2006 Canadian IOM Championships
Kingston Yacht Club, Kingston, Ontario
September 15,16,17, 2006
By Jake Leo
The best thing about IOM events or any other championship regatta, for that matter is, everyone who made the trip knows why they’re there and are ready to compete…This year’s “Canadians” was no exception. Twenty-eight showed up from as far away as UK, California, Florida, Massachusetts & Connecticut.
Again our host club, Kingston Yacht Club, provided a near perfect venue under the very capable regatta chairmanship of Lana Butler, each phase of the event ran like clockwork. Event measurement and check-in, which is always a social event and was under the direction of Peter Van Rossem assisted by John Lowther.
Friday- The first day of racing started with last minute check-ins, race committee preparations and skippers & spectators assembled on the breakwater/drysailing area at noon for the skippers meeting. Regatta Director duties once again, where assumed by the venerable Ross Cameron a CRYA certified senior Principal Race Officer. If you’ve never raced under the direction of a certified PRO you are certainly in for an experience in proficiency and organization.
The first seeding races were run in the light but building northeasterly breeze. The northeasterly is not considered a normal wind direction but conveniently runs nearly parallel to the breakwater and allows the course to be set close to shore and the control area to extend the entire length of the course. This allowed a few spectacular port tack starts as the building breeze swung unpredictably back and forth through 25 degrees at times.
The “W” word was frequently uttered in disgust as the afternoon wore on as lead boats would suddenly fall off the pace finding themselves struggling just to finish. As it happens the unusual wind direction was responsible for the migration of weed out of the inner harbor. However, everyone had their turn in the barrel, so results seemed to even out over the course of the day. Racing was curtailed following race 9 allowing the first drop of the event resulting in some interesting first day placings. The day ended with a most excellent chili/salad dinner in the KYC clubhouse.
Saturday-Day two! The weather report promised better weather and a return to the normal prevailing southerlies. This, of course meant that a reversal of course direction as the low pressure moved east and hopefully some relief from the weed hazard. A short skippers meeting brought the announcement of a one hour hold to allow the light southerly to settle into the predicted southwesterly. The first race started with a sudden left bias allowing the more alert skippers to bang the left corner for an easy start to the day. Had the forecast come true we would have been into the B rigs by noon as the thermal kicked in. But wasn’t to be….with the fleet still in A rigs, the wide bodies began their march up the leader board as the sea increased.
Peter Van Rossem with his trusty TS2 elbowed his way to the top spot with 3 bullets, a second and a third in races 10 thru 14 to take the lead away from Richard Silverman who was having a rough afternoon dealing with weed, turning in a couple of double digit finishes. Ken Binks with his Isis showed us why he’s ranked 5th the UK by keeping it close and hanging on to 2nd. Steve Landeau also, worked hard to stay in the hunt with a 3rd.
A very long day’s racing ended at the finish of race twenty-one at 16:30 and the fleet retired to the bar and a KYC cookout.
Sunday-Day three! Once again, we were lied to, by the weatherman. The day opened with fog and drizzle and a light southeasterly which became a course setters headache! The RD soon realized that the weed was only concentrated in a back eddy near the breakwater and not on the open course. All we needed was the wind to cooperate and swing south about 15 degrees to the right and things would improve, which it did finally and the course was set out in open water.
The wind and sea increased to the top of the A rig making precise tune the ticket to success. Since the normal wind rode was met with a reverberation off the breakwater creating a confused sea it was difficult to keep the boat working to weather. The answer came with an adjustment one wouldn’t normally consider. Moving the jib sheet lead out 3mm and the mainsail sheet lead in the same amount. This allowed the jib to breath as the boat rode up the face of the wave and the tighter mainsail trim brought the boat back up to close haul as it fell off the wave without the use of a lot of rudder. You could see scores improve as this odd tune worked it’s way though the fleet.
The wind continued to swing more southwest as we approached the cut-off time of 15:00
and finally the word was passed a 14:59 that we were through. The end of a wonderfully well run and successful event.
Many thanks to Kingston Yacht Club, Lana Butler and her very able staff and volunteers. Ross Cameron and his crew for their professional RC work and Vector Sails for their support.
|
|
Skipper |
Sail |
|
Hull |
Score |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
|
1 |
Peter Van Rossem |
11 |
CAN |
TS2 |
68.0 |
1.0 |
8.0 |
1.0 |
17.0 |
21.0 |
5.0 |
16.0 |
7.0 |
1.0 |
3.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
6.0 |
7.0 |
4.0 |
2.0 |
6.0 |
8.0 |
4.0 |
|
2 |
Ken Binks |
83 |
GBR |
Isis |
72.0 |
6.0 |
3.0 |
12.0 |
4.0 |
7.0 |
2.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
8.0 |
8.0 |
9.0 |
4.0 |
13.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
4.0 |
1.0 |
11.0 |
|
3 |
Hugh Kidd |
117 |
CAN |
KFII |
74.0 |
7.0 |
12.0 |
3.0 |
5.0 |
3.0 |
7.0 |
10.0 |
1.0 |
4.0 |
6.0 |
2.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
3.0 |
10.0 |
6.0 |
8.0 |
|
4 |
Richard Silverman |
214 |
USA |
Errica |
92.0 |
3.0 |
1.0 |
5.0 |
1.0 |
8.0 |
3.0 |
2.0 |
4.0 |
15.0 |
2.0 |
12.0 |
7.0 |
7.0 |
6.0 |
1.0 |
5.0 |
6.0 |
9.0 |
13.0 |
17.0 |
10.0 |
|
5 |
Steve Landeau |
12 |
USA |
Isis |
97.0 |
8.0 |
5.0 |
4.0 |
3.0 |
12.0 |
1.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
12.0 |
5.0 |
4.0 |
5.0 |
4.0 |
9.0 |
4.0 |
10.0 |
7.0 |
12.0 |
14.0 |
4.0 |
9.0 |
|
6 |
Jeff Weiss |
30 |
USA |
TS2 |
103.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
2.0 |
6.0 |
17.0 |
15.0 |
5.0 |
11.0 |
9.0 |
8.0 |
11.0 |
9.0 |
11.0 |
16.0 |
8.0 |
1.0 |
2.0 |
5.0 |
2.0 |
7.0 |
2.0 |
|
7 |
Jon Elmaleh |
02 |
USA |
Twang |
112.0 |
1.0 |
4.0 |
6.0 |
11.0 |
1.0 |
13.0 |
15.0 |
14.0 |
13.0 |
7.0 |
13.0 |
4.0 |
2.0 |
1.0 |
14.0 |
13.0 |
5.0 |
7.0 |
7.0 |
3.0 |
1.0 |
|
8 |
Jake Leo |
00 |
USA |
Ikon |
152.0 |
3.0 |
15.0 |
20.0 |
2.0 |
11.0 |
8.0 |
9.0 |
9.0 |
6.0 |
16.0 |
10.0 |
2.0 |
5.0 |
7.0 |
16.0 |
21.0 |
17.0 |
14.0 |
5.0 |
2.0 |
12.0 |
|
9 |
Roy Langbord |
70 |
USA |
Disco |
172.0 |
9.0 |
16.0 |
21.0 |
8.0 |
6.0 |
10.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
10.0 |
12.0 |
6.0 |
10.0 |
10.0 |
10.0 |
7.0 |
11.0 |
13.0 |
17.0 |
23.0 |
9.0 |
13.0 |
|
10 |
Marko Majic |
36 |
CAN |
Hoochie-Koo |
179.0 |
12.0 |
11.0 |
11.0 |
14.0 |
19.0 |
21.0 |
14.0 |
12.0 |
8.0 |
1.0 |
14.0 |
12.0 |
12.0 |
13.0 |
12.0 |
3.0 |
11.0 |
6.0 |
15.0 |
10.0 |
3.0 |
|
11 |
Ray Davidson |
22 |
CAN |
Topico |
180.0 |
5.0 |
13.0 |
17.0 |
22 | |