Well Frostbite Sunday racing has ended and the annual club haul-out has begun, drawing to a close another fantastic NSC sailing season on the waters of the Ottawa River! Which means time for the final quarterly wrap-up report on the Fall Sailing activities organised by your fellow NSC members.
I want to thank all this year’s volunteer members of the NSC Fleet Committee, Regatta organising teams, special event organisers, and weeknight RC, scoring, and protest volunteers and our club staff for their contribution and leadership in making this season’s Sailing Program the success it was. An estimated 7,500+ total volunteer hours goes into the program and associated 35+ club events to create a very comprehensive seasonal calendar of activities of member benefit.
Program Participation: One key metric used to track success of any club program is member participation. As mentioned in the prior Fleet Report, weeknight racing participation continues to be strong on par with previous years including a record 2014. With the conclusion of fall, I’m pleased to report that the focus on our more social, fun weekend sailing events such as Midnight Madness and Turkey Trot (see below) and the Long Distance series has also born fruit with participation up significantly over last year.
NSC Race Fleets: Of possible interest to some are what NSC boat designs or One Design fleets are behind the above numbers. Below is a 2015 snapshot for both keelboats and dinghies that sizes our race fleets relative to recent years. Note that approximately a third of NSCs participating race keelboats are unique types, single in fleet size, as well as a good number of Catamaran’s which are not shown here. Which by inference, also shows the value of club Handicap racing for inclusive participation. Also key, these are the numbers of boats that leave harbour on any given race night week, not total NSC boats in harbour or yard which offers much greater potential, given the right fleet leadership and mentoring.
Crewing Opportunities: As part of our initiative to facilitate important crewing opportunities, an end of season survey was sent to the 25 users of the Crew Bank resource to assess its effectiveness. 15 responses were received from both Skippers & Crew, and they were all thankful, and identified the Crew Bank as useful for them. Most found multiple opportunities to sail at NSC this year including some regular crew, and even those that posted late in the season. You can read the full survey report here.
Midnight Madness, August 21: A unique, annual event popular to those who have experienced it, this year’s Midnight Madness was very well attended with 11 boats (6 in 2014) coming out as tradition lit up like Christmas trees for some fantastic night sailing. This year’s fleet included 3 BYC boats and both LTS instructor J/24s “VA-J-J” and “Jalapeno”. Congratulations to 1st place “Snoekie” (full disclosure: I wasn’t aboard J) and all the real winners who chose sailing over late-night TV.
Shark Worlds, August 21-28: We were fortunate to have this year’s 2015 Shark World’s hosted locally by BYC creating a unique opportunity for Interclub sailors to experience what an International Regatta is all about. In addition to offering up RC support resources and officials, 6 NSC Sharks took part in an incredible week of serious and major event competitive sailing. Check out the results and photos.
FAntastic Nepean FAll REgatta, September 12-13: Our thanks to Co-Chairs Mike Sink and Chris Gillies, PRO Mario Poirer, and the rest of the volunteer team for organising another fantastic 2015 FANFARE Regatta. In spite of some terrible rainy weather, 8 races were run over the two days for the 6 fleets of 37 boats including the 505 Canadian Championships. See the Chair’s regatta report and results.
Lac Deschenes Open PHRF Regatta, September 20-21: The 3rd revival of the Lac Deschenes Open PHRF Regatta was hosted again by BYC this year. With such few local Keelboat regattas on the calendar, a number of keen Interclub (BYC/CVGR/NSC) boats took advantage of the opportunity to compete in some gorgeous fall winds for Saturday’s course racing and Sunday’s Long distance race. The summary regatta report and results are available here.
Long Distance Series, September 26, 27: This year’s Interclub Long Distance series concluded with the last two races, NSC 20 Mile Trophy race and BYC Queen’s Park on the same weekend. Congratulations to BYC boats ‘Gunsmoke’(PHRF) and ‘Halcyon’(JAM) who won the NSC hosted race, and NSC boats ‘Gamache’(PHRF) and ‘Rainy Day Woman’(JAM) who won the BYC hosted race. Now there’s an awards pickle to be sorted! And congrats to all the Interclub boats that came out and vied to be the ‘Baddest Boat’ on the river either on the day, or for the season. You can check out the exciting individual race and overall series results here.
Frostbite Series, October 4, 11, & 18th: In October, our 5th and final weekly Interclub race series moves to Sunday afternoons for warmer temps and bettor light. Fall sailing can be absolutely fantastic when the weather co-operates (though frustrating when you can’t get the shifts rightJ), and this year was no exception! 34 PHRF/JAM keelboats came out to play for the 6th consecutive record since 2009, along with 8 dinghies including a couple 420’s from the University of Ottawa club. You can read Hugh Morrin’s Frostbite Series reports and check the results here.
Turkey Trot Race & Feast, October 12: As the club kicked off the 2015 season with a fantastic social, fun event (Commodore’s Sailpast 2015), it absolutely blew the doors off in attendance terms to close the season with this year’s Turkey Trot! Over 50 club boats (new club record according to long-time RC Doug P.) came out for a great pursuit race on the water and the social feast afterwards. My sincerest thanks to Co-Chairs Leo Belleperche (On-shore) and Doug Patterson (On-water) and their assisting teams of volunteers who took a great traditional NSC event and made it even better! You can read the full report on Turkey Trot 2015 and results here.
Travelling NSC Sailors & Boats: As done in last quarters report, I’d like to give a shout out to those NSC boats and members who ventured afar this fall to sail competitively. The list includes; our LTS Youth Race Team (CORK International), NSC Laser Masters Sailors (Ottawa Valley Laser Masters), J/24’s ‘Pura Vida’ and ‘Tequila’ (J/24 Canadians), LTS Paralympic team & coach (2.4mR Canadians), Marg Hurley & crew (S.C. Women’s Keelboat Championship), J/22 ‘Raised J’ (J/22 Lake George Open), NSC Albacore fleet (GRYC Invitational, KSC Open) and more. Many placed in top positions relative to their peers.
Well, it’s been a fabulous 1st season as your Fleet Captain and I’ve learned so much more from working with so many fellow volunteer members of diverse sailing backgrounds about how club sailing works at NSC, the operations of the club, and why many of us choose to experience and enjoy the sport.
I look forward to jointly celebrating with you the successes of the 2015 sailing season at the NSC Awards Nigh (Nov. 21st), and our club overall at the NSC AGM (Dec. 3rd) which are coming up fast!
Ross H. Ernst
Fleet Captain 2015
