Blasting in Ottawa!

photo credit: Kara Leslie Johnson

Last weekend the Ottawa Skiff & Cat Grand Prix was held at Nepean Sailing Club (www.nsc.ca) on Lac Deschenes, a wide spot on the Ottawa River. I'm the only Weta sailor at the club, only having purchased my boat this spring.

I was really pleased to have Richard Stephens and Keith Rice make the drive up from Ithaca NY, and bring a 3rd boat as well to loan to local sailor Jesse Henderson.

The weather pattern all weekend was an unusual breeze from the south - very gusty at times, and generally over 10 knots (sometimes over 20!). Everyone got out for some practice on Friday, with Jesse going out double-handed for his intro to the boat, as the breeze was really on at that time.

The Weta's were assigned Skiff B status, sharing the spot with 3 29ers. We rated Portsmouth 900, and the 29ers 924. We seemed to be a bit faster uphill, while they seemed to have the advantage off-wind. The first day was a surprise though as the 29ers had decided in advance to just do windward-leewards rather than the triangle-windward-leeward specified in the sailing instructions.

Ashore we wondered how the RC would make sense of it and score us all. Also on the water was Skiff A, which had 19 I14s and 49ers in it, and a Catamaran start of about a half dozen boats. The RC would frequently assign different windward marks to the different fleets to keep them separated and have the races end around the same time. We had to watch for a mark colour flag to be raised along with the fleet flag during the starting guns.

For the Sunday we decided to stay closer to the 29ers by also doing just windward-leewards. That kept the racing closer together between the two classes of boats, and the finishes were often mixed up with 29ers and Wetas interspersed. Around 12:30 pm the breeze really kicked in solidly over 20 knots with a top gust recorded at 29. After finishing that race it seemed obvious the RC wouldn't get all the upside down boats sorted out in time to squeeze in one more before the 2pm cut off, so we headed in. No Wetas capsized all weekend!

At awards the Weta's were given the Innovation Trophy (a flying pig) for bringing something new to the regatta. Lots of comments were heard about how much fun we seemed to be having out there. We ended up being scored separately from the 29ers, with Richard coming out on top and Keith 2nd.

Full results at: http://tinyurl.com/mz99d4l

The photographer has just posted pics from the event:
http://karalesliejohnson.zenfolio.com/recent.html

This is a good one of Keith blasting downwind while Richard is on his way back
upwind:
http://karalesliejohnson.zenfolio.com/p251660688/h6e98f2a4#h6e98f2a4

And one of Richard and I crossing behind a 29er
http://karalesliejohnson.zenfolio.com/p251660688/h619afcc5#h619afcc5

A big thanks again for Richard and Keith making the drive. It would be wonderful to get a bigger turnout next year.

Cheers
Phil
Weta 553
Fireball 14678
SRMax 121 (4sale)