Last Laser Sail?

Got out on the laser on our home Lake.Little cool 9 degrees Celsius.Nice breeze,sailed to the end of the Lake and back,pretty cold at the end of a couple hrs.

Last Hobie Sail?

Sailed for a couple of Hrs today on the Hobie,got on the water early,9:30 and sailed in a nice breeze with some intermittent down pours.I actually like sailing in the rain.Water was smooth and the boat just scoots quietly across the Lake.Took the mast down,probably last time out on the Hobie for this season.

More Superior Sailing

Spent about 3hrs on Lake Superior Yesterday on the Laser.Wind's ranged from 12-25 knts in the gusts.Did some fast reaching on the leeward side of the break wall,big winds combined with flat water makes for a great ride.A Lightening was out practicing for the World's.They only sailed for about 30 mins.
Back at camp today,Lake looked pretty small compared to Superior.Did some coaching from the Hobie while my Kid's sailed the Laser.The 16 actually makes a nice platform to coach from.You can catch up at any time.

Superior Sailing

Spent the last two days doing some Laser sailing on Lake Superior.Yesterday My wife had her Kayak out and was going faster then me.Sail boats are all slow in 5 knts of wind.Today 12-14 knts and rain.Did some windward leeward stuff.Fun to surf the 2-3 ft waves,but going upwind was a grind.Could not stop thinking I wish I had the Hobie out.

CYA Article

2009 Hobie 16 North American Championships - Kingston, ON Wednesday, July 22, 2009
54 Hobie 16 teams from 5 countries are approaching the mid-way point of the North American Championships taking placing in Kingston, Ontario. The fleet is dotted with regional champions and solid world performers. After six races Jason Hess (Silver Medallist from the 2007 Hobie 16 Youth Worlds) with crew Hugo Guzman of Guatemala lead the way counting 3 bullets over the course of the first 6 races. Only one point behind is Enrique Figueroa and Victor Aponte of Puerto Rico.

The Canadian contingent is lead by Mike Madge and Carly Madge of Thunder Bay Ontario sitting 12th overall, hot on their heels is 2008 Canadian Olympic Tornado representative Kevin Stittle sailing with his cousin Marshall Champ sitting 15th, with two time Canadian Olympic Tornado representative (1988, 1992) Kevin Smith teamed with Keri Romanufa sitting 18th overall.
Racing continues through Friday so plenty of racing lays ahead. To follow this event go to www.cork.org for full results and details.
Photo: Kevin Stittle and Marshall Champ round leeward gate 4th overall in race 4.(That is Carly and I right behind Kevin in 5th place.We finished 8th in this race)


Funny story,the press boat came out to talk to us on the water Wedensday before the races's started.They knew we were the top Canadian team,but they never heard of us.So they wanted to do an interview with us after the racing.Well we stink it out Wedensday in the only race of the day.Never heard from the press guy again.

Camp Sailing

Just got back from camp.Had a chance to get out on the Hobie Friday and the Laser Saturday.Kind of nice to do some no pressure, fun type sailing.the boat always seems to go faster when you are just sailing like that.

North American's

Just got back from the N.A.'s.we had a great time with a week filled with lot's of memories.We finished tied for 14th but on a count back we dropped to 16th.Little dissappointing as we lost about 6 boats in the last half of the final leg down wind.Overall I feel pretty good about our speed and fleet management,and are start's .We only had one incident all week when after a great start we tried to cross the majority of the fleet and a boat came up and clipped our rudder,the 360 rattled us a bit and we had our worst result.High lites where being 3rd to A mark,rolling Enrique Figurioa upwind,finishing top 10 in one race,meeting a whole bunch of great people.
The final day was just a hoot to be on the water 12-15 knts,with sun and waves,champian sailing.A lot of people complained about the wind but we were happy we raced every day and there was only one day where there was no trap work.
Always learn something new.We seemed to rig a little tighter then most other boats.A lot of the boats straiten up there mast down wind.We had an interesting start on the last day,we were about 2/3rd's of the way down the line toward's the pin with about a min. to go.Then a little lefty came thru and a couple boats got over top of us.So we tacked out and crossed on port at the committee boat after the last boat had crossed.We had Pedro Colon just ahead and to leeward.We sailed on his hip all the way out to the lay line and ended up rounding top 10.Kind of a nice tactic to have.We had clean air,no worries of being over early,and you could tack back into the middle at any times with right's,
Overall places where I could improve is I think I could sail a little more aggressively.We tended to stay more in the middle as opposed to committing to one side.Also we ducked a lot of boats we could have crossed,especially at A mark.Having the experience from last years North American's helped a lot.Doing this with my Daughter and having my Wife there made it special.