Well its past mid-August already and weeknight racing Summer Series has concluded, and what an incredible summer sailing season 2015 has turned out so far!
So many wonderful NSC club-generated sailing opportunities, that yours truly is admittedly a little tardy finalising this report.
As mentioned in the prior report, Fleet’s focus this past quarter has been on executing the smooth running of a comprehensive weeknight racing series and the rich array of NSC hosted club Regattas and major weekend events. These include some of the accomplishments and NSC events highlighted below as part of this season’s 2015 Q3 Sailing Program.
Weeknight Interclub Racing Series: Sailing this year got off to a bang in May with an on schedule start to the Interclub race night series. Thanks to the team of 40+ regular NSC Fleet volunteers and our Race Bosons, member participation has been strong to date with approximately 90 NSC keelboats and 42 Dinghys/Cats overall turning out for the weekly series. Most days are up in NSC boats this year including Monday Women’s, Tuesday PHRF, Wednesday Dinghy racing and special weekend events. Equally important, this summer has seen rise in Able Sail and Youth (420’s) participation thanks to joint initiatives with the LTS/Able Sail team. Check out the latest exciting Interclub Series Results here.
Crewing Opportunities: One of the ways to attract and retain long term club members is by creating crewing opportunities for non-boat owners and fellow members. In addition to the regular efforts by individual NSC skippers and fleet leaders, enhancements were introduced to facilitate connecting interested crew with willing skippers. These included more focus on the existing online Crew Bank , an LTS contact point for Youth, a physical meetup point (the Crew Table), and improved awareness of the opportunities with an NSC Crew/Social Membership. Special thanks to Hugh Morrin, Ted Ceelen, Callum Smith, and all the Fleet Reps for their contributions here. With club Crew/Social memberships overall appearing to be up this year, we’re definitely moving in the right direction putting more boats on the water more often.
2015 RC Volunteers: The NSC Race Committee Volunteer program performed exceptionally well with 100% of this season’s 220+ RC duty slots filled to the end of the season! Thanks to all of the program participants and members who volunteered, and our RC Volunteer Coordinator’s, Fran and Jim Kelly. There may be still a few opportunities to get out on an RC boat, so keep an eye for future posts on the NSC home page.
Ottawa Skiff & Cat Grand Prix (OSCGP), June 6-7: This year’s 11th annual NSC 2015 OSCGP Regatta was a smoothly run success with 23 Catamarans, 49ers, 29ers, and I14s participating in 8 races over the two days. In addition to introducing a number of innovations, the regatta featured record female participation including the 49er Fx class (women’s Olympic Skiff). Check out this year’s Regatta Photos and Results here. Our thanks to Chair Matt Davidge, PRO Mario Poirer, and the rest of the OSCGP volunteer team for organising such a fantastic event.
Sail Past 2015, June 13: The annual NSC Commodore’s Sail Past was held in fantastic Saturday sailing and deck weather conditions. After the traditional club burgee member presentations (and there was a lot!), the turnout on the water to salute the Commodore was incredible with over 50 member boats including the High Performance Youth Team, and our Paralympic 2.4mRs all sailing in formation. And the Social dinner afterwards was oversubscribed! A great club kickoff to the 2015 Sailing & Boating season.
Nepean One Design (NOD), June 20-21: NSC’s premier annual 2015 NOD Regatta was yet again a fabulous success on multiple levels. 87 boats and 210 competitors from across the region, Ontario and the U.S. competed in 12 Fleets. This year’s NOD was host to three Ontario Championships (J/24s, C&C 27s, Fireballs) and featured record Able Sail participation and two Youth fleets. Incredible support from NSC club operations, 80+ member volunteers, and RC resources from LDSC, CVGR, and BYC enabled a smoothly run and fantastic fun Regatta experience. In gratitude to NSC, this year’s participants and organisers made a $1,000 contribution to the NSC Legacy Fund. Congratulations to Co-Chairs; Eric Ramsden and Kim Macdonald, PRO Rick Anderton, Chief Judge Barbara James, and the many volunteers on the organising team for orchestrating this showcase event.
National Capital Cup, July 4-5: NSC in partnership with the National Capital Able Sail Association held the annual National Capital Cup for Able Sailors. 15 boats and sailors from across the country competed this year in the Gold and Silver fleets. You can view the Results here. Our thanks to Chair Karell Regnier, PRO Susan Burton, and the volunteer team for organising this important annual regatta.
NSC Get-Out-On-The-Water Day, July 18: Last fall when we challenged ourselves as to what strategic club initiative Fleet & others could help drive to attract new (and retain!) active NSC members, the team chose Ontario Sailing’s “Get-Out-On-The-Water Day” program concept as a worthy natural fit.
On Saturday July 18th, in concert with member volunteers from all walks of NSC club life and club staff, we hosted our first inaugural public “NSC Get-Out-On-The-Water Day” led by PR with strong support from Fleet, Membership, OSA and others. And by many accounts so far, it was a smashing success! Whether it was a fantastic PR outreach campaign that sold out in hours (twice when we raised the reservation limit to 150!), 126 Guests that showed on the day, 80+ boat rides executed, numerous gushing thank you’s, 5+ new NSC memberships generated and growing, 60+ member volunteers, and other metrics.
One of the most satisfying outcomes was how energised and connected the volunteer team was at the end of the day. I personally want to thank the organising leadership of Paul Wagner, Peter Norwood, Ron Schute, Melanie Bartlett, Matthew Eglin, Rune Lausten, Dianne Ashby, and all the NSC Skippers/owners and members who donated boats and time to make this new initiative a success. Please check out the full 2015 NSC GOOTW Day Volunteer list and talk to them about their experience.
2.4mR North American Championships, July 24-26: NSC was pleased this year to be host for the 2015 2.4mR North American Championships. 15 boats hailing from Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, as well as from New Jersey, Connecticut and New York State sailed the event. You can read the Regatta report and see results here. Congratulations to Co-Chairs; Aaron Wong-Sing and Peter Wood, PRO Hugh McDowell, Chief Judge Barbara James, and the regatta volunteers on hosting this unique event.
Travelling NSC Sailors & Boats: We should also recognise the NSC boats, teams and member volunteers who venture afar to participate and sail competitively in waters beyond NSC. The list is larger then what I have visibility of, but includes boats and individuals this quarter such as our LTS Youth Race Team (Sarnia Sailfest, HYC Fruitbowl), LTS Able Sail Team (Coupe De Quebec), NSC Laser Masters Sailors (CORK Canadians, CORK Masters Worlds), J/22 “Raised J” at the J/22 Worlds in Austria, C&C 27 “Blue Zulu” at the EYC Regatta, I-14 “Boobie Too” at the I-14 North Americans and others. Of course our member Sail Canada Race Officials and Judges have been busy too hitting the road in support of major Regattas and other clubs in the region.
Jalapeno Under New “Youth” Mgmt: As a special note, one of the exciting items this summer was the change in ownership of J/24 Jalapeno to 4 LTS Instructors, Callum Smith, Rae-Anne Norwood, Kieran Whalen-Hughes, and Alexis Cushing. Not only does such a storied, winning boat stay in NSC hands, but now an all youth NSC Keelboat team is out on the water competing against the likes of BYC’s VJJ and Skidbladner as well as everyone else. Welcome to NSC Fleet new Team Jalapeno!
NSC is a member-driven Sailing Club whose volunteers organise and run an incredible Sailing Program and set of club events during the season. The scale and scope of what gets organised and achieved each year by passionate members and club staff working together still astounds me as I continue to learn more. So thanks again to all our active member volunteers, whether they be program primes, event organisers, RC volunteers, or individual leading skippers at the grassroots level from NSC’s many Race Fleets or substantial Cruising Fleet.
As we’ve started into a Fall of many wonderful NSC sailing opportunities to come, don’t miss these popular upcoming events; FANFARE Regatta (Sept. 12/13), LDOP Keelboat Regatta (Sept. 19/20), 20 Mile Trophy LD Race (Sept. 26), Dinghy Frostbite Racing (Sept. 26), Frostbite Series (Oct. 4, 11, 18), Ottawa River Challenge (ends Oct. 31), and of course everyone’s favourite Turkey Trot Race & Feast (Oct. 12)
Its time to get back out Sailing and Boating and enjoy the Indian Summer folks!
Ross H. Ernst
Fleet Captain 2015