Friday, July 24, 2015

J/109 Wins Lake Ontario 300

J/109 winner of Lake Ontario 300 Challenge race (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada)- While the Trans Superior Race of 600+ miles may be the longest race on the Great Lakes (other than the occasional SuperMac), the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge continues to be the premiere offshore race on Lake Ontario and certainly one of the most challenging circumnavigations of any of the Great Lakes. A group of double-handed racers originally developed the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge as the ultimate double-handed challenge in 1990 and it still remains the longest annual fresh water race.  The Main Duck Island course is 300nm and starts at PCYC. It includes mark roundings at Gibraltar, the Main Duck Islands, Ford Shoal, Niagara R2 and finishes back at PCYC.

Sailing this year’s Main Duck Island Course in IRC 2 Class was Leszek Siek’s J/35 JAEGER from Port Credit YC, they managed to pull off a 4th overall.

In the PHRF 1 Class, Murray Gainer’s J/109 LIVELY absolutely crushed their colleagues in the largest class in the event and took first overall by a substantial margin!  Fellow classmate, Graham Toms’ J/120 THE CAT CAME BACK, sailed a well-earned 4th in class.

Finally, in the PHRF 3 class, Bonnie Rieb’s J/33 DAYBREAK from Toronto took 3rd! They were followed by two J/105s- Geoff Clarke’s CASUAL ELEGANCE in 6th place and Tom Accardo’s SOTTOVENTO taking 8th position.

This year, the LO300 racers had to share their waters with the sailing events of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games that will be taking place in the Toronto Inner Harbour and just south of the Toronto Islands in July.  As a result, the LO300 organizers adjusted the initial part of the course, removing Gibraltar as a mark and adding a mark offshore, southeast of the start, to be left to port.   For more Lake Ontario 300 Race sailing information