(Oakville, Ontario, Canada)- Like their "bro's" and colleagues sailing
in the J/29s a bit farther East on the Canadian seaboard, the J/27s
managed to also attract a strong contingent of teams from across the
eastern parts of North America to sail in the J/27 Lake Ontario's off
Oakville (near Toronto). Here's the report from Dirk Sell, skipper of
WILLY-T:
"The ten J/27's battled it out for two days on Lake Ontario for the
Championships. Boats came from Beverly Mass, Collingwood, Hamilton,
Etobicoke, Buffalo and the local Oakville Fleet. Saturday, gave new
meaning to the term battled. Winds started in the low teens and steadily
increased throughout the day, and by the 4th race, were well into the
low twenties with gusts approaching 30 kts. 10- 12 ft waves were
crashing the foredeck.
12
kts down wind was the norm, with CURVED AIR reporting over 14 kts.
Those rarely used No.3 jibs were the order of the day for most of the
fleet, although some chose to use No.1's, to keep the boat driving into
the waves. Sunday arrived with more subdued, although fluctuating and
shifting, winds in the 8-12 kt range. The seas had diminished so it was
great "27" conditions for 3 more windward/leeward races."
Said the gang on CURVE AIR, "It was EPIC J/27 conditions on Saturday
with 20-30kts breeze and waves. So far no-one has come forward with a
better top speed of 14.3 Knots which we did under chute...we weren't as
fast when we hoisted the chute sideways...but to be sure we did it a
second time to confirm and after a bit of shrimping on the
douse...decided to fly it as a flag to dry it out. Good Fun...everything
is soak and everything still hurts.
Otherwise
the American's have invaded Canada Again (we've got our eye on you
Seitz)...4 Races Yesterday...another 3 today...so far it's a bunch of
kids in their dad's boat (CAN-99 Messing About @ 9 Points) and first
year of sailing it holding of Michael in Northern Seitz (USA-108 @ 10
Points). 3rd place in at 15 Points with a chance if they can manage to
get off the line decently...and finish goofing around with the
chute...yes that would be me (CAN-59 Curved Air).
There are GoPROs all over MESSING ABOUT so the on-board videos should be
awesome...once I get the links to everything will certainly
share...looking forward to them."
As for the crew on STARLET, here's what they had to say, "Thanks Andrew
for all of your hard work in organizing this regatta. I have no doubt
that it will continue to grow once word get back to other 27 owners
about how much fun the weekend was! As for us on STARLET, we had a
great time! We didn't really buy the boat with the intention of doing
much racing aside some JAM club racing with the kids but this weekend
might make us change our mind on that. Even though we were shorted
handed after dropping off 2 seasick crew on Saturday, the downwind rides
were a blast! Sunday was good, fun tight racing as well!"
The final results were the following: 1st place- NORTHERN SEITZ with 20
pts, 2nd was MESSING ABOUT with 21 pts, 3rd was CURVED AIR with 25 pts,
4th was STARLET with 31 pts and 5th was SHAZAM losing the tie-breaker
with STARLET.
In conclusion, Dirk commented that, "Our target for 2013, is 15 or more
boats. There are expressions of interest from 3-4 boats in addition to
the 10 from this year. So lets make it happen. Oakville is a wonderful
venue with downtown a 7 minute walk from the docks. The Oakville Jazz
Festival was taking place on the same weekend, so the evenings had
plenty of options for food, drink and entertainment. Thanks to Andrew
Reim (Curved Air #59) and the Oakville Yacht Squadron for a hosting a
great event."