Canadian Albacore Association's Regattas, Friday and Weekend Series

by Ken Yamazaki on 18 Aug 2010 The last 6 weeks have been filled with activity with at least one event on each weekend. There have been half a dozen regattas, big and small for all skill levels, 8 Harbour Master races, and 7 Toronto Friday night club series races.

The St. Jamestown Sailing Club open was held on July 10th in the Toronto Outer Harbour. 34 boats raced. Varying winds across the course made racing very challenging and 4 races were run. Displaying remarkable consistency, George Carter and Almir Tavares from the Mooredale Sailing Club won the regatta.

The Hamilton Bay Sailing Club Open was held on July 17th in 20-25 knot winds. Of the 12 boats that raced, 4 travelled in from Peterborough, Michigan, and Toronto. 4 races were run. Ian Brayshaw and Jeff Beitz from the Outer Harbur Centreboard Club won the regatta with 3 bullets and a second.

The following Saturday, the Westwood Sailing Club open was held in the Toronto Outer Harbour. 35 boats raced. The winds varied from drifting conditions to 10 knots. 4 races were run. Adam Nicholson and Jennifer Yap from OHCC won the regatta for a second year in a row.

The GRYC open was held in Ottawa on July 31st and August 1st. 8 Albacores participated and 7 races were run. The fleet was dominated by family teams. Rory Martin and Peter Mulvihill won the regatta.

The next weekend was the annual Mooredale Sailing Club open regatta. Traditionally it has been one of the more popular regattas and this year was no exception; 51 boats participated. Conditions were also excellent, with 8-12 knot winds from the SSW. 5 races were held on the lake south of Toronto Island, which afforded one drop. Raines Koby and Abby MacInnes from OHCC won the regatta by one point.

The New Skippers Regatta was hosted by the Westwood sailing club on August 14th. Open to people just getting into racing, a total of 13 boats participated. Paul Belfry and Leo Logashov from J-Town won the regatta.

Full regatta results may be found at www.albacore.ca/results.

8 Harbour Master races have been held in July and into August with an average of 30 boats attending the weekend series.

As of August 2nd, in the helm standings Allan Measor (J-Town) was in third, Tin Htoo (Mooredale) was in second, and Pasquale Leone (J-Town) was in first. In the crew standings, Lynn Pashleigh was in third, Cathleen Leone was in second, and Laura Hetherington was leading. All three are from J-Town. 77 helms and 108 crews have participated to date.

Full results may be found at www.albacore.ca/fnr_hm.

The Toronto club series has continued to run every Friday. Since my last article, an additional 7 races have been held. Approximately 45 boats have attended each week with over 50 boats racing on August 6.

As of August 6th, Mooredale has won 5 of the last 6 nights and taken the lead from J-Town. They currently stand with 1312 points with a substantial 99 point lead over J-Town. Westwood and the Toronto Island Sailing Club are 664, and 2101 points behind respectively.

In the individual helm standings, George Carter (Mooredale) is in third, Tim Broughton (Mooredale) is in second, and Allan Measor (J-Town) is currently leading. Only three points separate them. A total of 82 helms have participated to date. In the individual crew standings, Peter Trebuss is in third, Susan Calahan is in second, and Sandy Swiatlowski is in first. All three crews are from Mooredale. 163 crews have participated to date.

Full results may be found at www.albacore.ca/fnr_hm.

The Friday night clubs series will continue for another 3 weeks and there are two Harbour Master races remaining. After that, the Fall Series will begin and will run over 4 weekends in September and October.

Upcoming regattas are:

• The East Coast Championships on August 20-22nd in Shelburne, NS.
• The Toronto Island Sailing Club Open on August 21st.
• The US Junior Nationals on August 21-22nd in Red Bank, NJ.
• The US Nationals on August 27-28th in Red Bank, NJ.
• The Kanata Open on September 4-5th in Ottawa, ON.
• The Fanfare Regatta on September 11-12th in Ottawa, ON.
• The Women's regatta on September 11th in Toronto, ON.

These lead up to the Canadian Championships which will held at the Buffalo Canoe Club in Ridgeway, Ontario on September 17-19th. This year, we're pleased to announce that we're adding a junior Canadian Championship category. There will be a separate start if there are a minimum of 4 boats. Additional details can be found at www.albacore.ca.

www.albacore.ca