It’s towards end of August and as the Commodore’s update noted, our club is vibrant with member activity across the board. Whether we’re day sailing, cruising overnight, sailing in a club event, or simply messing around with boats, sailing and boating at NSC is alive and well. This vibrancy is reflected in the members’ sailing program and the underlying strength in many of our club member fleets.

As noted in the Spring, program registrations, the crew bank, and initial turnouts indicated another strong season this year. And after a fantastic summer put together by your Fleet volunteers, on-the-water results have confirmed it!  Whether it’s fun events, upriver cruise races, regattas, or weeknight racing, more boats and members are sailing and enjoying their club.

Of course the story is deeper than just boats in use and folks having fun. Our strategic inclusion initiatives continue to produce results, NSC boats and sailors are active traveling, fleets are growing, great Able Sail and Youth involvement, national championships are being hosted, and volunteerism is strong.

Some highlights and notables from the summer as we head into a most promising club fall.

‘Fun’ Sailing Events:

Weeknight Racing:

  • Summer Series:  What’s more to say? Warm sunny weather, fair to strong winds (unless you’re a Wed night dinghy), solid race management by Wynn Davies and our RC teams, lots of boats on course. By the numbers, 2016 will be one of our most active club racing seasons (2nd only to 2012) with 138 NSC keelboats and dinghies out on one or more weeknights.
  • RC Volunteer Program:   We’re now 100% filled to the end of the season except for a couple RC duty slots.   Thanks to all the volunteers who stepped up, and a special shout-out to our RC Volunteer Co-ordinator Fran Kelly who was active filling those challenging Thursday nights.
  • Scoring/Protests: While some initial teething issues on particular courses this spring, overall scoring inquiries, and even skipper protests have been low again so far this year. Our thanks to the weekly NSC scoring and protest volunteers and coordinators who keep everything rolling.

NSC Fleets:

While the NSC’s traditional competitive keelboat and dinghy fleets remain strong, there have been some notable additions as well in 2016 pointing to a solid and diverse future.  Here’s a sampling:

  • PHRF Keelboats:  The Monday ladies race (and wind) phenom continues to roll adding another team this year, Tuesday PHRF racing is steady, and the resurgence in NSC JAM boats has filled the river on Thursdays with a good turnout for weekend events as well.
  • “J” Boats: What’s old is new again as the J/24 fleet added another 3 boats this year. Add another recent J/80 in harbour, and the “J” mark fleets are certainly rocking it this year at NSC.
  • Sportboats: Another Viper 640 appeared this spring making NSC one of the leading Cdn clubs for this exciting new class of performance boats.
  • Martin 16s/2.4mRs: Able Sail and the 2.4mRs have been active participants on Wednesday nights and generally. Rumour is there is an additional 2.4mR ‘program’ boat around to trial sail.
  • ‘Young Adult’ Keelboats: What started last year with one boat “Jalapeno”, grew into its own wave of ‘Young Adult’ NSC owner/skipper keelboats including J/24 “VA-J-J”, C&C 27 “SeaNap”, and a Tanzer 22 this season joining the club and program. Very promising!

NSC Regattas:

  • National Capital Cup (July 9/10): 16 Able Sailors and their boats travelled across the country from as far as Calgary to compete in this year’s Gold and Silver fleets! Congrats to Chair Karell Regnier, PRO Warner Montiero and their teams for putting on another great regatta.
  • FANFARE – Cdn Fireball & F18 Championships (Sept. 11-13): FANFARE has stepped it up Vegas style this year hosting two Canadian class championships, securing some fantastic sponsors, and partnering with Social for the NSC Pig Roast dinner and great entertainment Saturday night. With 40+ boats from 15 clubs and counting including youth 420’s, FANFARE this year promises to be an extra special regatta experience.
  • Cdn/BYC Women’s Keelboat Championship (Sept. 15-18): This is a fabulous opportunity for our local women’s racing fleet. Three NSC women’s teams have registered (Six Pack, Shark Poop, Lone Shark) and Shark owners (NSC Beagle II, Roxsan) have generously loaned boats in support so far. To volunteer, contact the BYC chair Natalie Foy.

So thanks again to all our active member volunteers, whether they be fleet representatives, program primes, event organisers, RC volunteers, or individual leading skippers at the grassroots level from NSC’s diverse and rich fleets.

It’s time to get back out Sailing and Boating and enjoy the Fall on the river folks!

Ross H. Ernst
Fleet Captain 2016

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