Salt Spring Sailing Club Spring Regatta

Spring Regatta 07. With just the power of the wind as the driving force six sail boats and crews competed in the annual Salt Spring Island Sailing Club Spring Regatta. Polar fleece and wool topped with waterproof outer shell were the dress of the day. When a race is held it is not subject to weather conditions - a lack of wind is the only reason for cancellation. This is what makes racing so challenging. You sail on days when most reasonable people would be home in front of the stove with a good book, not bobbing around the harbour in a rain storm.

The regatta was a series of three short races. It sounds easy but it is a lot of up, down, tack, jibe, tighten this, slack that off, sheet in no out, etc... I have to say it's fun but a work out. If you're not worn out by the end of it all you would have to be in great shape. On a personal note when your first mate is your partner ("wife" for non Salt Spring readers) and she says before the day begins "I feel dizzy today and should not go on the foredeck" (front of boat), LISTEN to her. Let's just say she was right and fell overboard. June and I are still talking and laughing about it. She has a huge bruise and her cat-like foredeck skills are a little shaken. She was not technically fully overboard as she was still hanging on so it was really not that bad. Just one of those moments you wish you had the camera on. I would like to publicly apologize to Peter Howell (who was on the helm) for yelling at him to "turn down wind". It was not a pretty spinnaker take down; kind of one of those "what can go wrong will go wrong" times you would like to forget about.

On a lighter note Keith Simpson's Soul Dancer was in such fine form that it is rumored that a unknown America cup racing team has asked him and his well oiled team to come over to Spain and teach them some of the finer points of racing. It may appear to a casual reader that I like to pick on Keith but in my defence our boats are evenly matched and Keith declared a feud. Its the Simmons vs the Simpsons.

The races seemed to break down to into two groups: Imp 1st place, Final Dash 2nd, Caliente 3rd, in the front running group with Alacrity 4th, Soul Dancer 5th and Strawberry Express following. From our position at the back of the fleet it seemed Final Dash with the David, Josh and Dan Wood's team had a great regatta. It would be so much easier to report the races if we had a helicopter. If anyone on the island would like to come out to the next race, the Walker rock race April 1st the with their chopper we would appreciate it. For race info check http://www.saltspringsailing.ca/ .

Cheers
Scott Simmons
Saltspring
British Columbia

Salt Spring Island Sailing Club Round Prevost race

Round Prevost Island Race 07. Sunny, warm and light winds made Sunday March 4th the perfect day for the Salt Spring Island Sailing Club annual Round Prevost Island Race (one of the gulf islands). The nice thing about sailing here is you get to see all the nice Salt Spring waterfront real estate. Ten boats and about 50 club members and guests where given the official start by Salt Spring's Jim Ballantyne at 10:30am. It was the skippers choice on which direction to sail 13.1 nautical miles around Prevost.

The start of the race was down wind with the spinnakers being hoisted on the line or shortly after the start. One boat declared NFS (no flying Sails - not to fly the spinnaker) and received an extra 18 seconds per mile bonus on his handicap. The skipper was alone (his crew came down sick at the last minute - it looked like they had a bad case of new-game-computeritis) and it was a long race to fly the spinnaker single handed.

The boats with spinnakers (chutes or kites) flying took off. Those big sails catch the wind just like a huge sheet would. Luckily the wind was steady and not the usual Ganges BC swirl and they made it out of the harbour and past the Sister islands.

In true Salt Spring fashion the racers where split 50/50 on which way to go around Prevost. What is it about Salt Springers, we just can't agree on any issue. Well it was nice to see the big boats like Stuart Farson's JJ Flash and Ole Andersen's Caliente (who went the other way) going in the opposite direction on the far side of Prevost Island. From my vantage point at the rear of the fleet I hardly ever get to see them sail. I have some video of Kevin Vine sailing JJ Flash.


It's filmed on my free Telus camera and I am a beginner movie maker, but the quality is improving.

The first boats around the island stopped in a little parking lot set up at the Sister Islands. It was nice to see the faster boats wait for the slower boats for a change, however, this biased the race in the slower boats favour. On a long race like this, if the slow boats can see the fast boats they generally have beat them.

The winner was Greg Slakov skippering that "soon to be famous" Imp, followed by Tony McEwen with his trusty crew Dave Howell and Roland Boudreau in Saorsa. Now they were on their game this week; Saorsa ( How do you say that name? I can never get it right, see the video for the wrong pronunciation) was flying. In third place was the master racer Roger Kibble in his sleek Electra. If you ever want to see a cool looking boat check out Electra. It looks fast even when it's tied up at the dock. Then Philip Grange and his crew on Fandango. At the start of the video you will see one of Philip's crew members, John Gauld, up the mast. I did not show the crewman under the keel. Next we had David Wood and sons Dan and Josh on Final Dash. Then Mr Bob Jones on his beloved Alacrity. See Bob's closing comments on the video: "Well said, Bob". Then Ole Andersen's new red Caliente. Then myself with all my friends on Strawberry Express. Then we had JJ Flash with Kevin Vine at the helm and last again was Keith Simpson in Soul Dancer.

The next race is Saturday, March 17 - the annual one-day Spring Regatta. It is a series of short races in the harbour. If you are looking to crew or race your boat e-mail ssiscracers@yahoo.com. The Club's St. Patrick's Day party is after and you must get your tickets in advance.

By Scott Simmons
Salt Spring Island
British Columbia