Well Frostbite Sunday racing has ended and the annual club haul-out has begun, drawing to a close another super NSC sailing season on the Ottawa River! Time for the final fall 2016 report on club sailing activities.   It certainly has been a particularly active and engaging season for the member’s organised sailing program this year.

I look forward to jointly celebrating with you the joys and successes of 2016 at NSC Sailing Awards Night (Nov. 19th), and our club overall at the NSC AGM (Dec. 1st) which are coming up fast!

‘Fun’ Sailing Events:

  • Queen’s Park (Sept 11), 20 Mile Trophy Race (Sept 25): The 2016 Interclub Long Distance series concluded with September’s two upriver races. BYC Queen’s Park was held in challenging 20-30knots with huge waves rolling down the river. Meanwhile conditions were more hospitable for the NSC 20 Miler with an excellent turnout. Congrats to all the Interclub boats that came out to challenge and discover the Ottawa either on the day, or for the season.   You can check out the exciting individual and overall LD Series results here.
  • Women’s Keelboat Season Finale (Sept 26): They came, dined, chatted, and celebrated together the end of a great season of NSC Women’s weeknight racing.
  • End of Series Social (Sept 29): Excellent Interclub turnout and great atmosphere in the NSC clubhouse to mark the end of Weeknight Racing with fellow sailors. Common comment; “havn’t seen so many sailors in the clubhouse on a Thursday night …”
  • Turkey Trot & Feast (Oct 10): This year’s closing social sailing event certainly didn’t disappoint.   35 club boats out for a great pursuit on the water and the turkey feast afterwards. My sincerest thanks to Co-Chairs Leo Belleperche, Jenn Holliday (On-shore) and Doug Patterson (On-water) and their assisting teams of volunteers!   You can read the full report on Turkey Trot 2016.

Weeknight Racing:

  • Fall Series:  Bettor then average warm sunny weather and stronger winds this season continued into the Fall.   Even the Wednesday Dinghy/Cat crowd were finally able to enjoy some great sailing conditions and dash around the race buoys every weeknight. This season’s excellent turnout continued with some very close competition on any given weeknight.
  • Frostbite Series, October 2, 9, & 16th: Late Fall sailing can be absolutely fantastic when the weather co-operates, and after a challenging cold and wet start this year was no exception!   In the end 25 PHRF/JAM keelboats came out to play along with 6 hardy Dinghies/Cats. The competition was tight in all fleets right down to the last race.

NSC Regattas:

  • FANFARE – Cdn Fireball & F18 Championships (Sept. 11-13): The FANFARE regatta team certainly stepped it up this fall hosting two Canadian class championships with 51 boats in attendance from 18 clubs for the 3-day event. Our thanks to Chair Domenic Goodwill and PRO Greg Dargavel, our special sponsors, and the rest of the volunteer team for organising such a premier interclub regatta. See the Chair’s regatta report and results.
  • Cdn/BYC Women’s Keelboat Championship (Sept. 15-18): Three NSC women’s teams competed in this year’s Sail Canada Championship (Six Pack, Shark Poop, Lone Shark) all placing well, and an additional 4 Sharks were generously loaned by their NSC owners in support of the regatta. Check out the Championship results here.

Program Participation:

While it’s hard to measure the quality of the experience and joy generated, we can at least track those that came out to play and benefited. Here’s the final season’s participation numbers for each of the different core areas. Not only did 2016 witness continued renewed interest in fun social sailing events and upriver distance races, but the weekly race program and annual NSC regattas saw more boats and members on the water as well.

2016 Participation
2016 Participation

I’d like to thank this year’s volunteers and organisers of the Fleet Committee, Fun Sail events, Weeknight Racing, Regattas, and our club staff for their contribution and leadership in making this season’s NSC Sailing Program the outstanding success it was. In addition to Race Duty volunteers, 150+ members (many in multiple roles) donate a significant amount of their time to the organising of the program and associated 25 club events.

I can also only echo the last race on-water shout-outs by NSC skippers and crew to Wynn Davies and the Race Bosun team for their reliable, quality race management this season. Kudo’s which also extend to Gene and Brad who oversee the maintenance of club RC boats for dependable in-service availability. 4 nights/week plus weekends times 23+ weeks, that’s pretty demanding operational expectations.

And our thanks of course to clubhouse staff and hospitality for their support in creating a better onshore experience for member events and regattas. Not only did joint coordination flow seamlessly, but new ideas were enthusiastically brought to the table to enhance the participant experience.

See you at the NSC Awards night and the AGM. Planning for another great NSC season begins now!

Ross H. Ernst
Fleet Captain 2016

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