Saturday, May 17. (10:00 until early afternoon) join your friends and pitch in to help open facilities and get the club ready for the season.
This will be an excellent chance to catch up after winter, meet new members, and work together to get the club houses, grounds and equipment ready for the upcoming sailing season. Both outside work and inside cleaning will be required. For outside work, come prepared with proper footwear and work gloves. Bring rain gear if the forecast calls for precipitation.
Grounds/Harbour Masters, Al and Garth, will have a list of tasks needing to be completed on that day.
Although it felt like there were many afternoons when conditions were unfavourable for sailing, we completed a record number of races this dinghy racing season. We were somewhat less lucky with keel boat sailing.
This year, our club motorboats worked reliably and setting up the races went smoothly when the weather cooperated. Many thanks to Deb Woods and the Kellys who helped run many of the races.
Working with the MSA and the West Hawk Sailing Centre, we had a very successful Manitoba Juniour championship and Laser District 4 regatta. Thanks to all those who volunteered to help make that event such a success.
The FYC Dinghy Racing Series
We ran a total of 53 races in the series this year. 24 skippers participated, including 9 women. We recorded 343 dinghy starts, an average of 6.5 boats at each start. This year, Thirteen skippers won at least one race: B Kelly, Feavers, Dave L, B Woods, Wendy, Roger, Sharlene, Craig B, Phil, Penny, Jean, Gavin and Sara.
Our races followed a typical distribution over the summer, with a strong August.
Falcon 2024 Dinghy Championship
11.1 The scoring system is as follows: The Low Point scoring system of Appendix A for “series longer than a regatta” (Rule A9) will apply to all races official club races completed in the year, of which 15 races will be required to be completed to constitute a series. A boat’s series score will be the total of her race scores, excluding her 16th best score and all those below it.
Ten skippers completed 15 or more races, and two completed 14 and with the DNS penalty were still competitive in the FSC Dinghy Series.
Results for 2024 FSC Dinghy Series
1 Sharlene 15 2 Wendy 28 3 Roger 34 4 Phil 34 5 BWoods 35 6 B Kelly 54 7 Dave L 54 8 Jean 54 9 Feavers 56 10 Dave H 75 11 Anna 76 12 Patti 89
Sharlene won a total of 18 races!
Most Improved Sailor
Each year, we watch with interest the progress of sailors as they learn to manage their boats in a variety of conditions. We celebrate this progress by naming one “Most Improved Sailor” every year.
The most improved sailor for 2024 is Phil McAmmond
2024 FSC Keel Boat Series
The weather was not very cooperative on keel boat racing days, we were only able to hold two keel boat racing days this season.
Scoring for keel boat races is based on each boat’s results for half the total number of races in the series, rounding upward for an uneven total.
This year, we completed five races, so a boat’s best three scores were counted.
Our methodology for rating the very different boats is limited by the available data; one boat is not rated with any handicap, other boats have ratings, but they may be based on different equipment, for instance some are rated for a spinnaker.
Four skippers participated in the KB series. We completed a total of five races, so “at least half” represents three races. All four skippers completed at least three races to qualify.
It looked like we had some wind for keel boat sailing, but it was not consistent, so at times the boats stopped moving. Eventually we all made it over the finish line.
Another warm, windy day. Winds predominantly from the North. We set a course with a reach mark, so we enjoyed some high speed reaching. Thanks again to Deb for running the races.
Skipper UK position RACE 1 Feavers 1 Wendy 2 Roger 3 B Woods 4 Jean 5
Conditions were favourable for a scheduled keel boat race for the first time this year, so we took full advantage and ran four races. Since Deb and Maureen volunteered to run the races from the committee boat, dinghy sailors were also able race with a separate start.
Winds were reasonably brisk from the north, north-west, which kept all the boats moving nicely.
Keel Boat Results:
Skipper KB position RACE 1 Feavers 1 Al 2 Garth 3 Ian 4
RACE 2 Feavers 1 Ian 2 Al 3 Garth 4
RACE 3 Feavers 1 Ian 2 Garth 3 Al 4
RACE 4 Feavers 1 Ian 2 Garth 3
Dinghy Results:
Skipper UK position RACE 1 Craig B 1 Wendy 2 Sarah 3 Cole B 4 B Woods 5 Anna 6
RACE 2 Sarah 1 Craig B 2 Dave L 3 Cole B 4 Wendy 5 B Woods 6 Anna 7
RACE 3 Craig B 1 Wendy 2 Dave L 3 Sarah 4 Cole B 5 B Woods 6 Anna 7
Saturday August 17th. From the club, it didn’t look like much wind on the lake, but when the race committee went out to set the marks, there was a gentle and variable breeze blowing from the North East. Those conditions lasted for the afternoon, creating typical challenging Falcon racing conditions. Eight boats were on the start line.
Overall result:
Sharlene
Dave T-L
Roger
Patti
Brian W
Brian & Penny
Ian Garcia
Deb W
RACE 1 Dave L 1 Roger 2 Patti 3 Sharlen 4 B Woods 5 B Kelly 6 Deb W 7 Ian 8
RACE 2 Sharlen 1 Patti 2 Dave L 3 Roger 4 B Kelly 5 B Woods 6 Ian 7 Deb W 8
RACE 3 Sharlen 1 Dave L 2 B Woods 3 Roger 4 B Kelly 5 Patti 6 Ian 7 Deb W 8