Sailboat News

Towards the end of June, I decided to put up my old Superlight II for sale, as well as my 7.5 racing rig. So I was browsing on Kijiji to see what was there for sale already. Then I decided to search for sailboats. To my great surprise, I find some keelboats that are really affordable. On a whim, I show Dave a picture of a Mirage 24 for sale at a club across the lake from ours. He's interested and starts asking questions. In the meantime, I post my equipment for sale and sell all except the sail in only 2 weeks. I also go to 2 sailboard regattas so no time to explore the Mirage 24. In the end, we looked at the boat on July 8th and 12th and bought her on July 17th! We had it moved to Britannia Yacht Club, just a few kilometers down the road on Friday, July 20th and worked at cleaning and waxing the hull and cleaning the cabin during the weekend. Now we have to have the rudder fixed and she should be ready to hit the water for August.

And this means that we have a Mutineer 15 for sale as we can't keep all these boats!

Ready to leave NSC.

In her new home at BYC.

All waxed and shined!

Full view.

CMWA Championships at Rondeau Yacht Club & Road Trip

Another road trip, very close to the last one! This time the destination is Rondeau Yacht Club located inside the Rondeau Provincial Park, close to Chatham on Lake Erie. A friend of mine, Jocelyne, accompanies me on this trip. Jocelyne also windsurfs so she hopes to get her board wet for the first time in two years. We drive to Cambridge on Wednesday, June 27 and do the rest of the trip the next day.

The windsurfing area is in a bay as opposed to the open waters on the big lake. However, there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of weeds. But the organizer had warned us and we came prepared with weed fins. I had bought a Makani weed fin and it worked very well.

On Thursday, June 28, we arrived early afternoon, checked out the site and rigged to go sailing. We had a pleasant afternoon getting used to the waters. Jocelyne went out too and enjoyed herself.

Friday was day one of our masters championships. We did two races in the morning then one long distance race in the afternoon. I managed to finish all three! The wind was not too strong, just my speed. Jocelyne also spent time on the water.

Saturday brought a lot more wind. We held our AGM from 9 am to 10 am then got out on the water for three races. I managed to finish the first one, with one fall only and a scary downwind leg. I finished last but was happy that I was able to hold on. I did not do the other two races as I was sure I would not be able to hold on. So I made a bee line towards the beach and that was long enough.

After lunch on Saturday, everyone wanted to take out their shortboards so there were no more racing. I decided to take a break and went to see the beach on the other side with Jocelyne and Carole, Denis's wife. Nice sandy beach but water was colder than in the bay.

That night we had our last dinner and awards ceremony at the local golf club.  I ended up finishing 2nd in my age category (only 2 of us)! And overall last out of 8 kona racers!

Sunset on the bay, from restaurant.

Launch area.

Me trying to avoid a collision!

On the way back we stopped for the night in Port Hope and saw some of the Canada Day celebrations downtown. One of the band playing happened to be my step-daughter's uncle. They were pretty good. The next day, Monday, July 2, we went to visit Presqu'ile Provincial Park, located just west of Belleville. We walked around trying to find camping sites with water access for future windsurfing/camping trips. We found a few. What a nice park. We also walked a trail in the woods and checked out the beach where there were about 5 kite sailors. There is also a nice Bed & Breakfast on the side of the bay and we visited for possible future trips.

One of Ontario's oldest lighthouses at Presqu'ile.

Beach at Presqu'ile.

Managed to catch a butterfly!

All in all, a very nice short vacation (6 days on the road) with great company.