• 29er Canadian Youth Championships 2004
  • Day 1
    Canadian Youth Champs in Montreal have 25 29ers competing in one of Canada's largest youth fleets ever.

    Consistency was the call of the day with Light and shifty breeze from the WNW. Overall leaders and top women Nicole Hammond and Emily Bishop are from NS and in their first full summer in the 29ers. Nicole was top women and second overall in the 2004 Byte NA s and is really enjoying the 29er action. "We really keep our heads out of the boat today searching for the puffs and I think that is why we had some consistency" said Hammond. Emily added " We had some really good coaching this summer with Trevor McKewn (4 time youth Champ) and we have worked hard so it feel good to have the training pay off but there is still a lot of racing to go."

    Local Boys Waldie/Bougie Bastien are hot on there heels followed by RCYC teams McLaughlin/Cherniak & Blumer/Dixon

    McCullough/Punter had the most consistency day with 21,1,1,2.



    On the west Coast in San Francisco Bay the Bridge to Bridge Race was won By Team Bernal/Goldsberry wins the Bridge to Bridge race, Aug 5. The Race is an All out now holds barred sprint form the Golden Gates Bridge to the Bay Bridge Wind surfers and all skiff alike are invited and first one there wins.
  • Day 2
    Waldie/Bougie Bastien take overall lead in Day 2. McCullough/Punter are now in close second and are looking to make this a 2 boat completion. Waldie/Bougie Bastien had a terrible first beat in race 1 but with there experience and determination to win this event they scored a 3rd to open the day. They continued there domination with a score of two more 1st places to take the overall lead. McCullough/Punter faltered a bit in race 1 scoring a 7th but showed consistency with 2 3rds for the day.

    Day 1 overall leaders and top females Hammond/Bishop drop to 3rd overall but remain top female continuing there consistency with and 8,5,5. The conditions on the course were very light and difficult. Starting was key on all the course today as inconsistency on the start line was everywhere. More wind is in the forecast for Saturday.
  • Day 3
    Long wait for wind was what the sailors were in for on Day 3. With close to no breeze all day the 29er sailors were getting tired on the water but were anxious to make a move.



    McLaughlin/Cherniak won the day and moved them up to third overall still in contention for the title. Waldie/Bougie Bastien had a tough start but caught up for a 4th and continues to hold the lead. McCullough/Punter scores a 7th to maintain 2nd overall but loses ground to the Quebecers.

    Hammond /Bishop had their worst race yet with a 17th but still maintain the lead as top females.
  • Day 4
    Waldie/Bougie Bastien and McCullough/Punter were now ready to fight for the 29er Canadian Youth Championships. Waldie/Bougie Bastien had a sizable lead and McCullough/Punter needed to make a move early in the day if they were going to take the title away. Murry had a solid race 1 taking the bullet only to realize they were OCS and in effect lost the title. Waldie took a third in Race 1 and continued to show their dominance in the fleet by winning the last 2 races for the day and taking the title of Canadian Youth Champions for 2004.



    "We really wanted this title and have been focused on it since Last day of the 2003 Champs." said Waldie "Now we are the youth Champs and we can focus on our next goal....the NAs in Kingston next week."

    "It feel more like a relief to get this done as we kind of expected to win because we feel we have trained the hardest", added crew Bougie-Bastien, Top Female was also very interesting as Hammond /Bishop seemd to have things locked up with the early lead at the beginning of the regatta. BUT....Gooderham/Vincent had another idea. With only 3 races to go Gooderham/Vincent wanted to make a staemaent early by winning the 1st race of the day. closing the point gap quickly. Hammond /Bishop had their worst day of the event and scored out of the top ten three times and slipped to 2nd female team. Gooderham/Vincent have been a very strong team in the 29er throught the NE.

    "we knew we were able to catch up if we just focus on one race at a time" said Gooderham, " Hammond /Bishop have improved alot over the summer and I'm sure we are going to be battling them for many years to come."

    This was one of the strongest Youth 29er fleets to date but I have to say Waldie/Bougie Bastien showed great technique.

    "There Fundamentals are pretty good" mentioned Tyler Bjorn, " I have been watching these 2 sail since Late April and they have not lead up for even 1 day. They are psyched and I expect a lot of good things from them in the future. If they keep this type of training up for the next year I think they can be top 10 at the 2005 Worlds!!"