This was my first year doing Race Committee in a Regatta. It was a blast. Not only were the conditions perfect and there was good attendance I didn't screw anything up!! The following is the race report I filed on the TCYC website:
2009 Spring Tune Up Regatta:
WOODSTOCK enjoying the weather.
You couldn’t ask for a better day to kick off the 2009 Sailing Season. It was the first full day of Spring and we could not have asked for a better start to the 2009 sailing season. This years 2009 TCYC Spring Tune-Up Regatta was scheduled to fall before the VARC Opener to give skippers and crews a chance to get their boats out and warm up. We had intended to do at least three races in a standard windward leeward format. It was about 8 degrees Celsius and sunny and while at first there was no wind at all a nice westerly moved in by 11:30 and built from 5 to 10 knots over the early afternoon!
Honest Ian over early returning to re-cross the line.
We had 6 boats signed up for the race and was anticipating a few to no-show and run the race with 4 boats. I was shocked when we had 11 boats attended! In true Tiddly fashion some where late some left early and one boat, JOSEPHINE, joined in by accident when they sailed by and were invited to participate by the Race Committee.
The down-wind race.
The Regatta consisted of 4 races: two standard windward start single lap races, a downwind start single lap race, and a full two lap windward start race. All starts had both divisions starting at once to give everyone practice at starting in crowded conditions.
The Cals , DUCK and MUMBLES lining up for the start.
Our newest members.
One new aspect of this race was the inclusion of our newest club members the Cal 20s formerly of Fleet 38. Two attended, PINNICAL and MAGICAL (got to love the CAL names), and mixed it up with their bigger competitors. These aggressive little boats dominated the Division 2 standings.
HAKUNA MATATA and JOSEPHINE running.
Team LITHIUM hiking out.
Division One had an interesting mix of boats. On one hand we boats like HAKUNA MATA a Beneteau 310 attend crewed by the Benckhuysen family and on the other we had the hardcore racing fanatics like Tim Coughlin on LITHUIM his Olson 30. I love that our club encourages this type of racing. To quote Tim: “the one who has the most fun wins.”
How can both Ian be in two places at once?
There was also the interesting site of seeing FANCY FREE and KARMA sailing against each other as usually they have the same skipper, our infamous Commodore Ian Lloyd. This year KARMA is being sailed by John Lee so I imagine this will be a common occurrence.
PYSCHO DUCK winning the fourth race.
All of this being said there was only one real story in Division One and that was the domination of the DUCK; the PYSCHO DUCK that is. Julie and her crew were first across the line and first for all for of the races. This swift little Esse 850 was nimble, well handled, and deserved the each first place they took.
John manning the horn.
I would like to thank all of the boats that participated in the race and in particular I would like to Thank John Boyko for the use of TIGER LILY for our Committee Boat. It was nice to finally have a boat that was befitting someone of my stature. Also stay tuned as Niko will be posting more than 600 high res photos of your boats and a movie! Thanks Niko!!
With a kick off like this to the 2009 sailing season we expect great things and would encourage all of our club members and Vancouver area skippers to pencil in all of our races on their 2009 sailing calendars. We have our Sail-Past race coming up in early May but our next big event will be the Passage Island Race in late May. We are hoping to attract more single handed racers to this event. Details will be posted in the near future.
Tyler Campbell
Fleet Captain
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