Sailors flock to Sydney, NS for Sail EAST

by Katie Nicoll on 24 Jul 2010 CYA Sail EAST with U17 Championship - Canadian Yachting Association (CYA) and Northern Yacht Club (NYC). July 23-24.

One decade ago, the Northern Yacht Club welcomed sailors from across Canada for Sail East. Ten years later the association will host the event again with an international draw.

'We are pleased to award Sail East to the Northern Yacht Club,' says Frank Denis, Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Yachting Association. 'Having a rich history of hosting events, along with the recent infrastructure developments has positioned the association as a competitive event destination. We are pleased to bring Sail East back to North Sydney.' The association hosted Sail East in 2001 and was home to the World Snipe Championships more than twenty years ago.

The Northern Yacht Club and the Junior Sailing Association recently underwent infrastructure upgrades to its facility through the help of Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation, the Province of Nova Scotia and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. The association also raised funds from the local business community, individual donors and fundraising events.

After 2 days of training out of the Northern Yacht Club in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, the sailors in Optimist Dinghies, 420s, Laser Radial and Laser spent today racing!

Day 1 of 2 days racing delivered prime breeze with little-to-no wave activity thanks to the minor change of tide direction and a an non-prevailing direction. 78 boats are on the water here, with Sailors and Coaches in attendance from host province Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

CYA Event Coach Robin Blanchard is delivering oversight coaching to all participants - on land and on-water, and optimizing the expertise of provincial and class specialty coaches visiting Cape Breton. Officials here are delivering race management, on-water judging and protest room jury. Chief Judge is Warren Nethercote and Principal Race Officer is Rob Williams. They are working with prime groups of judges and race officers who are developing in Canada's Atlantic region.

Event co-chairs Dean Baldwin and Dennis Astephen and the host organizing committee is to be commended for putting on a great event, all the while encompassing CYA's on-line registration service - brought into place just this year to start the CYA's tracking of Canadian sailing athletes.

See the CYA website for results.