NSC member Chirstine Lavalée, sailing for Quebec, has won the gold medal in the 2.4 mR class at the Canada Summer Games held on Lac Magog, near Sherbrooke, QC. And Aaron Wong-Sing, sailing for Ontario, has won bronze.
Below is a picture of Peter Wood, the coach, wearing the medals of Christine and Aaron.
The following daily reports (latest first) were submitted by Coach Peter Wood. Results are available online.
Day 7 (Final day of racing)
Well it’s all over but the medal presentations. We had three races today and Christine dominated, winning two of the three although she had her gold medal wrapped up before the final race. She really sailed well in the shifty conditions. Her worst race, except for her breakdown, was a second (and she was in second place when she broke her vang).
For Aaron it was a case of the nerves really affecting his performance today. He was very nervous going into today’s racing although he had a lock on silver. His nervousness translated into poor starts, over trimmed sails, too much backstay for the winds, etc., etc. He was so slow in the second race that it was painful. However he did regroup for the final race and placed third in that race. He has learned a lot today about confidence and we are going to continue working on skills as we have the North Americans in Toronto in late September as our next event. He realizes that a Bronze is still a medal and that five other sailors in his event are going home empty handed so everything is good. Other Ontario teams and competitors have had their dreams dashed at these games. In some sports your Canada Games dream ends in less than 2 minutes but we have 45 minutes in each race and there are 12 of them so we do have lots of chances to screw up or recover from a screw up.
The race today that Christine placed second in was won by Siobhan McDonald from Mabou, Cape Breton Island. Siobhan is only 15 years old but is a super-friendly young woman from a very supportive family and was well coached at the Canada Games by Paul Tingley, a former Paralympic Gold Medalist and 2.4mR open world champion.
Medal presentations are tomorrow.
Day 6 (Day 3 or racing)
Well it was another great day of sailing. Winds were 10 to 15 knots with big oscillating shifts. The race committee ran 4 races so tomorrow will be a lay day allowing us to recuperate and give us an opportunity to see some of the other sports.
Last night we watched British Columbia play Newfoundland in Basketball. British Columbia built an early lead and was comfortably ahead at the half. In a lesson for all of us the Newfoundland team fought back and although they didn’t have as much talent as the BC team they pulled ahead in the 4th quarter and won through determination and hard work.
Back to sailing, Christine continues to dominant with a first, 2 seconds and a DNF in the four races run today. In the last race she broke her vang while sailing on the first downwind leg. It is now repaired so instead of a second place drop she not will use her DNF. She is by far the best 2.4mR sailor in getting into phase with the shifts and her upwind sailing has been excellent. Both of her second’s could have been firsts as she made a couple of mistakes on the final runs. She is still solidly in First place.
Aaron had a tougher day. In three of the races he lead at the first windward mark but he let victory slip through his fingers. It seems that he was chasing shifts rather than getting into phase with them. There were no big black clouds today to put him back into the lead. His results were fourth, second, seventh and third. He is still sitting in second place but lost ground to the Saskatchewan sailor.
Wednesday will be another day.
Day 5 (Day 2 of racing)
Another successful day for our NSC 2.4mR sailors at the Canada Games. The first race of the day saw Aaron grab a big lead on the first leg only to have it evaporate near the windward mark. He struggled to get into phase with the shifts and the wind bands and dropped to fifth place until a big black cloud rolled in from his side of the course which allowed him to pass all the boats ahead of him and roar down the leeward leg to the finish in a heavy rain squall finishing 1st. Christine saw Aaron snatch victory from her and finished 2nd. In the Second race of the day Alberta caught a shift on the left side and neither Christine nor Aaron could track her boat down, placing 2nd and 3rd. In the final race of the day Christine put her boat into overdrive and led from the first windward mark. Aaron thought he was OCS and turned to go back for a restart when the X flag was lowered and it was another competitor who was OCS. He fought back picking off a boat here and a boat there until he established himself in 2nd place.
After five races
Christine has a 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 dropping a second Place finish. She is first overall
Aaron has a 1, 3, 1, 3, 2 dropping a third place finish. He is second overall.
There are still 4 days of racing left so lots can happen. Everybody is positive and we are getting into our routines. Lights were out at 10:0pm
Day 4 (Day 1 or racing)
Start your engines, I got Aaron off the dock and then went make sure that Christine was ready to go. Christine had what appeared to be a broken spring on her jib halyard but we locked it in place and I promised to fix it at the end of the day. In race 1 Aaron led the whole way and was not really threatened, Christine went the right way on the second beat (hard left) , passed 2 boats to finish second. An excellent start for Team Poutine!!
Race 2 was run twice………An error in moving the windward mark resulted in the sailors all sailing towards the wrong mark so the race was abandoned. Aaron was a solid second when the race was cancelled Christine 5th
Race 2 second time……..Aaron got a good start, Christine’s was poor but she went to the favoured left side while the rest of the sailors worked the right. By the time she was Day 5 (Day 2 of racing):half way up the first beat she was ahead of the fleet. Aaron who was initially leading couldn’t make up his mind of while side he wanted so he tacked too many times up the middle losing ground each time he tacked. He let the Saskatchewan guy get by him on the right and Christine was long gone on the left. He finished third.
So After 2 races Christine has a 2 & 1 and is First
Aaron has a 1 & 3 and is in second place
Joe, the Saskatchewan guy has a 5 & 2 and is in third place.
Still lots of racing left.
Day 3
Out to the sailing site. I got both Aaron’s and Christine’s boats rigged and they got their provincial letters on their sails and were able to sign off on measurement. WE got out to the practice race which was held in 8 to 10 knots of wind. Aaron showed his colours as he led through the first windward/leeward and then dropped out at the top mark so we could get back to Bishops University for changing before heading to Opening Ceremonies at University of Sherbrooke.
Opening ceremonies was really neat. Of course we arrived at the field house for staging about 90 minutes before we were to march into the stadium. What did we do with our time? We had a cheer leading contest with each province trying to out cheer the other provinces. When our time came half of the provinces marched in through the north entrance of the stadium and the other half marched in through the south entrance. We march half way around the track and then were seated on the grass immediately in front of the stage. The organizers had very good entertainment which reflected on the diversity of the region. Stephen Harper spoke in both English and French on the theme that the Canada Games (which first took place as a Winter Games in Quebec City in 1967) was a unifying force for Canada through youth and sport. Madame Marois was a no show but was replaced by the Quebec deputy Premier who rambled on in French only for much more than the allotted 2.5 minutes. The highlights of the evening were a group of trampoline athletes who jump off a 20 foot stage prop and bounce right back onto the prop. You had to see it to believe it. The entertainment ended with Johnny Reid one of my favourite singers doing the final set with a number of us getting on the stage to dance to the music and a great fireworks display.
Day 2
Well I thought we were through measurement when we got our boats weighed, masts, booms measured and sails measured on July 31st but I guess I am just an optimist. The measurer determined to add the weights of everything and came to the conclusion that we were over weight. He weighed everything separately which also probably gave an inaccurate reading. So we had to convince him that the seat and cushioning were not part of the boat weight (saved 2.5 Kilo’s on Christine’s boat and 1.5 on Aaron’s boat) and I removed the a small corrector weight on Aarons boat saving another 1.5Kilo’s. Both Paul Tingley and I were convinced the measurer had the weight wrong as he kept saying maximum weight was 253Kgs when we thought it was 254 kgs. Finally we figured out that he transposed the 5 and 4 and thought the minimum weight was 245 kg’s when the actual minimum weight was 253 Kgs. I had pulled out a lead keel weight and was planning to use my Hack saw to cut off 2.kg’s of weight. Once we found the error we were in by the skin of our teeth but without having to cut lead. The it started to rain so I decided I was wet so we launched Aaron & Christine’s boat at 6:30 pm and I got to the residence at 7:15 pm in pouring rain. Once I got to Bishops it took awhile to get hooked up with the Ontario team so I had dinner at about 9:30pm.
Day 1
Our Nepean Sailing Club athletes and boats arrived safely at Canada Games Regatta headquarters on Lac Magog yesterday afternoon. “Lead foot” Aaron Wong-Sing got a speeding ticket rolling down the hill on Autoroute 40 just past Hudson QC. thus helping reduce the Quebec deficit.
We got our boats through a quite through measurement procedure with Masts weighed, hulls weighed, sails measured, life jackets inspected, measurement and floatation certificates presented. Everyone at the regatta is impressed by the condition of our 2.4mR sailboats and the professionalism we are bringing to the regatta. The boats look like they just came new out of the box although they have had four and five years of use.. Thank you Marcel and Fraser for your tender care of the equipment.
Today we will be rigging our 2.4mR’s and getting ready to launch them as they will be in the water for the whole week of the regatta. (we will need to make sure we put in our keel drain plugs before launching). Aaron and Christine will be going through Classification today which shouldn’t be a problem because they are already classified by our International Disabled Sailing Association..
Another positive event is that the regatta chair found a parking place for my Cargo Van which is just perfect for my needs. It really does show there is payback for helping others. By the way…………I think my spare boom will be used by another province who unfortunately left there’s somewhere in Western Canada.
All articles extracted verbatim form Peter Wood’s emails to the webmaster.