ORIGINALLY POSTED ON TEAM ROOSTER SAILING GEAR BLOG
This past weekend I had the opportunity to sail at the TSCC Icebreaker Regatta in Toronto, Ontario. Perhaps the best description of this regatta is the one found on their website;
The Toronto Sailing and Canoe Club Icebreaker Regatta is a long standing tradition in the local sailing scene and a proving ground for many young sailors. This is one of the first big regattas of the season and can be a test of skills as the weather can be a range of all types, but one thing is for sure, the water is cold!
TSCC ICEBREAKER WEBSITE
My team, the Ontario Sailing Team, trains out of TSCC regularly and hosted a 2-day pre-regatta tune up camp with the development team to prep for the conditions. We put a lot of work into our down speed boat maneuvers to be used on a start line. This was very helpful especially when starting in close quarters with other sailors.
Racing ran Saturday and Sunday with a healthy turnout in 3 fleets - 29ers, laser standard and laser radial - despite it being a holiday weekend. Most are local sailors, although we were fortunate to have some top notch competition make the trip from the province of Quebec to join us. Twenty-one boats attended this year's event in the Laser Radial fleet.
Toronto is notorious for it’s light wind and shifty conditions. The best example of this being the 3rd race on day two, when after the laser radial’s first upwind the race committee wisely abandoned when wind readings at the top and bottom of the course were drastically conflicting. But the well experienced race committee did a great job of keeping things fair and managed to get off 5 races.
My results over both days were very consistent and I ended up with 15 points. After the drop I had 9 points which placed me in 2nd. Great starts and excellent boat speed along with staying in phase with the fleet kept me at the top of the fleet and resulted in consistently good placings including my first win of the season. I managed to exceed my goal of top 5 so I am very happy with my event.
This is a nice improvement on my showing last year of 9th place although due to light wind on two of three days of racing the race committee only managed to get 3 races off in total that year.
Next year my goal will be to take this a step further and hopefully win the regatta.
Overall a great start to the local regatta season here in Ontario and big thanks to all who supported, volunteered, coached and competed!
