Boating, sailing and racing at NSC are in full swing. Fleet claims credit for the warm and windy June and July weather. There are 2 race courses on Lac Deschenes run for you (and by you), 4 nights a week, and turnout is on par with 2018. NOD had a reasonable turnout and an average of 6 races per fleet, which is right on the norm, and sponsorship was outstanding. Dinghy rental program has successfully launched. Connecting cruisers is a growing focus.
Fleet is extremely grateful to the staff and harbour volunteers. The availability of launch facilities and support boats has been remarkable.
Interesting boats
The new Hobie Bravo arrived for the rental program and is also proving very popular with sail training staff and kids – you should try it. A pair of F18 foiling cats were brought to NSC by member Greg Johnson – contact him for a ride. Another J80 is about to show up, and the first J70 is here. C&C27 fleet is strong and is particularly adept at converting crew bank newbies into regular sailors. JAM is attracting a very interesting mix of boats. J24 is proving a popular boat to own by consortia of younger members. NSC team Raised J is competing at the J22 World Championship in Germany and is currently in 3rd place. On the slower end of the spectrum, expect to see a Sandpiper out on keelboat nights.
Operations
Our race bosun team comprises 5 part-time staff, with our head and senior race bosun returning. Their ability to get races run on Lac Deschenes is second to none. We have first-class race committee volunteer members, but we need to increase the number of experienced volunteers – this is an area that needs work. Your ideas and efforts will be warmly appreciated here.
The new-ish race committee boat “Bill Levesque” proved its worth and capability at NOD and the fore-and-aft configuration to run a finish team and a starter team is working exactly as planned. The naming ceremony was attended by the honoree himself, and was a beautiful demonstration of nautical tradition (says the Fleet Captain). Bill planned to call Andy Haydon to tell him that the Bill was faster than the Andy. Sailpast had 50 boats participating, special recognition for newer members, and perfect conditions.
Anecdotally, visibility of Fleet programs is good – it seems we have been doing a satisfactory job on advertising. We will try to publish event wrap-up reports more consistently.
Fleet Committee turn-out during the winter was phenomenal, as was attendance at racing judge training. Delighted to see such great interest from member volunteers.
Racing
The flood delay put much pressure on race operations. NSC people responded magnificently and with a fair degree of patience. Skiff & Cat Grand Prix could not go ahead due to the government ban. Practice for keelboats and race volunteers shifted to end of June. NOD normally has 5 weeks of on-water lead time for race operations training, team communications, and borrowing support boats from members and other clubs. This year we had 1 week. Running races on Friday of NOD knocked out our usual prep day. With normal lead-time, the racing ops issues would largely have been fixed behind the scenes per our usual standards of excellence.
National Capital Cup regatta in Martin 16’s went ahead just this past weekend – look for their report soon. We are hosting the Mobility Cup in September, a prestigious national championship.
Experiments
Fleet Committee has been running some experiments for you. The Search function on NSC home page is a good way to find all these activities. Here’s where they are at:
Cruising and Connecting
Our first anchoring clinic for cruisers goes this weekend. Together with the up-river-cruising talk in the winter speaker’s series, we think this can give more confidence to NSC boaters who want to join the up-river lifestyle. Fleet Committee needs a cruising rep so we can provide more opportunities to cruising boats – send me an email if you can help.
Weekday cruising on Tuesdays has started. To complement the regular timeslot, we are about to test-run an online Sailor Connect meetup capability for NSC boats and sailors. Check the weekday cruising page if you want to be a guinea pig. Our friends at BYC are running the RUST informal race series on Wednesday during the day, and participation is up – NSC boats welcome.
We connected sailors and boats at Sailpast – we are branding all these efforts as Sailor Connect. Small participation, but it worked perfectly for those that used it. Look for this again at Midnight Madness and Turkey Trot.
The number of people on crew bank is at an all-time high – lots of demand out there. For those needing a buddy for cruising or racing, that’s one place to look.
Racing
It’s our second year testing keelboat race practice. We had excellent support from member volunteers, but keelboat numbers at practice were very low. We think that’s because the flood shifted us deep into the sailing season. Next year, we will try again during the normal early-season and we expect an up-tick in participation.
Registration for weeknight and long-distance racing went online for NSC members and has been a stellar success. More than 90% of registrations were done online – not bad for first year!
Dinghy and cat rental
Dinghy and catamaran rental for NSC members launched this year, jointly from Fleet and Sail Training. We have 24 people through orientation already, pretty much aligned to forecast. As expected, half are long-standing members recapturing their youth, and half are newly-qualified sailors from the adult sail training program.
Outlook
Overall, we lost a few weeks of early season, but we rapidly achieved full steam ahead. Or, for those who sail, we are at optimum velocity-made-good. Happy sailing and stay safe on the water.
Dominic Goodwill, NSC Fleet Captain, July 2019