Races were held on English Bay, a short sail from KYC. Some interesting local tides with strength and possibly (I never figured it out) direction changes across the course made for challenging racing. The view from KYC or from the water is spectacular, with rain forest on the shoreline, and snow capped mountains higher up. Vancouver lived up to its reputation, delivering lots of rain during the event. There were several beautiful sunny warm days as well.
Conditions were light to medium and shifty for the seven race series. In order to make the Canadians different from the North Americans which followed, shorter trapezoid courses were used.
These trapezoid courses are apparently the new Olympic course layout. In my opinion these courses may be appropriate for boats which are very equal in speed, and which desire to maximize the close contact situations (maybe this looks good on TV!) It does not make much sense for any sort of high performance dinghy, as the two reaches are tighter than the current extra tight (60 gybe angle) 505 course, and you cannot normally fly the chute on both. These legs are short enough that they are a parade, with the leaders getting further ahead. As for the runs, if I wanted to sail slow, not use the trapeze, and just point the boat at the next mark, I'd buy a Snipe or a J24. I am glad we tried to them for the experience though.
Rain and an absence of wind caused Saturday's races to be postponed. Three races were run on Sunday, and four on Monday. Did I mention the rain?
Mike Punnet/Scott Ikle of Sun Valley and upstate New York (respectively) sailed very consistently in the early races, putting themselves far enough ahead on points, such that Seattle's Anne and Kris Henderson's late charge fell short. Third went to Scott Smith/Derek Campbell also from Seattle. Ali Meller/John Fry of the Mid Atlantic region and New York were 4th, with Howard Hamlin/Mike Martin of Long Beach 5th.
While Punnet/Ikle raced 8013, their '87 Waterat, the Henderson's sailed their Henderson 505, one of two built by Kris, and had sails made by Anne.
There may be more interest in Henderson 505s and Henderson sails after this event!
The teams in 3rd and 4th were racing 15 plus year old Lindsays, 7150 and 6987, respectively. What other high performance dinghies have longevity like this!
Terry Neff and Bobby Noyes arrived at the regatta with their brand new Waterat on the roof, launching it for the first time at the event. After chartering boats for key events over the last few years (Terry has managed to race in at least the last three North Americans), they finally bought a boat. As Terry put it, this boat is going to stay competitive for at least the next twenty years; they will never have to buy another 505.
After two lay days for teams to visit Vancouver - one of the nicer places on the globe, or practice - Wednesday had 20 plus knots, the Canadians fleet with a few additions reconvened for the North American Championship.
Race Committee work was excellent, and Fleet 1 were excellent hosts. The social events were very successful.
Team Club Sail 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Tot Net Place Punnet/Ikle ??? 8013 2 2 1 1 4 14 7 30.5 15.5 1 Henderson x 2 8446 1 7 8 7 1 4 1 28.25 20.25 2 Scott/Campbell 7150 3 1 9 6 5 1 6 30.5 21.5 3 Meller/Fry WRSC 6987 12 4 14 3 2 2 3 40 26 4 Hamlin/Martin 7771 7 3 2 5 7 12 4 40 28 5 Cragg/Guthrie KYC 7094 15 5 3 8 3 16 8 58 42 6 Thomas/Reynolds KYC 7111 9 8 4 11 13 7 10 62 49 7 Lamont/Chaloner KYC 7089 10 13 7 9 DNC 9 2 73 50 8 Brown/Black KYC 7039 5 6 15 12 11 3 17 69 52 9 Hamilton/Harlan.KYC 8192 8 9 10 2 12 21 16 78 57 10 Brox/Plumbley KYC 7353 DSQ 10 5 15 6 8 13 80 57 10 Gooding/Smith 7201 DSQ 15 13 4 16 10 5 86 63 12 Hayley/Adams KYC 7095 4 20 16 20 8 5 12 85 65 13 Mondel/Jacobsen WVYV 7959 13 12 11 10 9 17 14 86 69 14 Torrie/Hyslop KYC 7775 14 11 6 18 15 6 19 89 70 15 Neff/Noyes 8??? 6 16 18 14 14 20 11 99 79 16 Owen/Meade 7249 11 22 20 16 10 11 18 108 86 17 Walker/Dolhaine KYC 7607 16 14 17 17 20 15 15 114 94 18 Grimm/Grimm KYC 7206 DSQ 18 22 13 17 13 21 127 104 19T Smart/Claxton KYC 7610 17 19 12 19 18 10 20 124 104 19T Crocher/Arbry 7100 16 17 21 21 19 22 9 127 105 21 Phillips/Giguere 7458 DSQ 21 19 22 DNC 18 22 148 125 22Ali Meller / ameller@mcimail.com