ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami

This is my third year competing at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami regatta and it was the best finish I have had yet. I finished 3rd in silver fleet and 43rd out of 70 bats that were entered. The regatta was held a week later this year, from January 28 to February 5. I flew down to Miami three days before the event stated, I was short of training time but it was the only way that I could make it work with school.

The weather was by far the best we have had in Miami in some time. There was hiking breeze every day but one and even in that day there was enough to get some good races off. I was a little rusty having not done that much sailing over the winter because of school. Most of the rust was in  the boat handling stuff, my tactics and boat speed felt good. I felt fast upwind. I got to the top mark in good shape a few times during qualifying, getting to the top mark in third in one of the windy races. I was hoping to make gold fleet and was disappointed that I did not make it.  After qualifying I was the 3rd boat going into the silver fleet and was able to maintain that till the end of the event. The last day of sailing was the windiest of the regatta, I had a good day coming second in the first race,  fifth in the second and second in the last race of the regatta. I was happy with the way I was sailing as the event was coming to an end, the thus teaching me I need more than three days to get back in the boat after some time not sailing full time.

We were staying at a local hotel that had a full kitchen which was great allowing us to cook all of our own meals. It was also within walking distance to the club, meaning that there was no need to drive the truck there every day, which in Miami is a huge plus.

I am now going back to school and will be hitting the gym hard as well as trying to continue to sail as much as possible. After I finish school in the spring I will be back to sailing full time. The one thing that I am finding with not be able to sail all the time is it is really making me get all I can out of the days that I get.

-Kyle

Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta

The Dale Jepsen One Design Regatta was held at the Bellingham Yacht Club on September 15th and 16th.  This was the third year that I have gone to this event and the third year that I have won the regatta. There were 20 boats in my fleet. Full results can be found here.

As always this event was a ton of fun. There was delicious food after sailing on both days. Unlike in the past the winds were light for both days of the event. In the past there has been one light day and one day with great wind. The race committee did a great job with the conditions that we were given, learning after the first day and making some changes for the second.

This year the rest of the Royal Vancouver team came down to Bellingham and this was awesome as it made that event way bigger than it would have be otherwise. The team brought the 12 boat trailer, it was almost full, and the everyone had a great time. The regatta organizers were really helpful and welcoming to everyone. The huge amount of supplied food was a hit with the whole team. I am looking forward to coming back next year and I think the team will be making it an annual event.

-Kyle

CORK OCR

CORK OCR was held in Kingston Ontario from August 18th to 22nd. I finished 8th out of the 33 boats that were entered in the event. The full results can be found here

I drove to to Kingston from Vancouver with the club trailer which was a 50 hour drive. There were two of us sharing the drive. This was an interesting experience and it certainly was a great way to see lots of Canada however it tuned out to be an uneventful drive in terms of any great adventures or problems.   After arriving I helped coach the RVYC team for the CORK International youth event in which the team did really well finishing with seconds in both the Laser and Radial. This event ended on Thursday the 16th so I only had one day of training before starting the OCR (Olympic Classes Regatta). That one training day turned out to be a great day of sailing with strong wind and some awesome waves.

The regatta started off with light and shifty wind for the first race. As the day went on the winds built and steadied out a bit. The pattern of the first race being lighter then building for the second and third being the windiest of the day went on all week. The time at which the wind came in and the strength that it built to differed day to day but we did not miss one race for lack of wind. The laser course was lucky in the fact that we had the latest start of all the fleets which meant that there was more time for the thermal to fill in. It was also the farthest course from shore which meant that  it was the first to get the thermal. 

We had some very interesting racing, most of the time Kingston is a go left place but because of where our course was you could play the shifts and make some big come backs. However, as the wind built it was more and more important to get to the left side. This made it a lot more of a thinking game that it normally is in Kingston.

I am home how and am heading off to school for the winter. I will be doing my best to keep training as much as I can. The plan as of right now is to take some time off around Christmas and train in Miami before the Miami OCR.


-Kyle

Laser North Americans

The Laser North Americans were held at the Gorge  near Portland, Oregon. It was held from July 19th to 22nd. I finished 9th out of the 51 boats in the event. Full results can be found here.

I drove down about a week before the regatta with my boat on the roof. I was camping just off the regatta site at Cascade Locks.  It was an awesome spot. I picked up a BBQ for our campsite and we cooked on that almost every night. Because of the winds there was never any bugs at our site.

The team and I got a lot of training off before racing started. The first day was windy. It was 19 kts gusting up to the high 20s. However on the second day of training it got properly wind. It was steady 30kts gusting 36kts as measured by the weather station on the side of the river. Day three was a lot like the second with huge winds.

After that the the days of training started to blend together but most of them were really windy. We did a lot of training,  working hard on calling the lay lines in the current and finding the best way to take advantage of it up wind.

The day before the regatta started was my birthday so the team went Go Karting in Portland. It was a lot of fun and a great way to take our minds off sailing. That night the team got me an awesome birthday cake.

The first day of the regatta brought light wind and chaos at the regatta site. There were about 180 boats total in the event and all of them had to measure in their sails. The regatta organizers did a good job of sorting it all out. After an hour postponement to wait for wind we got the first race going. The wind built throughout the day however it never got that windy.

Day two started off light and again built throughout the day. Over the first two days I had some decent and some really bad races. Day three was a bit windier and it continued to build and build. By the end it was really windy. I won the last race having had a good start and getting to the right side. I was 2nd around the top mark and then the first boat and I ground it out on the right side. We had a big lead by the top mark. I did not look around on the down wind and by the time I got to the bottom I was winning. Then I just sailed a good reach and last up wind. I was pumped about this race.  It finally felt like my sailing was all starting to come together.

The last day was the windiest of them all. I was really pumped. I had an ok first race and then a horrible second. However in both of them I was top three the the top mark. The third and last race I was first to the top mark having started at the boat and been the first to tack off to the right. After the great rounding I sail a solid rest of the race. I lead the whole race winning the race. I was really happy with it. It felt great to end the regatta on a high note.

I am pleased with finishing in the top ten and know that my result could of been better with the level of sailing I was doing however rounding the top mark in the top three spot a lot of the time and my up wind speed, which I think was some of the best in the fleet, are big achievements.

I now have some time off before CORK so I will be doing some coaching.

-Kyle

Waves Regatta

Waves regatta was held at the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club from June 23nd to June 24th. I finished 2nd out of the 24 Boats entered in the event. The full results can be found here.

Most of the regatta was sailed in light winds out of the west. It was really tricky sailing with lots of current as there always is on Waves weekend, you had to go the the beach to get out of the current but if you went too far you would run out of wind. We got eight races off in total over the two days. At the end of both days we got into the hiking straps.  I was happy with where I finished and this was by far my best Waves Regatta yet.

Next up for me, I am off to the Gorge for the Laser North Americans.
-Kyle

Sail For Gold

Sail for Gold was held in Weymouth, the  2012 Olympic site for sailing,from the 4th to the 9th of June. We only ended up sailing three of the days after the regatta was cut short when a storm came through and winds started to blow north of 30kts. I finished 79th out of the 95 boats that were entered in the event.
We arrived in Weymouth after Delta Lloyd and started training right away. We did five days of training before the regatta started. Training was really good because we were able to train with a group that included  the three best Laser sailors in the world. It was a great experience.


The regatta started with one of the longest days that I can remember  having at an event. We were at the club at nine and on the water at quarter to ten for the scheduled start time of 11 o’clock. After towing 45 min out to the course we started our first race on time. However the wind quickly died and the race committee was forced to abandon the race and send us all to shore to wait for wind. Finally at around 5 o’clock our AP flag came down and we all went back out with another 45min tow. We did get one race off but it was past 8:30 by the time we were off the water.  The race that we did get off was in light wind with some really strong current.

Strong currents, shifty winds and skewed sloppy waves were the norm for the event.  By day two the wind had started to build and we got three races off. Though they got us caught up and back on schedule, r it was another long day with a very long tow in.  On day three there were about 18-20kts and the trickiest down winds that I have sailed in a long time.

On the fourth day the forecast was for the wind to build throughout the day so the race committee moved the sliver fleets start  back in the day. This was to make sure that the gold fleet could get their races off before the storm came in. Gold fleet did get their races off but when it was time for our fleets to go it was too windy to send us out.  We spent a long time at the club waiting around for something to happen but in the end the wind never did die down and we did not get any races off that day.

For our last day they moved all of the races until later because the wind was forecast to die later in the day. After some time waiting around it became obvious that the wind was not going to die and the race committee blew off the day. After that we packed up the trailer and that was the end of Sail for Gold. It was a bit of a disappointment not to get any sailing on the last two days of the event but we did get a lot of training before the event. I am now on my way home for bit of a break after almost two months on the road. I am looking forward to it. The next event that I will be sailing will be the Waves Regatta out of Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. Then it is off the Gorge for the Laser North Americans.


-Kyle  

Delta Lloyd Regatta

The Delta Lloyd Regatta was held in Medemblik from May 22nd to May 27th. I finished 30th out of the 43 boats entered in the event as well 3rd Canadian and 5th in the last race.  I was very happy with that. The full results can be found here.


After the Laser Worlds Al and I spent two days in Berlin doing some sightseeing before flying to Amsterdam.  Then it was a short drive up to Medemblik where we were sailing. The place we were staying was a three bedroom cabin on the other side of the dike from the sailing center and it was great.

It was windy the first day that we sailed. After that the days were pretty similar with winds out of the North at 5-15kts. By the end of stay the weather had started to get really nice and we were in shorts most days.

We had five days of training before the regatta started and I missed only one for a lack of wind. Sailing here was a nice change from Boltenhagan as the water was warm and because it is a man made lake, fresh. 

Racing started with three races per day for the first two days which made for long days. On day three we were only doing two races but after sailing the first 4 legs of the race it was blown off for lack of wind. Then we sat around and waited for the wind to come in and finally at four o’clock we started the race again. In the end we did not get to shore until 6:10 and having launched at 9 am made it a really long day on the water.

The next day there was more wind. The combination of the lake and the wind made for some tricky waves. Sailing down wind was not easy.  The last day of racing was a one race day. I had an OK start by the boat and then I flipped and went a bit right. I sailed a nice beat and got to the top mark in 7th. I sailed a good downwind rounding the bottom mark in 6th. I had another good beat and was 8th at the top mark, then a great downwind finishing 5th.

The Delta Lloyd Regatta was great event with a lot of good guys in the fleet although it was considerably smaller than in the past. Now we are off to Weymouth,  the sailing site of the 2012 Olympics,  for Sail For Gold.

-Kyle