Canadian 2.4mR Class Association 

 Canadian News

This report is well overdue. We are finally getting closer to pre COVID normal. The February CAN AM winter series event in Florida had fifteen boats including three Canadian boats. Alan Leibel placed second with Bruce Millar finishing third in his jib boom boat. The March final CAN AM regatta will see at least seven Canadian boats and an expected fleet of more than twenty boats.

Future Regattas

 In January we had a successful regatta scheduling meeting which finalized dates for the 2022 summer season. I would like to thank Brian Robinson, Aaron Wong-Sing, Louise Anstey, Joe Gerlinsky, Angela Cromarty, Paula Stone, Peter Eager and Darrell Suderman for being on the Zoom meeting.

The 2022 Canadian 2.4mR championships will be held at National Yacht Club in Toronto August 26 – 28. It will be held 5 days after the finish of the Canada Games in Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club. Already the Saskatchewan Sailing Team is planning to stay in Ontario for our championship. We are hoping that other Canada Games teams will also attend.

Both the Victoria and Toronto fleets have an active summer schedule with Victoria just recently hosting the David Bleakney Ice Bowl (March 12). The Toronto fleet starts off its sail season with the Canadian Olympic Classes Ice Breaker Regatta May 21 & 22. The Victoria fleet sails Wednesday afternoons and Sundays out of the Royal Victoria YC while the Toronto fleet has organized one regatta per month for June, July, August and September. Please check the class website www.canada24mr.com for the complete schedule of future regattas.

As restrictions across the Canada United States border have eased it is great to see that there are two new 2.4mR regatta hosts in the Eastern United States. On April 30 – May 1 the Tred Avon Yacht Club in Oxford MD is including the 2.4mR class in its spring invitational regatta. This is a beautiful club in a quiet part of the Chesapeake Bay. Although I have never raced here, I have cruised the region and am working hard to find an excuse to attend this regatta. The second event is the Sandy Bay Yacht Club invitational in Rockport MA on July 8 – 10. The Sandy Bay fleet is new, and we should give them some support as they grow their fleet. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t let everyone know that I will be attending the Clagett Regatta in Newport RI. June 21-26. Sailed out of Sail Newport I have been attending this event for more than ten years. They have the best coaching, great race committees, excellent on shore support and the best sailing conditions.

Growing the Class 

There are a few issues hindering class growth in Canada. One of course is the availability of good used boats. This is aggravated by the availability of new boats with slow delivery from the current principal builder. I am hoping that the International Class is addressing this problem with new builders in Germany and England.

The second issue hindering class growth is our reluctance to promote the boat to potential boat owners. In my mind the target sailors are either a person who is 40 years old or older who previously or currently sailed a physically demanding One Design dinghy such as a ILCA 6 (Laser) or who sailed a One Design Keelboat and is tired of chasing crew for weekend regattas (J-24, E 22, Sharks, T-Birds etc.).  We need to let them sail our boats. In my mind there are three ways of doing this. One is to organize a “try the boat” day where sailors can come to the club and sail the boat for 60 minutes or so. The second approach is to persuade owners who cannot participate in a race or a weekend competition, because of other commitments, to lend their boats to sailors who meet our target market. The third approach is to organize a regatta and invite the best sailors from other fleets to sail in our 2.4mRs. Copying the Victoria Fleet at Royal Victoria YC, the Ottawa fleet is organizing a club fleet championship inviting each fleet in the club (there are twenty fleets) to nominate a sailor to compete in the championship. Because we have only 5 boats, we will be running heats. We are hoping we will have enough heats so that each sailor will get to race against every other sailor at least once. Low point scoring will prevail with no discards. After the event we will survey the participants about their thoughts on the event and on the boats.

International News 

The class elected a new International President in December 2021. Heiko Kröger is a Paralympian gold medallist who has been active in the class for a number of years. Bruce Millar from Victoria was re-elected to the Executive Committee and was elected to the Technical Committee. Tim Ripley of the USA continues to serve as class secretary.

The 2022 World Championships will be hosted by Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa Florida November 5 – 12. The Notice of Race has been posted here.

The 2022 European Championships is being held in Quiberon France May 15 – 20 with expected entries to exceed one hundred boats. Further details are on the international website.

Final Thoughts 

Let’s get out on the water and enjoy our boats.

Peter Wood
CAN 14