What an incredible start to the 2016 sailing season with a packed June of back-back club sailing events and the conclusion of a very active weeknight racing’s Spring Series! Your fellow Fleet Committee members and Regatta/event teams have been busy (Please remember to thank them!).
As highlighted at the members Spring Information Meeting, Fleet has a rich comprehensive 2016 Sailing Program of social sailing events, weeknight racing, and interclub regattas for you to get out on the water and enjoy your club and boats this year. There’s something new for everyone to discover about your Nepean Sailing Club and sailing the Ottawa river.
Here’s some highlights and results from what has been a fantastic Spring season. I’m particularly excited to see the impact our 5 strategic priorities for the 2016 Sailing Program is having on enhancing NSC membership and participation overall thus far. Remember, none of this happens without the support of a number of incredible member volunteers and our club staff.
‘Fun’ Social Sailing Events:
- BYC/NSC Pinheys Pt. Races (June 4/26): A significant number of new NSC boats giving upriver cruise races a go this year with family and friends! 15 NSC boats out for either or both days versus 9 last year. A gratifying response to a bit of positive awareness effort!
- Commodore’s Sailpast (June 11): In spite of some not so nice dismal grey and drizzly weather, 40+ boats including the Youth Race/LTR team on-the-water for the traditional NSC club Sailpast. And a packed clubhouse for Burgee presentation and dinner/dance afterwards.
- GOOTW Day (PR, June 25): 123 smiling and very appreciative public participants out of 150 advance reservations. 60+ energised, well fed (thx to Hospitality’s awesome ‘foodie proof’ burgers) member volunteers from across our club incl. 25 ride/display boats and their skippers. Follow-on stories of; boats being bought, Sail Training signups, dinghy crewing tryouts, a Gatineau family travelling to KYC (since NSC was full) pointing to the potential of such initiatives.
- Upcoming ‘Fun’ Events: Coming soon this summer to your club; Mohr Isle Race & Weekend (July 23/24), Baskin’s Beach (Social, August 6/7), Stoney Point Race (August 14), Midnight Madness (August 19), and Harbourmaster’s Race (August 20).
Weeknight Race Program:
- Race Registrations: We’re tracking to be up again from last year in terms of race program registrations! 148 NSC Keelboats and Dinghy/Cat registrations so far. With more Dinghies showing up on the race course and yet to register.
- RC Volunteer Program: The Race Committee Volunteer system continues to perform well considering the 20% increase in spots this year to support Monday and Wednesday nights. Thanks to all who have already volunteered, there’s still spots available for Thursday JAM nights.
- Spring Series Participation: Nearly all weeknight fleets are above their 5yr averages this year, and on par to up over last year’s numbers for boats hitting the course. Highlights so far are the Women’s Monday night fleet (which continues to grow a boat a year), new NSC JAM boats hitting the water, and the increase in weekend upriver race participation.
- New JAM Boats: There’s also some good, grassroots traction amongst our JAM fleets to introduce new skippers, crew, and boats to try a more relaxed racing format (our equivalent of the Aussie ‘Twilight Races’). This includes newer-to-racing NSC boats like “Shocking Beauty”, “Lynx”, “Smyril”, “Akvavit”, and “T for Two”. Expect more to come.
NSC Regattas:
- Ottawa Skiff & Cat GP (June 4/5): What do you do when the Canadian 49er and 29er fleets effectively disappear? Source a great PRO and new sponsor, invite 2 LDSC board directors, disguise some Hobie Waves as ‘High Performance’ boats, have your photographer double as safety support, press gang some I-14 sailors to double as the band for free, and presto you’ve innovated a regatta on the cheap only a few boats shy of the previous year!
- NOD Regatta (June 18/19): A more than respectable 81 boats from 17 clubs with only 10 fleets, including double digit Vipers, J/24s, and Fireballs with strong 2.4mR, Shark, and 505 fleets this year. For all its size and complexity, one of the smoothest managed NSC events so far. My own Tanzer 22 fleet certainly had a fun and traditional NOD experience from the get go!
- National Capital Cup (June 9/10): 15+ Able Sailors and their boats travelling across the country from as far as Calgary to compete in this year’s Gold and Silver fleets!
- Upcoming Regattas: Lac Deschenes Open PHRF Regatta (August 6/7), FANFARE – Cdn Fireball & F18 Championships (Sept. 11-13), Cdn Women’s Keelboat Championship (Sept. 15-18).
Strategic Priorities:
- Create Crewing Opportunities: Crew Bank registrations for sailing/racing are up double this year YTD! (34 versus 18 last year) The new Crew Table spot for Wednesday Dinghy night is also now in place. Taking on interested (usually qualified) crew for cruising or racing is a highly effective way to introduce new sailors to the club and others. So skippers, consider tapping into this important club resource.
- Promote Social Sailing ‘Fun’: The investment in a little promotional and educational awareness of the various available opportunities to enjoy our boats/club is paying dividends. See above again. This includes initiatives amongst the JAM fleets to introduce new existing NSC boats and members to try a’White Sail’ racing format.
- Nurture Interclub Relations: Excellent continued mutual club x-support (Promotion, Volunteers, RC bosuns/boats) for our respective local major interclub events. Whether its through “RCsRUs”, individual area fleets, or bilateral club exec relations, the sport and we all benefit with access to more participants and needed supplemental resources.
Its time to get back out sailing and boating folks, See you on the river soon!
Ross H. Ernst
Fleet Captain 2016