Mitch Calvert
The Rendezvous Yacht Club has been busy making the most of the spell of warm weather here—most recently hosting its annual “new crew” program this past weekend.
“It went very well. You couldn’t ask for better weather, with good wind both days,” RYC vice-commodore Peter Engberg said.
“We had seven persons take the course, which was successful for our club.
“We hope that two or three keep it up, that’s usually the attrition rate on these things,” Engberg remarked. “But it’s meant to give them a little taste [of sailing], and the people who enjoy the experience will keep coming back and it makes the [weekly race] programs better.
“The true litmus test is who is on the water next year, but I think they all enjoyed the day and I got a lot of positive feedback from it afterwards,” he enthused.
The hope is the program can help feed the weekly races by providing boats with more crew members.
“The boats were a little light [last Wednesday], and the boats up at the front leading were the ones with [a] crew,” Engberg noted. “Having a crew allows you to use all the controls on the boat, sail it better and more confidently.
“It’s obviously very hard to race single-handedly,” he added.
In related news, the first race of the RYC’s Saturday series was the Leo Noonan Memorial Cup on Sand Bay on June 13.
Eric Kaufman, who captains “Lyla Maria,” took the lead from Jas Spencer aboard “Beagle” and never looked back to take the win.
Rodger Yvens, the new skipper in his high-powered J24 “In Tune,” was forced to retire due to equipment problems.
The two sailboats that completed the race finished at Last Island.
Kaufman, with his crew of Nettie Kaufman and Gary Saurer, finished first in a corrected time of 66.29 minutes. Spencer and crewmate Jason Shack, aboard “Beagle,” finished in a time of 67.78 minutes.
The next Saturday race will be to Sand Point Island this weekend (June 27).
Meanwhile, in last week’s Wednesday’s race, a battle between Engberg’s “Wing N’ It” and Quinn McCarthy’s “Surprise” went wire-to-wire as both boats jockeyed for the lead before Engberg pulled ahead down the stretch.
The two went stride-for-stride downwind after both boats put up their colourful spinnakers.
“A big spinnaker has almost twice the square footage of a regular sail, and allows us to catch the wind and pick up speed downwind,” Engberg explained.
Engberg had to give McCarthy room to maneuver at the last mark because he was closest to the inside, but still managed to hold onto the lead.
Close behind was Colin Hewitt’s “Ariba,” who took first place for class ‘B.’
The top finishers with corrected times (considering handicap) were Engberg (21:04), Hewitt (21:23), McCarthy (21:49), and Kaufman (22:41).
During the June 10 race, the roles were reversed on a six-leg course.
“Wing N’ It” had a great start and held the lead for most of the way. However, a slow spinnaker takedown at the last mark, along with a great fifth leg by “Surprise,” allowed McCarthy to overtake Engberg late for the victory.
McCarthy’s corrected time was 39.42 minutes. Engberg finished in second place for the class ‘A’ boats in 40.97, followed by class ‘B’ winner Jas Spencer (41.27).
Kaufman took second place in class ‘B’ with a time of 44.50 minutes.
The club was founded in 1978, and then merged with the American Rainy Lake Yacht Club back in 1993.
