Leibel Dominates for the Win of Can Am #4

Port Charlotte, Fla. (February 27, 2019) – Can Am #4, the penultimate regatta of the five-event 2019 2.4mR Can Am Championship, saw 20 competitors – the largest fleet of the season – get to work on the waters of Charlotte Harbor from February 22-24. Although missing veteran 2.4mR class competitors Janice Graham-Foscarini, Louise Anstey and Audrey Kobayashi, the addition of Guatemalan racer Rodolfo Quezada; the three Massachusetts sailors (Jerry Blouin, Shan McAdoo and Doug Trees) who are building a new Marblehead-based 2.4mR fleet; and class newcomers Geoff Moehl of Orlando and Patrick Reiss of Bonita Springs, made for an exciting weekend of racing.

The races on day one started in an eight-knot southeasterly breeze which died near the end of the first race, forcing the race committee to postpone racing for an hour. With the racecourse relocated to the west, a light sea breeze filled which allowed the second race to be completed on a rising tide. By the third and final race of the day, the southwesterly had built to 12 knots. Three sailors from Canada dominated the day, with Allan Leibel of Toronto winning the first race, Peter Eagar, also from Toronto, winning race two and British Columbia’s Bruce Millar winning race three.

2.4mR boats at windward mark

2019 CanAm Championship Series/Fran Burstein

The Race Committee had less than five knots to work with as they set up for the planned three races on day two. However, once the new line was set after a shift in wind direction and subsequent relocation of the course to the west, the southwesterly breeze built into the mid-teens for the remainder of the day. The relatively minor oscillations provided few opportunities for competitors that needed to overcome bad starts.

Leibel, who represented Canada in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics (in the Dragon and Tempest, respectively), crossed the finish line first in all three of the day’s races to win the event.

“The racing was wonderful,” said Leibel, who has been racing a 2.4mR for 10 years. “The conditions were ideal. On the second day the wind blew perfectly steady… no shifts… no changes in velocity. It became a boat speed contest and I happened to be fastest.”

Leibel’s enthusiasm for the class was apparent when he admitted his goal for next month’s final event of the season isn’t to win. “I’m doing the last event because I love it [racing the 2.4mR] so much.” Leibel explained that he first got into the class to help Bruce Millar, who was training for the Paralympics and needed coaching and competition. “A group of us started sailing his second boat to help him. I stayed with the class. Love it as a sailboat. I still have an Etchells, but the 2.4mR is a top performing boat with less demands from a logistical standpoint. We have roughly a dozen 2.4mRs in Toronto, but the class is huge in Europe and the competition is great.”

2018 2.4mR North American Champion Dee Smith of Annapolis, Maryland, placed second with 11 points, three points behind Leibel. Millar, winner of the Edge Sailing Midwinters in January, finished in third with 12 points, followed by Tony Pocklington, of Fort Myers, Fla., fourth overall with 17 points. Charlie Rosenfield of Woodstock, Conn., completes the top-five with 27 points. Full results for Can Am #4 may be found here.

The third edition of the 2.4 Meter Can Am Championship series will conclude with the nine-race 2019 CanAm Championship Finale, from March 29-31. The series champion will be determined from the results of all five regattas after his or her worst event is dropped from the scoring. For competitors who did not race in all five events, the scoring will count all events sailed (i.e. they will not drop their worst result).

Details of the regatta schedules, social events, hotels and more may be found in the Notice of Race, available here. Full results for the 2018 2.4mR North American Championship may be found here; and for the 2018 2.4mR U.S. Nationals, results may be found here. Full results for the 2019 Edge Midwinters may be found here.

About the 2.4mR: The 2.4mR originated in 1983 in Sweden and attained confirmation as an international class less than 10 years later. Class racing puts the emphasis on the tactical – not physical – skills of the sailor as the single-handed boats are equal under the strict rules that govern the class. With a length of 13’ 8” and the advantage of being easily transported and stored, this sleek keelboat has gained favor with a wide range of able-bodied sailors and sailors with disabilities (there are 1200 boats worldwide, with roughly 200 in North America). For more information on the class, please visit http://www.canada24mr.com/ or www.us24meter.org/ and follow us on Facebook at US 2.4mR Class

2.4mRs Race in Frozen Assets Regatta 2019 RVYC 16th & 17th February

AKA ‘Careful What You Wish For’

Jackie Gay

‘Wanna come and freeze your assets off?’ I said, in an email to our sturdy 2.4mR group, in mid January, when Victoria was bathed in spring-like temperatures. ‘Sign up! It’ll be fun.’ Then a few days before the regatta Victoria received its biggest dump of snow in 40 odd years and John and myself were trapped in the house, let alone capable of getting to any regatta… Fortunately the melt came quickly, the temperature-rise less so, so getting kitted out required the full 2.4mR regalia of multiple layers, wrist-seals, neck-seals, toques, spare-toques and of course (‘every time you go to sea,’ as Louise Anstey astutely noted) sunglasses.

With seven entries our fleet was second in size only to the Radials, and joined by Chris Maier from CFSA, his first time racing the boat. On Saturday the wind looked classic Victoria ‘light and fluky’ but actually settled down to a decent SW-ish and we had six excellent races with Louise giving me and Doug Bell some lessons in what we should and (mostly) shouldn’t be doing. With all classes racing on the same course everyone had to be hyper-aware – a 49er needs a lot of room from our slim wee 2.4s at the leeward mark… Louise won the day with excellent tight racing. On Sunday it was cold and clear with a brisk northerly, waves, strong current and COLD. Oak Bay was a fine sight with the snowy mountains circling us, skiffs flying around (and some swimming…) and even tighter racing in the 2.4mR fleet, with overlapped finishes and a stellar bullet for Delani Hulme-Lawrence. Louise won the event with Jackie second and Doug third, but the real winner was our fleet which can only improve with such tight, competitive racing and new participants. Thanks to the Race Committee for sterling work managing all the fleets; the coaches for encouragement, food and dry clothing; and all the sailors who made this event a real spectacle and a whole lot of fun.