroically with both novice and seasoned sailors alike.
The grant was awarded under the terms of the OTF Resilient Communities Fund, to help non-profits rebuild and recover from the impact of COVID-19. We are very grateful for these funds which allowed the purchase of dinghies that:
are fun, easily rigged, stable-hulled boats that can be sailed in higher winds without frequent capsize
inspire confidence in new sailors, even when sailing solo as required under physical distancing protocols
improve retention of Learn-to-Sail graduates and refresh club membership.
Thank you to everyone who participated in making this day a rousing success!
Vice-Commodore, Harbourmaster, Commodore and MC, Training Director sharing the granting story and thanking @ONTrillium from the KSC deckRS Feva on the water, kitted out for SailPast3 RS FevasKSC board members in front of RS Feva on Trillium Grant Recognition Day / SailPast DayRS Feva, Quest, and Optis sail past the Commodore during SailPast Day
We will be hosting powerboat training for those who have their PCO license already but aren’t familiar with our boats. Training will be held Friday, June 24th, at 6:30pm.
Social Sails
Various members will be hosting informal social sails this summer, starting with a sail to Aylmer on Sunday, June 26 for lunch at the new Le Bateau restaurant. Boats will leave at 11am for the ~30min sail over to Quebec.
This is the perfect opportunity for those who aren’t comfortable sailing by themselves to partake in a group trip. Whether solo, on helm, or as crew, all members who want to go will have a spot.
If you’re interested in organizing an event of your own feel free to contact me and I’ll gladly add it to our calendar and the next newsletter.
Race nights
Race nights are picking up again, starting this week they will be held every Wed at 6pm sharp. Be at the club early to rig the boats and get on the water before the race starts! Our training staff will be onsite to conduct the races so members can focus on the perfect jibe.
New Boats Arriving Soon
Fortunately our little club has scored a major win: we’ve secured funding for several new boats! Everyone on the board is quite excited to announce the good news, however we’re not allowed to reveal all the details just yet. Very soon you’ll hear more about the new vessels and the large improvement they’ll have to our training fleet. And I can’t think of another sentence that starts with “A” but the funny formatting should be enough 😉
Catamaran Training
For those of us who don’t have our red tags yet, Ken is gauging interest in a cat training session this summer. Contact Ken if you’re interested in signing up for red-tag training, this is a one day training course that has a nominal fee.
Duty Days Going Old-School
Due to some technical difficulties with the previous calendar service, the board has decided to go with a more old-school approach to the duty day sign ups. The next time you’re at the club check out the pin-board for the duty day calendars:
Just put your name down for morning or afternoon on either Sat or Sun. Remember that all members are required to come help out for at least two half-day sessions.
Smaller Sails for the Bytes
Carla & Steve have been hard at work on a side project to get smaller, more controllable sails for the bytes. These are now ready and should be easier to sail for those members who are smaller in stature. A huge benefit is that they look and feel like a laser sail so should be more familiar than the usual byte rigging.
RS Quest Rigging
If you haven’t made it out to the Sat afternoon rigging sessions that Heidi has been hosting, you can find a nice rigging video up on our website here.
As always, if you have any comments/concerns, do bring them up with our board of directors.
That’s all for this week, see you out on the water!
The KSC Open turned out much better than I could have hoped, in terms of wind.
Saturday, Sept 2
Forecasted “floating conditions” threatened to put a damper on the event, but a steady breeze of about 6 knots filled in from the west, allowing us to get some good races in. In the Albacore fleet, we had four boats from Nepean (all National level sailors) as well as Balazs and Tom N representing KSC. For the Lasers, we had Carla going up against KSC youths Zombor and Csanad, all of whom selected full rigs for the light air day.
Simon/Elenor set the pace with a few early wins, with Peter/Ross and Dominic/Patrick fighting for second. Dominic found his grove and racked up a couple of wins later in the day. Former KSCer Jim and Irene set were able to hold of Balazs/Tom most of the time to score 4th place finishes (and even a second, beating out Peter/Ross and Simon/Elenor in a light-wind race where tactics was everything).
On the single-hander front, Carla was the early favourite, taking 3 of the 4 first races, with Zombor coming up behind. Csanad made the most of the light-wind 5th race and used an amazing start to his advantage, to leave both Zombor and Carla in his wake. He even passed one or two of the big Albacores, which usually do better in light air.
Lunch on the water was AMAZING, with Annie and Jean providing amazing ham and turkey sandwiches, brownies, juice boxes and pop. This is in addition to the coffee, muffins, and other prep work that they had done before the boats were even rigged. This regatta owes a huge debt to those two, working their butts off to make things happen. Many thanks to Tony as well who drove the mark set boat and ensured we had square courses of appropriate length all day, and to Heidi without whom scoring and starting the races would’ve been quite difficult.
Sunday, Sept 3, in which I was introduced to match racing
If the story of the day for Saturday was “light winds”, the story for Sunday was “heavy air in rain”. The forecast was “12 knots, gusting 21” aka “heavy wind with nuclear gusts”. It turned out to be a more steady 13-16 knots, with the waves being killer. Most of the fleet (Jim/Irene, Peter/Ross, Simon/Elenor, Csanad, and Balasz) did the wise thing and stayed ashore in the nice warm, dry club house. Dominic/Patrick, Carla, Zombor, and Tom were game for a bit of fun though, so Heidi and Jason set a course. Remember how Balazs was smart, and decided to stay dry? Well Jean and Csanad volunteered do RC with Heidi, which meant Jason could take up the “it seemed like a good idea at the time” mantle, and jumped into the Albacore with Tom, to represent KSC alongside Carla (in a Byte today) and Zombor (in a radial Laser).
The first race saw Dominic/Patrick jump out to an early lead with Tom/Jason and Zombor close behind. Jason/Tom tacked onto port which forced Zombor to bear off. Curses, a 720 for Tom/Jason. Having said that, the Albacore soon passed Zombor, and closed the gap with Patrick/Dominic on the last couple of legs, finishing less than a minute behind. Zombor came in third, followed by Carla who capsized and was forced to retire after the race.
The second race is really the one to write home about. It may not have happened quite like this, but this is the way I remember it, and I’m sticking to my story. Jason/Tom won the start over Dominic/Patrick. Although NSC boat seemed set up to point better than the KSC Albacore, Tom/Jason would tack to cover, and Patrick/Dominic would try to break cover. A slow tack near the windward mark meant that Jason/Tom had a lead by the reaching legs. On the first reach, Patrick/Dominic had greater boat speed, but Jason/Tom held them off by sailing defensively, and rounded the gybe mark first. Dominic/Patrick changed their strategy and sailed high on the second leg, passing Tom/Jason to windward, but then having to bear off to get to the leeward mark. They were overlapped within the circle, so (rather than go around) Jason/Tom elected to slow down, get in behind Patrick/Dominic and tacked around the mark. It was neck and neck for the first half of the second windward leg, but the Patrick/Dominic were able to outpoint Tom/Jason and got to the upwind mark first. The downwind was processional, with Dominic/Patrick taking the race by about 30 seconds over Jason/Tom. Still, not bad considering Dominic is one of the top Albacore sailors in the country.
In hindsight, I should have headed up on that second reaching leg, and forced Dominic past the mark so I could stay on the inside around the leeward mark. Ah well, live and learn.
Zombor finished the race in nice style, but as he was the only Laser on the course it was very much a “the boat vs the waves” sail.
Back at the KSC Clubhouse, the party was in full swing, with NSC and KSC folks together were watching the “match race” of KSC’s Tom/Jason vs NSC’s Patrick/Dominic and there was cheering, laughter, and an all around good time. I’m glad we were able to put on a show!
Award ceremonies were held, with Dominic/Patrick winning first overall for Albacores, and Carla winning first for the Lasers. Dominic and Carla went home with nicely engraved KSC beer mugs, and Patrick (being under 19) went home with a nicely engraved pop mug that looks remarkably like a beer mug.
Thanks again to Heidi, Jean and Csanad for running RC and Annie/Jean for providing food/coffee.
Results are final as of 15:20 on September 10, 2017
Albacore Division
Sailed: 8, Discards: 1, To count: 7, Entries: 5, Scoring system: Appendix A
Rank
SailNo
Club
Helm
Crew
Rating
R1
R2
R3
R4
R5
R6
R7
R8
Total
Nett
1st
7950
NSC
Dominic
Patrick
(3.0)
2.0
3.0
1.0
1.0
2.0
1.0
1.0
14.0
11.0
2nd
7968
NSC
Simon
Elenor
1.0
1.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
1.0
(6.0 DNC)
6.0 DNC
21.0
15.0
3rd
4126
NSC
Peter
Ross
2.0
3.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
3.0
(6.0 DNC)
6.0 DNC
29.0
23.0
4th
4028
NSC
Irene
Jim
4.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
2.0
4.0
(6.0 DNC)
6.0 DNC
34.0
28.0
5th
7290
KSC
Balazs
Tom
(5.0)
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
2.0
2.0
34.0
29.0
Laser Division
Sailed: 8, Discards: 1, To count: 7, Entries: 3, Scoring system: Appendix A
It’s that time of the year again — our evening races have come to an end, and we must reflect on the night, the series, and the season.
Aug 31 results
Alas, we did no racing Aug 31. The cold winds were blowing quite vigorously (11 gusting 16 is my estimate) and were quite shifty. Most people thought that the nice warm KSC fireplace was more inviting that the choppy water. This of course didn’t stop Ken from trying to set some to-Quebec-and-back speed records in the Laser, Carla from getting good practice in on the Byte, and Jason/Steve daring to get the 29er out (with only 2 capsizes!) Good times, and good company afterwards.
Summer Series 2 results!
Our Summer Series 2 was held over 5 weeks in August, traditionally the lightest-wind month of the year. We had to cancel 2 nights (Aug 3 due to low wind, Aug 31 due to high wind) and only 5 races over the course of those 3 weeks. The nights we did have were fairly low-key light air races, but we did get some fun on the water. I personally learned that Hobie 18s don’t come out of their tacks with speed like dinghies do, and that cost me more than a few starts.
Congrats to Steve who took the “old salts” award for the series (4 points), and to Yona who scored the best rookie (34 points)!
This is it, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. We got 26 races in over the course of the 15 weeks in the season (12 weeks actually sailed) and had 38 sailors scored in at least one race. Jason started out strong (a few 1st place finishes in the cold spring when the field was narrow) but Carla had caught up by the end of the Spring Series. Steve came along and started scoring wins on just about every race. The only exceptions were one where Jason/Hannah (Albacore) and Ken (Laser) were able to sneak by him one race when Steve/Frank were sailing a broken Albacore, and a few weeks later when Carla/Jason (Tasar) were able to spot a late-race gust to sneak past Steve’s Laser.
So, was Jason or Carla’s early lead enough to hold off Steve? Heck no! Steve takes the season by a wide margin (again!)
Steve scored 23 points, Carla came in second with 38, Jason was far back at 57, with Tony and Jean rounding out the top 5 with 65 and 73 points respectively, Congrats Steve!
As for the rookies, Devin takes the season with 188 points, followed by Yona at 219
I’m particularly happy with the turn out this year, with veterans, new sailors, kids, and everyone in between. The Tasars got a lot of love this season, especially in July and August, while the kids gravitated towards the Lasers. Tony and Annie were staples in the Hobies, and were often joined by the Watsons, the McKennas, or other pick-up cat teams. All in all, a good variety of boats, and lots of fun after the races too.
A special thanks goes out to Reese, Heidi and Sydney, for running RC through out the year. Also, thanks to Frank/Jean (our BBQ wranglers most nights), and all those who volunteered to bring food/beverages to the deck after racing.
Light but fairly consistent winds from the SW encouraged quite a turn out. We had every Laser (5), every Tasar (3, a first for the club), a couple of Hobie 18s, an Albacore, and a Byte out to play.
Steve/Norm (Tasar) won the night with two first place finishes. Ken (Laser) took 4th in the first race, but moved to 2nd in race 2. Carla (Byte) went the other way — from 2nd to 5th. Jason and his wee crew (8 and 4 year olds) took 3rd in the 1st race in a Hobie 18, passing Tony/Annie’s H18 on the last leg. But Tony/Annie got their revenge, moving from 5th to 4th while Jason/kids went down to 6th. NSC Albacore master Dominic was sailing with KSC vet Chunshu in a Tasar, and they made their play from 6th place in the first race to 3rd in the 2nd.
Complete results below.
Aug 24, 2017
Light winds from N, shifting to NW just before the 1st race. In addition to a couple of Tasars, a couple of Bytes and a couple of H18s, we also had Jason and Frank finally get the the 29er (aka “Mr. Tippy”) out on the water. The boats were joined by Cameron and youngster James for the 2nd race in an Albacore.
Living up to it’s reputation, the 29er suffered a capsize on the 1st upwind leg of the first race, forcing Jean/Carla (in a Tasar, right behind the 29er) to head up past close-hauled and pinch around the boat. What likly happened was that the 29er gained speed in a gust as Jason put more of his weight to windward to keep the boat flat. The extra speed moved the apparent wind forward (taking force out of the sails) which corresponded right with a wind shift or lull (taking more force out of the sails). Jason’s windward weight was not balancing anything, and a capsize to windward followed. Lesson learned: be ready to bear off in a lull, and Jason should put down the donuts.
Steve (single-handing a Tasar) took both races, followed by Carla/Jean taking 2nd in each race. Mike took 3rd in a Byte for the 1st race, with Tony/Annie (H18) finishing 4th, but the two swapped finishing spots for the 2nd race.
Complete results below.
Season so far
The result table is too big to fit in a printer-friendly PDF, so please use the table below. It’s not pretty, but…
Results are provisional as of 18:17 on August 27, 2017
Overall
Sailed: 26, Discards: 6, To count: 20, Entries: 38, Scoring system: KSC Low-Point Scoring System 2016
