My apologies for the delay in posting the newsletter this week. It was a busy weekend and we have (possibly) an even busier upcoming week, so there is a lot to cover.
Mid-Ontarios
This weekend, we hosted the Mid-Ontario Regatta. We had 140 sailors in four different fleets (Laser, Laser Radial, C420, and Feva) come out to sail.
In the Feva fleet – the 16 & Under Provincial Championships – Isabella and Trinity placed third. This is an incredible achievement for the girls! Despite windy, shifty, gusty, conditions, the Fevas managed to race (upright, for the most part) six races over the weekend. All 16 SLSC Feva sailors raced extremely well in difficult conditions.
In the 420 fleet, our SLSC alumni, Amy DesBrisay #We’reRelated and Kate Thomas had an incredible regatta. Despite their only racing practice in the past 5 (plus or minus a couple) years being Sunday Afternoon Races, they sailed by all those young racers with ease and won the overall trophy for the 420 class.
Our third SLSC triumph was Richard Farr winning the ‘Frog Trophy’ – the top SLSCer in the Laser Fleet.
Now on to some thank yous: We had an incredible group of volunteers this weekend – food makers, boat launchers and haulers, traffic controllers, billet arrangers, scorers, and the vast on-water crew of starters, finishers, mark-movers, safety boats and coaches. This is a true community volunteer effort. This wonderful event simply cannot happen without your help. This newsletter is already longer than my last week’s one and I’m not even done my first section, but I’d like to quickly mention a few of our superstars from this weekend. Clare Prendergast was charged with the daunting task of setting up over 150 people with places to stay around the point and despite many late registrants, did so with spectacular efficiency. Our food crew – Andrea and Jane Roberts on breakfast, Sarah Farr, Ashleigh Francis, and Kate McDonnell (with assistance from Kathy, Ashleigh’s mum) on dinner, Pauline Davis on lunch Saturday (brought to you on the water by Lisa Vehrs and Tyler Macmillan), and Marie and Andy Day on lunch Sunday – prepared incredible meal after incredible meal. Thank you to (Uncle) Hugh and (Auntie) Cath for offering their lawn for dinner on Saturday night, and when the weather looked ominous, for graciously inviting everyone into their home.
The harbour team, led by my dad (David), worked tirelessly to facilitate efficient launching of over a hundred boats. In a club whose docks are normally crammed with a mere 31, this was an unbelievable feat. Thank you to Emma Riegel ,Lisa Vehrs, Tyler Macmillan, Heather and Dorion Lavallee, Chris Holt, Patricia and Simon Aspinwall, Christina Hall, Maria Marlin, Andy Day, Judy Haverkort, Sara Gilchrist, Keira Webster and probably many more for helping out.
Thank you to the on-water team, led by Commodore Richard, who were faced with (many) huge, sudden shifts, missing marks, and faulty anchors, as well as patches of miserable weather on Saturday. Evan and Andrea Roberts helped out on Race Committee, and Madge Barr, Biz Agnew, Cacky Phipps and Sam and Erik Nyhuus made up our two finish boats. A special shout-out to Scott and Jack, friends of Matt and Margaret from the Ontario Sailing Team, who made the bizarre decision to come up for the weekend in order to sit on the pin-end of the start line for two full days volunteering. Our mark boat volunteers: Vice-Commodore David #YouGoDad, (Uncle) Hugh and (Auntie) Cath, Thom Nyhuus, Matthew and Sophie Day, Rowan Rix, and Elliott Ollerhead dropped and lifted exceptionally heavy marks with every wind-shift #TheyWereFrequent with no complaints at all.
Liz Barr and her friend Erika did all the scoring for all four fleets – not an easy task, especially given the number of protests.
Finally, I’d like to thank my instructor team. Kate, Madeleine, Matt, Margaret, Alison, Scarlett, Meg, Jack, Sophie, and Molly-Rose were absolutely incredible. On top of their on-water jobs –Race Committee, pin-end, mark boats, coaching, safety, and harbour master, they cheerfully helped set up, clean up, organize boats, help other boats, and so much more.
Mo-Ro & Jack/Meg & Scarlett
This week, we had to say goodbye to Molly-Rose a.k.a. Mo-Ro a.k.a. potato, and Jack. We are going to miss Mo-Ro’s friendship, calming presence, her wonderful instructor skills, and her lovely Northern-Irish accent. Jack is going to miss stealing her shoes. And her lifey. And her sweatpants #Jack’sLosingAFriendAndAWardrobe. Although we will also undoubtedly miss Jack, thankfully, he’ll be sticking around in the capacity of a sailor, so we will still get our shoes stolen, surprise piggy-backs, and thrown off the raft.
Although our hearts are still reeling from the loss of these two great instructors, we are comforted by our new instructor team additions – Meg Gilchrist and Scarlett Farr. Because I’m writing this so late, I have already spent two days on an instructor staff with them and I have no doubts that they will be similarly amazing.
Wednesday Fruit Olympics
Fruit Olympics is both the most anticipated and the most dreaded of all the fun days. On this day, ‘sailors’ will compete in a variety of non-sailing related activities, including orange necking, apple bobbing, and lime swimming before going on the water for our one sailing (or sailing related) activity – Watermelon football. For the final event of this pentathlon, each boat will push a car to the end of the driveway, and the skipper will then run back and lick a plate of mushed up bananas off a plate #Classy. Following the bananas, if you feel you can stomach eating anything at all, Patricia Aspinwall will be serving our weekly pizza lunch. Club will end at 1:00 pm instead of 12:30 pm.
Friday Night Disco
This Friday night dance is my personal favourite. I think it stems from winning it once about 10 years ago #NoBiggie, but the disco dance is something else. Starts at 7, ends at 9, and costs a dollar for entry. Pop, candy, and freezies will be sold.
Saturday: Civic Regatta
This Saturday, we are hosting our annual Civic Holiday Regatta. Registration starts at 9:00 am, there will be a skippers’ meeting at 9:30 am, and first gun is at 11:00 am. Registration costs $5 and there is an additional $5 fee if you would like to order lunch on the water. Everyone is encouraged to come down and sail! SLSC boats will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis, with priority to the junior club members.
Civic Trophy Return – Prize-giving
Prize-giving for Civic is at Rosehill (7 Henry St.) on Sunday evening at 7:00 pm. This year, we decided to change the format of this a little – instead of serving dinner, we will simply have ice-cream (for free!) and prizes. If you won a trophy last year, please remember to have it engraved with your name and bring it to Rosehill on Sunday, or drop it off at the club at any point this week.
Food Drive
We will be distributing bags for the Salvation Army Food Drive this week! Donations can be dropped off on Monday at the running races.
Reminders
To parents: a gentle reminder to please register your kids for sailing club before Mondays. Attendance sheets are assembled and printed on Sunday evenings and need re-assembling and re-printing if there are late registrants. If you have forgotten which weeks you have registered your child for please enquire at [email protected]
For our sailors, quick reminder to bring warm clothing to sail in (water is cold) and also that club is a nut-free zone.
Lots of love,
Adele