FALL RACE SERIES
SUMMER RACE SERIES RESULTS
The series is now complete and was won By Chris Fulton in Ruby Sue with a clean sweep a jut 3 points in 3 races. Jan Luthe was second with 6 points in 3 races in Float On after placing second consistently in each race. Third Place was John Burns in Conquistador with 14 points including a DNS. Bob carpenter was 4th with 17 points having lost his mast in the third race ,so,had a DNF and the a DNS. The results details are linked below
The Summer series got off to a shaky start when a a squall hit the three boats waiting to start with high wind and a “tropical” downpour. The race was abandonned and very sodden sailors retreated to hot showers and shelter .
The Second race on July 16 had nice breeze and Jan and Chris had a good tussle for the lead amongst some furler problems on Ruby Sue and overshooting a couple of marks on Float On.
240718 Summer Race series 2024 final pdf
CANADA DAY RACE RESULTS
July 1t weather played its usual tricks with very low winds that frustrated crews nd resulted in the race being shortened. the results are linked below. Blur Sky sailing howled very well in both flying and non flying categories… the main skill needed was logged peristence.
240701 rce resultsailwave-results-for-2024-canada-day-regatta-at-2024
SPRING RACE SERIES
Tuesday night races start June 4th at 6:30. There are 4 races in the series and each skipper can drop one result.Skippers pay the entry fee to BSSC.
Chris Fulton will establish the course and provide racing instructions. Crew pay a per race fee in the same way as for social sails.
2024 THE FIRST YEAR THAT BLUE SKY SAILING STaRTS A WEEKLY RACE SERIES…
There will be three series of races during the year. Each series will be four races with a race on Tuesday evenings at 6:30pm. The spring series starts June 4th, Summer series starts July 9th and the Fall series starts August 20th.
In addition BSSC will retain its Regatta which evolved in the last two years and move it into August to take advantage of weather that is usually warmer than September.
Neither the weekly race series nor the Blue Sky Regatta preclude members taking part in racing in Callander at NBYC. In recent years Blue Sky Sailing boats have been well represented in the Canada Day race, The O’Shea Sprint and the Fall Regatta.
Stay tuned for more details as the season’s races get underway!
Club Race Day, September 17th. 2023
Despite light breezes the day had pleasant weather with calm water and lots of fun competition. It started early for Chris Fulton and Darin Mendoza as they put the marks out for the races. The course was upwind and downwind with a gate at each end. Race instructions required competitors to sail outside the gate and come back through it. Most skippers followed those instructions but , as the competition was friendly, those that didn’t were not protested or penalized.
Races started into the wind and had four legs …. even though Bob Carpenter was convinced that three legs were enough on the first race, hit the mark and had to take a penalty before starting out on the final downwind leg.
There was one race in the morning and two in the afternoon. There was close racing and associated tactics between Float On and Inevitable and also between Conquistador and Oncidium. Unfortunately Ruby Tuesday had less fun because she was too far ahead! The results follow:
2023 Blue Sky Regatta. September 9th and 10th.
The regatta was held on Saturday Sept 9 and Sunday Sept 10 at North Bay on triangular courses near the marina. The courses were short and oriented differently on each of the two days to get an upwind leg.
There were four races and five boats although Ruby Tuesday (J24) was not available to race on the Saturday….which was just as well as Chris and Adam went on to blow all the competition away when they did race!
Members participating sailed on different boats and with other team mates as often as possible…the table shows which crew were on which boat.
The Saturday races were delayed until afternoon while the participants waited for wind. When it arrived it was fitful and boats had to be lucky to get then wind as well as skilful to use it when there was some.
A “rabbit” start was used and Oncidium headed off and got a good lead as other competitors struggled with changeable winds to pass the mark and cross her stern. Once away, Float On and Inevitable gave chase while Conquistador was caught in a prolonged lull. It was a close finish between these three.
Inevitable stalking Float On. (more pics coming soon).
The second race started more easily and Float On and Inevitable were battling for the lead. Float On took the lead before the upwind mark but grazed the mark and lost boat speed while performing the penalty.
Conquistador and Oncidium were sailing well but Oncidium developed a steering problem in the cables to her wheel so Darin was not able to control the boat with confidence. Oncidium was replaced by Allegro in subsequent races as there was not a quick fix for the steering.
Races 3 and 4 were again delayed and a nice breeze came in from the West. As the “rabbit” start had not been successfully implemented , it was replaced with a line start. The fleet was also joined by Adam Fulton’s J24, Ruby Tuesday, which dominated the next two races and demonstrated what a quick boat it is when well handled. The third race had a neck and neck finish for 2nd place as Float On and Inevitable were side by side on the downwind leg. There was only about a boat length between them at the finish. Ruby Tuesday had to wait a long time for the 2nd and later boats to come in.
A steady breeze for the 4th race saw all the boats going nicely. Although not first across the line, Ruby Tuesday pulled into the lead in the first upwind leg and only moved further ahead from then on. In another close duel between Float On and Inevitable, Float On made a good pass after the last upwind mark and consolidated her lead downwind to the finish.
Results are tabulated below.
A special thanks to Carol for lending her power boat to place and retrieve marks and to Jan for making the marks.
O’Shea Sprint 2023
The O’Shea Sprint is held in Callander Bay and run by NBYC in memory of
Mike O’Shea.
On August 19th 2023 it was a sunny day with light but fairly steady breeze. The race started at 11:00 and was a simple sprint around McPherson Island. It’s a friendly race with recognition for the first boat over the finish line that ins over 30 ft and under 30 ft. Boats over 30 ft had a longer course so that competitors finished at about the same time.
Blue Sky Sailing club was invited to participate and had three boats in the race.”Float On” with Jan Luthe, Lyn Vuorimaki and Joel Harrison, “Oncidium” with Darin Mendoza and Tim Hicks and “Inevitable” with Bob Carpenter and Carol Tremblay. The start in the yacht club bay saw the over 30 ft boats heading off the mark 2 while the smaller boats headed directly upwind and mostly starting on a starboard tack.
“Inevitable” was the fastest boat upwind and arrived at the island in third place overall. Going through the island gap she made up a place and was second place behind the leading over 30 ft boat, “Arctic Rose”. On the downwind leg “Inevitable ” lost ground and was passed by “Proteus” and “Float On”. “Float On” got good speed wing on wing with a whisker pole out and passed “Proteus ” to cross the line first among the less than 30 ft boats.
In the smaller boats class “Float On” was first . “Proteus”second, Inevitable ” third and “Oncidium” fourth. There is no handicapping so that these were the results. “Float On” and Jan Luthe will be recognized with a plate on the trophy.
The event continued with a reception at Lulu’s Tavern hosted by NBYC which was sociable with good food served. Blue Sky members left the lunch to sail back to North Bay arriving at about 6 pm/
Good sailing, good company….looking forward to next year.
2022 Fall Regatta in Callander hosted by NBYC
Five boats from Blue Sky Sailing took part in the two race , one day event. The boats arrived the evening before the Sept 10 start and NBYC found slips for them all.
The winds for both races were light and areas of the Callander Bay were dead at times which caused frustration for some and good opportunities for others.
The results were posted on the NBYC site and are copied below:
Canada Day Race 2022 🇨🇦
NBYC hosted the traditional North Bay to Callander race in 2022. The weather cleared up after a cloudy morning, the threat of thunder evaporated and racers were left with a beautiful but windy day.
The start gun went at 13:15 with 12 boats crossing the line or at least an extension of it. Not all racers understood which side of the committee boat was the line. No matter the focus changed immediately to close hauling with more than 15 knots of apparent wind. It was a tough and bumpy sail and the entire fleet had to make at least one two tacks to round J5 and head into Callander Bay. After J5 a broad reach soon became a beam reach and boats made great speed across the bay and to the NBYC finish line.
Tuesday June 28th 2022, NBYC invited Blue Sky Sailing Club members to a “Learn to Race” evening comprising an information session and a trial race. 8 or 9 members participated and enjoyed an informative evening with a fun race. Most o the members were dispersed among NBYC boats. The only Blue Sky boat there was “Inevitable”.
Results are below.
September 8th 2020 BSSC “Cancellation” Regatta
Members had been looking forward to the NBYC Fall Regatta but it had to be cancelled for reasons beyond the organizers control. In lieu of the Fall Regatta BSSC held its own “Cancellation’ Regatta in which five boats and 14 members took part. While two of the boats were privately owned and skippered by their owners the three club boats were assigned to skippers in each race by lottery …. as were crew.
The course was a simple triangle with a start to windward, out to a gybe mark and then up and down finish to windward. A “rabbit ” start was used as there was no committee boat and skippers timed themselves on passing the last buoy.
The day was bright with a gusty northerly wind that went from 20 kph to zero in a heartbeat making sailing challenging and reading the wind shifts important.
By the end of the day the consensus of participants was that it had been a fun learning experience. Jan lost his rudder, Bob lost his glasses, Rob lost his way to the start but nobody lost their good spirits.
The results are below and show that there were some close finishes along the way.
We distributed a set of simplified racing rules to get us started. Click here SIMPLIFIED-RACING-RULES-FOR-BEGINNERS
2025 