With the lure of the top four Albacore sailors and crews in the world, this promised to be an exciting event right from the start.  The hype did not disappoint!  Thirty one boats competed including competitors and participants from Toronto, Buffalo, Ottawa, San Francisco, Great Britain and Washington, DC!

Winds ranged from 10 to 25 knots over two days, with racing occurring in open water south of Toronto Island on day one, and in Toronto’s Inner Harbour, for day two.  Day one saw four long races in 10 to 15 knot winds, and waves one to two feet.  “Team Spot”  (Barney Harris and David Byron) pounced off of the start line to win the first three races.  Superb performances were also done by Ken Clarke / Sharon Palmer (2nd in first race), Barrie Farrell / Pat Maltby (2nd in second race), Michael McNamara / Raines Koby (2nd in third race) and Kevin Smith / Christine Short (2nd in fourth race).  Knocking on the door were Chris Gorton / Henry Pedro which scored a pair of “threes” on day one.

Day one, Saturday was punctuated by a great outdoor dinner put on be the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, plenty of roast beef, salads, and Apple Crumble for dessert.  Following dinner was an outdoor DJ dance, that, while it took a little while to get going, once the party got started there was no stopping.  Festivities went on long after many sailors decided to call it a day.  The weather co-operated, thankfully, with clear skies and warm temperatures.

Day two started off innocently enough.  About 23 degrees, sunny and mild, calm winds.  Some boaters were towed to the racecourse which was changed to Toronto’s Inner Harbour due to the light winds.  As the starting sequence began, the winds had settled in from the east-southeast, and were beginning to fill in.  During the six-minute starting sequence, the winds jumped ten to twelve knots, and built from there throughout the first leg. By the time boats rounded the weather mark, the winds were 20 – 23 knots! Temperatures dropped from 23 degrees C to about 13 degrees!  With the harbour water temperature hovering near 10 degrees,  this made for some challenging conditions.

Needless to say, this turned into a regatta of attrition, with many competitors capsizing at the weather and gybe marks, and others suffering boat and equipment failures while other sailors opted not to race at all!  The most notable incidents were Barney Harris and David Byron who broke their centreboard during the second race, and Chris Gorton / Henry Pedro who broke their vang during the last race and had to retire.

These incidents, coupled with some brilliant (and not-so-brilliant chicken-gybe) sailing catapulted McNamara / Koby to first place in the series.  Ken Clarke / Sharon Palmer proved that consistency pays by grabbing second place, and Chris Gorton / Henry Pedro managed to sneak by McNamara / Koby in the dying seconds of race six to take first place in the race, and third place overall, beating the fourth place team of Tim Broughton / Laurie Harrison by one quarter of a point!  Bruce Withrow / Sandy Swiatlowski’s consistency rewarded them with a fifth place overall, while Harris /  Byron’s downturn of luck slipped them to sixth.

The racing was fantastic, the winds were super, the party was fun, and best of all, the competition was huge, friendly and fun.  Hope to see everyone again next year!

Henry Pedro