Vancouver May Regatta

The first Royal Vancouver Yacht Club One-Design regatta took place on the weekend of May 6th and 7th.  With one of the wettest Vancouver winters in a while along with a great ski season at Whistler slowly wrapping up it was great to get back on the water.  Whistler has had more snow than any other year in the last ten so many skippers and crew had to adjust to the reality of summer activities.  Saturday dawned sunny but still too chilly for shorts.  Most crews were bundled up for the day.  Martin 242s joined in for the Saturday races and a couple of Six Meters for the Sunday races while the Dragon fleet and a few of the Star fleet raced both days.

While the sun was shining, there were a few clouds in the sky so many expected a southeasterly.  Not so.  A fairly steady westerly of 10 to 12 knots sustained through the day on Saturday and appeared again Sunday veering more to the southwest later in the day on Sunday.  Current and tide played a significant role during both days.  On Sunday the course was set more to the west than usual with the committee board anchored in the middle of the bay.  The left side of the course was favored both days due to the current and the potential for lifts up the left side of the course along Jericho Beach.  On Sunday this had the boats adventuring into Jericho Beach near the mile marker with Blue the only yacht to actually find the bottom. 
The race committee set a relatively short start line both days which with an occasional strong current created some interesting challenges.  In the second to the last race on Sunday there was a pretty dramatic wind shift to the south with the result that most of the fleet struggled to get to the starting line without being forced into a port tack or circle to clear the line. This bailed out Blue, far from the starting line trying to solve a spinnaker halyard tangle. 
Ken and Bruce Reid along with Bruce’s crew mate, Scottie from Bellingham proved consistent in Eagle with seven (7) bullets but for a tough first race on Saturday due to an over early start taking a clear first place.  With PC Burns in Seattle for Opening Day, Annie Pederson took the helm of 2016 Fleet Champion Ayrborn and proved almost as consistent with a bullet in the first race followed by seven second place finishes and finishing second overall. With four of the third place finishes that were divided up among the rest of the fleet David Dale-Johnson’s Blue took a distant third place.  Paul Taylor on Black Magic (with Charles in Victoria for their Opening Day), Trevor Gibbons on Rum and Monkey and David Dale-Johnson on Blue filled out the fleet. 
Mistral, Carmudgeon and Eclipse are on the hard either at Straits Marine or at the Yacht Club for repairs. So the numbers were reduced for this regatta.  The next One –Design Series is the weekend of June 10th and 11th.