• 2004 NB Report
    by Matt Dubreucq
  • The New Brunswick Grand Prix stop was a success. Sailors trained hard during a 3 day camp leeding up to the week end regatta. The main focus of the camp was to learn how to maximise the use of the crew weight to move the boat around the course. With 3 days sailed in light air the crews really realised the importance to steer with weight and the not the tiller.
    Here is what a few sailors had to say :

    "I realised that using the rudder on boat is like pulling the hand brake in a car" "Even if we are a heavy crew, doesn't mean that we can't be fast in light air, all we have to do is be smooth" "Tacking and gybing have never been this easy"

    After the first day and a half everyone could sail using their body weigh. The coches moved on to strait line speed where the focus is to keep a flat boat at all time. That will give a flat platform for the crew to work on and the skipper will be able to focus on speed.

    "It's the small things that make a sailor fast" "I though I was flat...but I know what is the feeling of sailing flat now"

    The 4th day was a open day where some sailors decided to go sailing and some other did some boat repair.

    6 Boats were ready to race on Saturday morning but the fog forced the regatta orgonisers to delay the first gun. When we finally started to race, the wind was very light. The sailors could use what they practiced in the last 4 days on the race course. After 3 races, CAN 625 (AndrŽ Lirette and Louis LeBlond), the heaviest crew out there were in first with all 1st finishes.

    Day 2 and the wind is still light. The boats raced 3 races in light air and then the wind pick up to about 12 knots. The last 3 races were sailed in puffy conditions. The racing got a lot closer between Can 625 and CAN 305. In the end AndrŽ and Louis won the regatta. Jeff Bethune and Luke MacDonald came in second and Patrick Lea and Andrew Kankine came in 3rd.