Martin Robitaille named July Sailor of the Month

by Canadian Sailing Team on 11 Aug 2013 Early in July, Evert McLaughlin, sailing with Anna Sepko, showed great form in only his second event in this class to take the Canadian National Snipe Championship at the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club. Little wind over a hot and sticky Lake Ontario led to what organisers believe to be the 'longest race in Lake Ontario 300 history'.

Last to finish, solo sailor Ron Smallbone, completed the course after 5 days and 54 minutes. Of the finishers, and there were many DNFs, Joe Doris and the crew of Setanta, won the Sperry Cup, while Joe MacDonald’s IMXtreme took the Sperry Gold Cup for IRC.

On the east coast, best Canadians of the 75 boat Marblehead-Halifax fleet were Anne Petley-Jones's Harrier, first in class for PHRF 3 and winner of the Friars Trophy, and Bill Tucker's Wandrian, second in IRC 3 and second for the Olin J Stephens trophy.

Team RCYC, led by John Hele and Terry McLaughlin won the Swan 42 US Nationals in Newport, a result that bodes well for the 2013 NYYC Invitational Cup in September.

Major dinghy activity was centred in Kingston for the Laser North Americans (CORK) and the '9er' National Championships (Kingston YC). Favourites Jon Ladha and Daniel Inkpen from the Royal Newfoundland Yacht Club comfortably won the 49er event, but in the much closer 49erFX Erin Berry and Lauren Laventure pipped Erin Rafuse and Danielle Boyd by the smallest of margins after 11 races. In the 31 boat 29er fleet, Devan Dube and Greg Simms of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron ran out ten point winners after eight races.

279 sailors contested the three divisions for Laser North American Championship honours with Canadian Sailing Team member Brenda Bowskill capitalizing on recent hard work on the training side to narrowly miss out for the Radial title, while, in the full rig, Lee Parkhill scored sailed consistently throughout the event to take the Continental title by seven points from David Wright with Robert Davis in third.

Overseas Luke Ramsay and Nikola Girke contested the first ever Nacra 17 World Championship along with 20 other nationalities. In only their second major competition together, they squeezed into the Gold Fleet climbing up the rankings to finish 19th overall, 10th country.

Young Canadians competed at the ISAF Youth Worlds in Cyprus, I420 worlds in Valencia and the Optimist Worlds in Lake Garda, attendance at these events being important milestones in the development of promising young sailors.

Finn sailor Martin Robitaille, defending champion, travelled to Malcesine, Italy for the Finn Silver Cup title, the Junior World Championship for this Olympic dinghy. Another former Silver Cup winner and 2012 Olympian, Jorge Zarif of Brazil, recorded six bullets on his way to his second title, with Martin taking third place. Martin’s excellent performance confirming his potential in this competitive environment win’s him the Sailor of the Month Award for July.

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 sailorofthemonth@sailing.ca. Canadian Sailing Team website