This year’s Fantastic Nepean Fall Regatta was held Sept 9-10. A total of 40 boats, from six dinghy fleets participated: Martins, Club 420s, 505s, Open Catamarans, Albacores and Fireballs. Several boats came from out of town, including Kingston, Pointe-Claire, and Aylmer.
The winds were particularly light on Saturday – some participants were towed out to the race course; others paddled. No-one knew whether any races would be held at all. The Race Committee persevered; some wind came up, to a maximum of 3 knots gusting to 8, and each fleet got four races in. Not so bad after all. On Sunday, the winds were a little higher with a maximum of 8 knots gusting to 13, but quite shifty.
Rick Nelson, Race Officer, and his crew of Race Committee volunteers and bosuns did an excellent job. With light and constantly shifting winds, and so many fleets on the same course, the RC’s use of different coloured marks worked well. The Race Committee and race bosuns were kept very busy, starting and finishing a total of 54 (!) races over both days.
A special thank you to Trevor Whitehouse for his work on scoring and determining the catamaran handicaps. Some last minute sail changes caused a flurry of excitement in the office. Trevor rose to the occasion and got everything sorted out in the end.
Bravo to all the participants and a special thank you to all the volunteers, we could not do it without you.
Please see the results page for the list of award winners: https://nsc.ca/nsc_racing/fanfare/results/fanfare-2023-results.htm
Competitors meeting with the co-chair
Busy dinghy park
505 youth sailors
Hoping for wind!
Catamarans near the race committee boat preparing to start
505s flying their kites
Martin 16s rounding the windward mark
420 award winners
Martin 16 award winners
505 award winners
Catamaran award winners
Albacore award winners