Sail Canada's August Sailors of the Month revealed

by Sail Canada on 10 Sep 2013 In the early part of August, much of the activity of the Canadian Sailing Team was focussed on training and competition associated with CORK Olympic Classes Regatta, with the exception of the Finn and Paralympic sailing.

The Canada Summer Games, in Sherbrooke, QC, featured disabled sailing for the first time, using the 2.4m class. At these games, New Brunswick won its first ever sailing gold.

At the end of the month the focus shifted to Vancouver for the Canadian Youth Nationals, a qualifier for the Youth World Championships in Portugal next year.

At CORK, Jon Ladha and Daniel Inkpen, dominated the 49er class, winning all three medal races in fine style. David Wright gave a masterclass in Laser sailing, counting six wins in his 10 point winning margin. US sailors took first prizes in both 49erFX and Radial classes, where Erin Rafuse/Danielle Boyd and Claire Merry respectively were runners up.

Immediately after CORK the skiffs headed off to the new US Sailing centre in Oakcliff, New York, where they were joined by Nacra 17 sailors, Luke Ramsay and Nikola Girke. In the 49er class, Jon Ladha and Daniel Inkpen were third behind two US teams, while best Canadians in the 49er FX were Erin Berry and Lauren Laventure in second place while Erin Rafuse/Danielle Boyd were two places further back in fourth. In the Nacra 17 class, Luke Ramsay and Nikola Girke finished second to four time Olympian multihuller, Enrique Figueroa, but were ahead of all the US crews.

In Europe at the end of the month, Canadians were well represented in both the Finn Gold Cup (Estonia) and the IFDS Worlds (Ireland). The wind seemed to desert northern Europe for this week, both events struggling to complete a full roster of races. In a very high scoring Finn Gold Cup, Greg Douglas did well to record a 20th place. At the IFDS worlds, Bruce Millar recorded a seventh overall, while Paul Tingley, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes finished 10th. It was in the Skud fleet where the best result came. With the British team dominating and recording a perfect score of just six points, John McRoberts and Jackie Gay fought a tight battle with the Italian team for the remaining podium slots, both never finishing a race outside of the top three. The Italians had the edge going into the final race and it was enough, despite John and Jackie’s second place to deny them the silver.

For their bronze medal performance at the Disabled Sailing World Championships, John McRoberts and Jackie Gay become the August Sailors of the Month.

Sail Canada’s Sailor of the Month award acknowledges sailing achievements by Canadians involved or associated with the sport in all its forms. Sail Canada encourages the submission of noteworthy Canadian sailing activities to Sail Canada website

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