Robie Pierce Regatta, June 2010

·     Canadian Bronze Medal winner John McRoberts and his new crew Brenda Hopkin boosted their campaign for more Canadian medals at London 2012 with a win at the Robie Pierce one-design regatta at the Larchmont Yacht Club, Rye, NYC

·      The attraction of the regatta is the relatively large fleet of 18 boats. This gives sailors valuable experience with more crowded start lines, mark roundings and boat-on-boat tactics. In this regatta the disabled sailors have to sail with an able-bodied assistant – who is not allowed to initiate action or give advice, only respond to requests from the helm or crew – and this enabled McRoberts/Hopkin to bring in their coach, Craig Guthrie, from Halifax to observe communication, tactics and strategy for de-brief after the racing.

·      ‘Our aims for the regatta were to build our strategic skills,’ said McRoberts. ‘We wanted Craig to observe how we executed our race plan.’ With confident starts and good boat speed the team were in joint first after the first day and then consolidated their position with consistent results on day two. ‘Consistency won us the regatta,’ said Hopkin. ‘Other teams won races and placed well but everyone else had at least one bad race, which was significant, as there were no throw-outs.’

·      ‘We were delighted with this unexpected win,’ said McRoberts. ‘We came here to train for the World Championships next month in Holland, so were focused on routines, processes and communication. Clearly these factors can win regattas.’ It also enabled the team to identify opportunities for improvement and focus areas for further training.

 ·      John and Brenda now have one more training camp, with US sailors Jen French and J-P Creignou, before they depart for Holland.

·      The IFDS World Championships will be held from 9-14 July in Medemblik, Holland. http://ifdsworlds2010. John and Brenda will be aiming for the podium and to qualify Canada as a country for the 2012 paralympic games in Weymouth, England. 

·       For a full regatta report see: http://larchmontyc.org/RobiePierce2010.shtml  

Sept/Oct Training Camp - Victoria

We have have 2 autumn training camps planned in Victoria (Sept/Oct & Nov). We are now focusing on improvements to the boat (steering, seating) and have fitted a new rig to CAN14. 

We had FAB weather for the first camp!!! Check out the pics taken by Erin Flanagan!!

Summer 2010

We were feeling good going into the summer season, after having a good MOCR in January (http://rmocr.ussailing.org/Past_Regattas/2010/2010_Miami_OCR.htm). We had a choice to make, send our boat over to Europe or charter one there, When GBR 034 became available we decided it was the best option to charter.  We were plaqued with problems from the start, I could go into along winded list of reasons why we didn’t perform but I don’t like to roll that way, what I will do is share what was learned from the experience. Familiarity is vital at the high pressure events so use your own boat! There are already so many things that can go wrong on a Skud, why increase the odds? and Steve was missed (don’t tell him I said that)

The first event was in Medemblik, Netherlands, the first time we had sailed in Holland (http://ifdsworlds2010.com). The weather was warm with light breeze. We had Craig Cuthrie working with us for the event, everyone was excited to work together. However our speed was never good all week, which made it very difficult to stay focused and positive, but we all did the best we could, I was happy with the event from viewpoint of mental toughness but disappointed with our results. It was the first time racing against the Mk2 Skud, it was faster so know we know. That was a huge ? – clearly answered at the event.

We had a break between regattas: Brenda stayed over in the UK and I headed home. But after two weeks we were back at it with the Sail For Gold regatta (http://www.skandiasailforgoldregatta.co.uk) at the Paralympic venue, Weymouth, England. It’s always a great opportunity to sail in those waters. We had Brian Todd working with us so we had some familiarity that was needed. We were chartering the same Skud as before so we knew our speed issues, but again we sailed to our best. It was tough mentally being out sailed by the new boat, again a good mental exercise (easily said). Sailing in Weymouth harbour has shown us that the wind direction can come from anywhere, proving to be gusty, shifty with short steep chop, conditions that we need practice in. We had some very positive feedback with regards to the choices we made on the race course, something we have been working on. Yeah, something positive!

Some of us stayed at the Canada House, a WIND Athletes (http://www.windathletes.ca) supported house which provides accommodation for Canadian Sailing Team members in Weymouth while training for there campaigns. This is a huge help especially because England isn’t very chair friendly, so the comfort of knowing I have a warm comfortable place to stay makes me able to focus on my job. A huge “Thank You” to WIND Athletes for your support!    

John & Brenda