Month: March 2017

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March Regatta CanAm Series Report

The CanAm 2.4mR series has been running on the west coast of Florida since December. 19 boats joined in for the finale last weekend at the Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club. The fleet included Olympians, Paralympians, Canadian and American National Champions so I decided it was a great idea to join them for the weekend. The first day was breezy with Alan Leibel from Canada going well until the second race when he broke his gooseneck. He was among good company as Dee Smith missed a couple races due to a forestay breaking as did I for a boom end falling off. With a couple of boats getting OCS in the third race Toronto sailing friends Darrell Suderman and Mike Hren made the early running. With the notable exception of Paralympic Silver medallist Jackie Gay taking the second race. With no discards the race was on to keep letters to the minimum with some catching up to be done by many. Everybody was back on the water for Saturday’s racing with was lighter and shiftier, which is much more common for the Charlotte river. Close racing ensued with Mike taking the first race and then the Paralympic flagged sails of Bruce Millar and Dee Smith fighting it out for the second race with Dee just winning. I wasn’t far behind getting a 2,3,4 for the day. Louise Anstey from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in BC was showing that time in the boat isn’t always necessary for consistently finishing inside the top 10. Sunday was a battle of when the gradient breeze was going to die but Race Officer Dr Roger Strube did a great job to get 3 races in. It was light with the tide running strong. Dee collected the 3 bullets from the day but with myself, Alan, Bruce, Darrell making it difficult for him. Darrell took the regatta followed by Bruce then Dee. The overall series was won by Alan. With the local 2.4 builder Tony Pocklington taking second and Dee managing third. The class owes many thanks to the Commodore and all at Charlotte Harbor Yacht Club for a great event. The fleet has been based at the Club since mid-December and the hospitality and warm welcome has been great. Special thanks to Roger, Martin Holland and their team for some great racing. The fleets are growing across the North American continent in no small part to having an American 2.4 builder. Tony allowed many of us to sail through chartering boats but also through his immense hard work in helping organise the regatta. The inaugural CanAm series was a great success and it’s a great way of getting warm in the winter.

1st Darrell Suderman
2nd Bruce Millar RVYC
3rd Dee Smith STC
4th Megan Pascoe Weymouth SC
5th Mike Hren Ashbridges Bay YC
6th Allan Leibel National YC

 

Megan Pascoe
GBR 92

CanAm 2.4mR Championship Series 2016-2017 Final Results 

 

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President’s Report March 2017

Peter Wood CAN 14

e-mail: [at][dot]

 

We are already past the middle of March 2017, which means we are only 9 weeks away from our first Eastern Canadian 2.4 Meter regatta, the Ice Breaker at National Yacht Club in Toronto. The fleet in Victoria, which doesn’t have the same hard water problems the rest of us do, have been racing once per week out of Royal Victoria YC.

The CAN-AM Winter Series has only one more event scheduled (March 24- 26th) and has been a great success. Ten Canadian boat owners have participated in at least one of the regattas to date. After the final event a number of sailors will staying on in Florida to train for 3 or 4 days before making the return trip north. The organizers of the CAN AM Winter series will be reviewing the event and would like feedback from both participants and those unable to participate with the hopes of growing the event in 2017 – 2018

Summer and early autumn 2017 has a number of interesting regattas scheduled. I have already made contact with the International 12 Meter class who will be participating in Meter Fest with us at the New York Yacht Club in Newport June 9 -11. They are excited we are participating and it will be an excellent opportunity to showcase our boat with the goal of getting a fleet of boats established in Newport. Ten days after Meter fest will be the Clagett Regatta, also in Newport so a number of us are planning to leave our boats at Sail Newport and return for the Clagett. We are anticipating twenty or more 2.4mR’s for Meter Fest.

The inclusion of the 2.4 meter class in the 2017 Canada Games in Gimli Manitoba is important because it puts the class in front of our ten provincial sailing associations. While entry is restricted to one per province and there are both age and classification requirements the inclusion has resulted in boat ownership in eight of our ten provinces with very healthy activity in Saskatchewan.

This year is Canada’s turn to host the 2.4mR North Americans and Alain Dubuc and the crew of the Pointe Claire Yacht Club are already working hard to make sure it will be a memorable regatta. Last year they organized the successful Canadian 2.4mR Championships so they have most of their team back for 2017. The 2.4mR regatta schedule (found on this website) has a direct link into the Notice of Race for this event.

Finally class dues. The 2017 class membership year is April 1 – March 31. Dues can be paid directly from our website. This year on direction from the 2016 AGM we have reduced our annual dues to $ 50.00 per boat owner. As of this date ten members have renewed for 2017-2018

See you on the water.