Alberta Opti Review 2006
Highlights for 2006 included an increase in the number of sailors in Optimists. The increase came largely at the Calgary Yacht Club junior racing program with 12 competitors registered. There were also several boats out of Wabamun. There were several regattas that featured Optimist fleets. For the first time in many years Alberta Optimists ventured out of the province with sailors going to San Francisco, Oregon, Vancouver (Waves and Nationals), and Regina. Stepping out of the lakes of Alberta was a little scary for our sailors but they quickly proved that they were up for the challenge.
Icebreaker - Calgary Yacht Club May
Light winds greeted the racers to the racing season kick off. 11 Opties joined the fray making for a very competitive fleet and the largest start lines in Alberta for 2006. David Cormack 1st, Hayley Paxton 2nd, Hannah Meers 3rd Paige Berling-MacKenzie 4th. Kristi Van Gunst 5th.
Edmonton Yacht Club Intercity Regatta June 10-11
Six sailors competed in 8 races over the two day regatta with David Cormack coming away in first place. Second went to Eric Stroppel and third to Hayley Paxton. Zack Hair, Leanne Bromley and Sydney Reichenfeld rounded out the field.
Driftwood Glenmore Sailing Club June 17-18
Four boats attended the regatta at Glenmore anwith good winds over the two day 10 races were run in small but competitive class. David Cormack started off slow and then ran off 8 straight wins to take the regatta.
Results:
David Cormack 1st, Sydney Reichenfeld 2nd, Eric Stroppel, 3rd and Leanne Bromley 4th.
Wabamun Sailing Club June 24-25 (Results requested – Not available at this time) David Cormack won the event but full results were no longer available.
San Francisco June 17 – 26 Hannah Meers joined a group of Opti sailors from the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club coached by Tine Molberg-Parker for two regattas and 4 days of training in the wind and tides. First at the Treasure Island Sailing Center for Summer Sailstice and then at St Francis Yacht Club between Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge for training and the Heavy Air Regatta.
Waves – Royal Vancouver Yacht Club June 30 – July 2
David Cormack and Hannah Meers met up at Rocky point to train in preparation for the upcoming Waves Regatta. At Waves Hannah Meers finished 3rd overall. David Cormack had his introduction to salt water racing, learning many valuable lessons and improving greatly over the course of the 16 race regatta.
Prairie Winds Regatta, Newell Sailing Club
Good winds, dodging catamarans, and a five year old sailing phenom were the highlights at Lake Newell as Newell Sailing Club welcomed Opties to their regatta for the second straight year. Tom Mills (5 years old) won the nutshell class (Ok so there was only one) as he sailed with the Optimist fleet. We look forward to welcoming Tom into the Optimist fleet very soon.
Results: Hannah Meers 1st, Paige Berling-MacKenzie 2nd, David Cormack 3rd, Emma Segal 4th, and Eric Stroppel 5th.
Adventure was in the air as three Alberta sailors set out to Oregon for the Ripple Clinic at Cascade Locks in the gorge on the Columbia River (August 10-12). Emma Segal, David Cormack and Hannah Meers went in search of big wind and top notch coaching. The Argentinian coaching team of Bocha and Argi welcomed the three Albertans along with 9 American kids and promptly sent them out into 20 knot winds. Learning to gybe under pressure, capsizing and bailing were the order of the day. The second two days were slightly lighter winds but the Alberta kids showed amazing progress as they prepared for Canadians.
Canadians (August 15 – 22) started with another clinic from the Argentinian coaches. Both David Cormack and Hannah Meers retained Argi and Bocha for the regatta as coaches. Emma Segal sailed in the green fleet. With big start lines and top-notch sailors our Alberta kids started slowly in the championship fleet. With many lessons learned David and Hannah quickly started making plans for Montreal in 2007.
Results: Hannah Meers 26th and David Cormack 45th. Emma Segel 11th in Green Fleet.
WISC August 24 –27
A strong contingent set out from Alberta with 7 Opti sailors competing at Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan. Alberta sailors finished in 7 of the top 8 positions.
Results: Hannah Meers 1st, David Cormack 3rd, Ethan Brown 4th, Paige Berling-MacKenzie 5th, Eric Stroppel 6th, Willow Paxton 7th, Leanne Bromley 8th.
Provincials were the end of the 2006 season with 5 sailors competing for the provincial crown. The regatta was held at the Pelican Cove Adventure Centre at Hastings Lake. With only one day of wind over the three day regatta only 4 races were completed. The Opti kids enjoyed testing out the new O’Pen Bic skiff style boat that was provided by Glenmore Sailboats. Hannah Meers defended her provincial title with a string of first place finishes on the only day of sailing.
Results: Hannah Meers 1st, David Cormack 2nd. Kristi Van Gunst, Eric Stroppel and Ethan Brown rounded out the rest of the field.