By MARTIN HERBERT
Special to the Driftwood
The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club hosted an invitational regatta for wooden international one-metre yachts over the weekend and the event drew entrants from Ontario, Vancouver, Seattle and various points across Vancouver Island.
Seventeen boats competed, including the two Canadian representatives to the next world championship competition in Australia. The emphasis was on having fun while sailing in a fleet of beautiful boats.
Since 2016, many local and West Coast sailors have been turning to hand-made wooden boats, both for their beauty and for their strength. Top racers have started designing their own boats within the class rules, searching for a little extra speed, and the result has been a general improvement of hull and rigging designs. An event like last weekend’s race brings together a group where thoughts and ideas can be exchanged and the level of racing elevated.
The Salt Spring Island Sailing Club Is full of talented people who love the art of sailing and from this pool of knowledge the regatta organizers were able to avail themselves of race officers of exceptional quality. Greg Slakov, Holly Slakov and Nicholas Sladen-Dew ran a very efficient regatta under trying weather and wind conditions and did the sailing club proud. They also kept the fun aspect of the event in a prominent position and they received much praise from the sailors involved. Rosemary Harbrecht and April Faget kept the racers fuelled, delivering lunches to the docks and with a delicious evening meal on the Saturday night.
The seven-strong local contingent all managed to get individual races in the top half of the fleet with Paul Faget and Martin Herbert winning individual races and placing sixth and second overall. Sunday saw very exciting sailing with strong winds rolling over the hills, dropping down on the water in unexpected and unpredictable ways. This kept the sailors on their toes.
Jill Oakes, newcomer to the sport, suffered a broken main sail boom, but unwilling to drop out, splinted it and continued racing. This display of determination was much to the delight of the seasoned veterans of the sport.
Jason Rhodes from Vancouver won the regatta and will be racing for Canada at the next world championship. We wish him well.
The fleet disbanded with promises of having more fun events like this in the future.