Alberta Provincial Championships and Report from Alberta 505 Fleet

We have, as a fleet, have had a great deal of success this season. We have officially gained status as an active fleet in Canada, and at present have eight 505s at our club. We planned two major events for our fleet this year. The first one in June where we awarded the Alberta/Sask. Challenge trophy to the top boat from either province, Shona and Steve won this for the second year running. Only four boats showed up for this event, Carl and Val were having a baby. Our last event was fantastic and included eight 505s. I think that was the number at Western Canadians in Kamloops '94. The eight included seven from our club and one from Sask. (Dale Phillips). We started on Saturday Sept. 2nd at 9:00 am with a brief talk and then off to the water for a clinic lead by Shona Moss. This proved to be very beneficial to our fleet making for very close racing. We had a large variety of wind throughout the ten races over three days. Saturday 3 races (10-15 knots), Sunday 3 races (3-10 knots), Monday 4 races(18-23 Knots). The results for the Regatta were as follows: 

Sail Skipper/Crew         Race  1   2   3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10      Total 
8260 S.Moss/S.Lovshin           1   1   1  1  1 (2)(2) 1  1   1       6.0 
6498 A.Rootsaert/D.Rootsaert    2   2   2  2  2 (5) 1  2  2  (2)     14.8      
7458 D.Philips/B.Nelson         4 (DNF) 3  3  3  1  5  3  4 (DNC)    25.8       
6740 V.Fuchshuber/C.Fuchshuber  3   5   6(DNC)(7)3  3  6  5   3      34.0       
4549 B.Rose/J.Goodvin           5   3   5  4  5 (6) 4  5  3 (DNC)    34.0      
6493 W.Rootsaert/I.Crypps       6   4   4  5  4  4 (6) 4(RET) 4      35.0      
3965 K.Briggs/T.Briggs          7   6   7  6  6 DNCDNCDNC(DNC)(DNC)  59.0 
?039 R.Herscovitch/K.Reimer    DNF DNC DNF DNCDNCDNCDNCDNC(DNC)(DNC) 72.0

Along with the 505s we allowed an Osprey to take part, this is a boat of similar size and we are at present trying to get the owner to buy a 505.

This was, as I have said, a great event. As the weekend progressed we all became faster which made for competitive starts and mark rounding. On the last day in the 7th race the boats finishing 3rd-6th all finished within about 15 seconds of each other. I was glad to be on the other side of the line at that point. It was one of the best regattas I have ever been a part of. We had fantastic race officials who went to great lengths to keep the courses always square and true to the wind. Over all the event was an outstanding success for our fleet and 505s in western Canada.

I hope you can read the results, we had some boats that just didn't make it much further than the start line but they did take part in the clinic. It was a very exciting year with great winds and great weather. I would like to thank Dale Philips and crew for coming to two of our events this summer. We hope to host the western Canadians next year and are counting on a large turn out from the BC fleets.

Thanks and good sailing,

Dean Rootsaert
Alberta Fleet Captain
dar@gpu.srv.ualberta.ca