Konas at the National Capital Regatta - August 10-11, 2013

After the masters weekend, it was time to participate in the National Capital Regatta at my club, the Britannia Yacht Club. Fifteen windsurfers came to Ottawa to participate in this annual event, which has been held now for 56  years.

Saturday was pretty windy with winds between 15-20 knots. At that wind speed, I am not strong enough to race so I went out anyway on my Kona and 7.4 Kona sail and had a blast just going fast and practicing jibes. Now I know that I can hang on and sail that 7.4 in that much wind! But racing in that wind is another story because of the downwind legs. The others did 5 races so everybody was pretty tired at night.

Sunday was a more tamed day, just my kind of wind. We did 3 races in the morning and started a 4th one that was abandoned due to the lack of wind. But of course, as soon as it was abandoned, the wind came back and we could have finished it. We all went in for lunch and the Race Committee called it a day. Everyone packed up and attended the awards ceremony before going home.

Left, Phil Moorman, our commodore, Olivia Mew, Nick Cox, Rick Collins & Andrée Gauthier, winners of the weekend.

A slow action picture, I am number 1703.

CMWA Championship in Toronto, August 2 to 5, 2013

For the first time in 25 years of existence, the Canadian Masters Windsurfing Association held its annual regatta at the Toronto Windsurfing Club (TWC). Stephanie Todd was our organizer extraordinaire with the help of a bunch of volunteers. We had 17 Konas racing, 2 youths on Bic Technos, 8 on open raceboards and 4 youth on RS:X and raceboard. A great group of people of all ages!

I convinced my friend Dave Luck, who used to race, to come to Toronto for the weekend and partake in some of the activities. He was beach master on Saturday and joined us for dinner on Saturday.

On Friday evening, we had registration and great munchies at the TWC. Saturday brought us sun and wind but very unstable wind that kept shifting too much to set a course. Our race officer, Anne Sanderson, was very patient and after lunch managed to set a course and sent us on 2 one lap races. I did those 2 races!

Sunday was also sunny with more stable winds. We did 3 races before lunch. We were set up close to the eastern gap and the wind was gusty so I had to hold on with all my might and also watch for slight wind shifts. After lunch, there were 2 races that I opted not to do because my arms and upper body were tired from the morning. I lent out my board to Jean-Robert Wilhelmy, from Makani Fins, for him to try as he had never been on one but had help design the new weed fin for the Kona.

Monday was our long distance race. Nice steady light wind, just for moi!! I had a good start and shortly after, I spotted Andrée and Bob going up along the far shore so I decided to follow them. It paid off because as I was approaching the finish, I could count only 4 Konas ahead of me. But a race is never over until you cross that finish line... and low and behold, Marco and Tom came from behind and finished just in front of me but by not much. After the race, the wind was nice in front of the club so I continued to sail for a while. Then in to pack up and have the awards ceremony.

I came home with a 2nd place in the Grand Master's women Kona class and a 3rd place in the Kona ladies class, behind my usual opponents, Andrée and Stephanie. All in all, a good weekend was had on the water and off the water.

The venue, Toronto Windsurfing Club.

A Porter Airline plane flying to Toronto Island and a bug!

Me racing with the Toronto skyline in the background.

Another of moi with the Toronto skyline. Photo by Artem Sr.