Canadian Albacore Association- 2011 Fridays and Harbour Masters

by Ken Yamazaki on 23 Jun 2011 The 2011 season is well underway with a regatta or training clinic scheduled for almost every weekend from June through September. The two summer series are also in full swing; the Friday Toronto club series began on May 6th and the Harbour Master series on May 29th.


Friday Night Club Series

The Toronto Friday night club series has been running for more than 35 years. Each 19 race series runs every Friday from early May to early September and is currently organized by the four Toronto community clubs (Mooredale, St. James Town, Toronto Island, and Westwood) and the Outer Harbour Centreboard Club. The fleet consists of randomly paired helms and crews from each of the community clubs plus privately owned boats. The random pairing at the community clubs encourages participation and learning and is a major reason for the large fleet size; in recent years an average of over 40 boats have been attending with peaks into the 60’s on some weeks.

The top 8 community club boats are counted each week towards the Friday night championship. The winner is awarded the Spanish Donkey trophy, which was named for the Spanish Donkey Tavern where the weekly prizes were originally awarded. The tavern no longer exists but the race series is still going strong. Since 1991 the Mooredale sailing club has won the series every year except in 2008 and 2009 when it was won by J-Town.

As of June 17th, a total of 7 Friday night races have been run. Attendance has been consistently strong with an average of over 45 boats attending each week. 58 boats raced on June 10th. The winners of races 1 to 7 were:
• Race 1: George Carter and Jeff Krause (Mooredale).
• Race 2: Ken Clarke and Karen Piatkowski (OHCC).
• Race 3: Teresa Miolla and Mary Lou Langton (Mooredale).
• Race 4: Tin Htoo and Suzanne Wilson (Mooredale).
• Race 5: Raines Koby and Abby MacInnes (OHCC).
• Race 6: Allan Measor and Rolf Fischer (J-Town).
• Race 7: Chris Maslowski and Charles Pollak (J-Town).

With 7 of the 19 races completed, J-Town is currently leading the club standings with 536 points, with Mooredale, Westwood, and the Toronto Island Sailing Club 272, 577, and 1133 points behind respectively. A total of 89 helms and over 105 crews have participated to date.

Additional results may be found at http://albacore.ca/fnr_hm.

Harbour Master Series
The Harbour Master series was created in 1973 to encourage weekend racing in the Albacore fleet. The perpetual trophy was donated by Captain John Mann, the Harbour Master of Toronto, hence the name of the series. The 16 race series is held on 8 weekends from May to August.

As of June 19th, 6 of the races have been run. An average of over 30 boats have been attending each race and a total of 61 helms and 72 crews have participated to date. The winners of races 1 to 6 were:
• Race 1: Allan Measor and Richard Piercy (J-Town).
• Race 2: Sarah Bury and Rob Koci (J-Town).
• Race 3: Allan Measor and Richard Piercy (J-Town).
• Race 4: Ken Clarke and Fran Steacy (OHCC and J-Town).
• Race 5: George Carter and Almir Tavares (Mooredale and J-Town).
• Race 6: Allan Measor and Rolf Fischer (J-Town).

Additional results may be found at http://albacore.ca/fnr_hm.

Upcoming

Looking forward, the club series will continue every Friday throughout the summer and the next two Harbour Master races will be held on July 10th. Regattas are also underway with the Nepean One Design being held on June 25-26th and the Outer Harbour Centreboard Club regatta on July 2nd. Stay tuned for an update on those events.

The season will culminate in the International championships, which are being held September 16-23rd in Toronto. Additional details may be found at http://albacore.org/intls/


Ken Yamazaki
http://albacore.ca