Nova Scotia Team Wins Team Racing Challenge

by Katie Nicoll on 22 Aug 2014 Racing continues today on the waters of Mahone Bay in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia at the Canadian Optimist Championship at the Lunenburg Yacht Club.

Yesterday saw 15 teams compete for the fully umpired team race championships. Much education, teamwork, and strategy ensued throughout the very long day, that didn’t wrap up until a final winning team emerged shortly before 19:00 hours on Princes Inlet right in front of the yacht club. Winds were shifty, light, and variable which presented some challenges for the race crew led by PRO Lesley Taylor, who has pulled off a stellar event so far.

By the end of the day, many of the teams had figured out how to somewhat successfully do mark traps, pass backs, and using the knowledge of the rules to improve their place on the race course. Unfortunately, the partial understanding of the rules, resulted in numerous green red flags being given.

For many of these young sailors, this was the first time that they had sailed in an umpired event, and soon learned to do their single penalty turns, before being asked to do double ones by the umpires.

In the end, team Prestige Worldwide consisting of David Sapp, Ryan Anderson, Ben Ruitenberg from RNSYS, Will McInnes from CYC, and Jack Groves from HSC.

At the end of the day the daily Lunenburg Wash and the Fisheries Museum Interactive knot tying/splicing hands-on workshop made for a great finish.