5955 mm from top deckband to bottom of spin halyard

17 feet

10’2” = above deck

4.4 to 4.75 is the sweep

17.5 = spreader length

7.4.1 The overall length of spinacker pole shall not exceed 2516mm including pole fitting. When in use, it shall be attached to the mast fitting protruding not more than 50mm from the surface of the mast

We have all had bad wind this summer.  You know those days where an event is scheduled and you make arrangements, show up and you get crap.  Well, for all those bad wind days of summer, Toronto flushed all those memories down the toilet and we can now put away our boats this winter with a smile.

Saturday was light, but always enough for the bailers to work and the wind was absolutely consistent all day long. There was no trapezing but at least the sails were full.  The RC set the marks and left them for the entire day.  It brought tight racing and even Angus was pushing people around with some unbelievable ability to aggressively out-point and out-speed anyone who was foolish to be close to him.

Sunday, brought the best sailing that Dave Adams said he has seen in two years.  Adam Gesing claimed it was the best sailing he has seen all year, and this is after Windsor reported a good summer.  It was hot, sunny and from the east at 10-15 knots with gusts to 20 occaisonally.  And because it comes from the east, we had waves!

The RC had such respect for the needs of 505s that they ran the course way out to sea giving us all the wave action that develops 300 kms away.  Deb and Dave, used it on the downwinds where they gybe hoisted for all 4 races in the breeze and riding the waves down to the distance leeward.  The guiding principle was ‘let your crew call the gybes”.  This is only applies in wire running situations because it is the crew that can use the leech on the main to call the mark.  The tried and true rule is, with the crew positioned well back on the rail, trapping high and waiting for the mark to reveal itself.  That is when you gybe.  It works every time.

I think the entire fleet felt bad for the RC because the committee boat was really sitting all day in some lumpy water. The crash boat was kept extremely busy rescuing Contender Boats.

Our warmest of thanks to Angus Ross who did so much to make this regatta wonderful.  Nothing but the best wine, craft beer, beautiful cheese, steak and ice cream, sandwiches, good quality coffee, donuts to keep you planing all day long.  It is really out of this world the treatment you get from this guy.

We also like to mention the young blood of Andrew Gesing/Ian Marentette.  Our next generation of 505 sailors.

All I can say is that for those that did not make it, come next year.  You are almost guaranteed one day of wind.  If I recall, last year we had 25-30 on one day.

Here are the results.

Outer Harbour Centreboard Club
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
24th-25th September 2011

Entry fee Can/US $60 per boat (505); Can/US $30 per boat (Contender)
Eligibility:
505 Class only:at least one person in each boat must be a paid-up member of a national section of the International 5O5 Class association.
Insurance:
Each yacht shall carry a minimum of $500,000 of liability insurance. Proof of insurance will be required with registration.
Schedule of Events

Saturday, Sept 24th
0800 hours     Coffee & donuts @ OHCC
0830 hours     Registration opens
1000 hours     Skipper’s briefing
1100 hours     Race 1 followed by subsequent races up to 6 in total.
Bring your own on-water lunch
1730 hours     Dinner @ OHCC
Sunday, Sep 25th
0830 hours     Coffee & donuts @ OHCC
1000 hours     Subsequent races until maximum of 10 overall are completed
No starting sequence after 1330hrs
1530-1600 hours     Meal and Prizes

Sailing area:
Races will be held on Lake Ontario south of Toronto Islands unless weather and safety conditions dictate otherwise in which case the races will be held in the Outer Harbour.
Directions
From West of Toronto:
Take the Queen Elizabeth Way then the Gardiner Expressway to the Jarvis Street Exit. Keep Right at the fork in the ramp and merge onto Lakeshore Blvd E. After about 0.7mi (1.2km) the road bends round to the right and you keep right to join Cherry Street. Go over the two bridges to Unwin Ave. (if you get into Cherry Beach Park you have gone about 100 yds too far!). Turn left at Unwin and then take the first street right (Regatta Rd.) then turn left past the stop sign to OHCC.
From East of Toronto:
Take the 401 West to the Don Valley then the Don Valley south to the Richmond Street Exit. Take Richmond to Cherry Street (first stoplight) and turn south (left). Follow Cherry St south across Lakeshore Blvd then over two bridges to Unwin Ave. (if you get into Cherry Beach Park you have gone about 100 yds too far!). Turn left at Unwin and then take the first street right (Regatta Rd.) then turn left past the stop sign to OHCC.  If you are coming along Kingston Road then Lakeshore Blvd, you must turn left at Leslie, then right just before the Leslie St. Spit and follow Unwin Ave past the power station.  Regatta Rd is 1st on the left after the power station.
Registration: On –site but please confirm attendance to Angus Ross by e-mail, or phone before 5pm, Sep 17th.  Boats can be left at OHCC prior to the Saturday registration.  NB.  Regatta will only be held if at least 6 boats have confirmed by 5pm Sep 17th
Angus contacts:
E-mail: landaconcepts@rogers.com
Telephone: (416) 266-2025

Both days of racing were pretty similar, with the thermal building through the day. As always in a Vancouver Westerly, it paid to bang the left corner upwind, although this weekend was slightly atypical in that there didn’t seem to be much tide relief and sometimes less pressure in shore, so some teams made staying a bit right work, especially off the start line. Day 1 featured some aggressive starts, but great Race Committee work to keep the line square and get the races off with the help of one black flag. After a few races the course was moved closer to shore, which led to more tacking and opened up some tactical options. Several teams showed great upwind speed, with team Steve/Rob winning the first windward mark several times, and Cynthia/Charles doing enough to earn 2nd place on the day. Still our team (Phil/Reto) managed to win the day with straight bullets. While we got buried pretty handily several times on the first beat by teams starting at the boat and rolling, we managed to pass boats downwind pretty consistently and hang on in the second beat. Sunday was almost a carbon copy of Sat, although team Piper/Dan found a new gear in the lighter stuff, winning 2 races with horizon-job efforts and doing enough to lock down 2nd place. Brian/Evan hung around in enough races to eventually claim 3rd in a very close battle, even while earning one shameful black flag DSQ. We managed to win the last two races for the championship.

I think one of the keys to the weekend was knowing when to wire reach and when to sit run in the changing conditions. We learned that even in marginal wire reaching conditions it still seems to pay to jump wire, every time we wire reached we gained, even in barely-planing conditions. The key to making this work is keeping the boat on the plane at all times (the minute you fall off the plane it’s game over as your VMG will tank). If you can’t plane without reaching way high, time to sit run. We do this by getting the crew right to the top of the wire, and I typically yell at Phil to sail higher the minute I sense we’re about to slow down, and gently tell him to soak if we’re too powered up – it’s easy for the crew to tell by how hard they’re hiking or crouching in. This is definitely harder to do in marginal conditions if you’re a heavier crew, but I think you can still pull it off at a decent crew weight (we’re around 380lbs combined, crew 195lbs at the moment). At the PCCs we leaned that some of the heavier California crews have a rather politically-incorrect expression for this technique related to some of the apparently less macho members of our increasingly dominant European fleets. But it works.

All in all a great weekend of 5-oh sailing, with great work being done by the race committee and volunteers. Also thanks to Cynthia & Charles for providing most of the organizational muscle this year, and for keeping the beer flowing and food delivered on time! Looking forward to next time…

Reto

20115o5CanadianNOR

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Dave Adams

Dave Adams

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