Canadian Radio Yachting Association

2001 US 1 Meter Championship

2001 US 1 Meter Championships hosted by Metro Marine Modellers - Toronto

By Ray Davidson

Saturday and Sunday the 28th and 29th of July 2001 - what a great weekend for a regatta. Perfect weather, almost perfect wind, and all but ideal conditions which is somewhat rare for our sailing site. I can say that because I was assigned as race director, plus I also get to write the report.
However to be somewhat more rational, there was some concern that our site would not be weed and algae free for the event, as only a couple of weeks earlier it was impossible to sail anything. But the Parks Department came through and we were able to proceed normally.
Humber Bay Park is fine as long as the wind blows from a few choice locations, well, marvel of marvels, it blew steadily out of the east to southeast for both days, coming in from the lake with generally only slight variance in wind speed. Saturday, the wind was 5-6 mph. During the morning and towards the end of the day it was gusting up to about 8-10, which seemed to be just about ample for one meters.
A windward leeward course was set , with the start line at the leeward end of the course. Two marks were placed to windward acting as a separator and finish line, with a leeward mark some fifty feet to leeward of the start. Depending on the wind strength, two or three legs to windward were sailed. This gave ample time to recover from any penalties as 720s were the order to keep the fleet honest.
After the skippers meeting at 9.30 am, racing was to start at 10 am. sharp with all 15 boats ( no conflicts ), but was held up for a few minutes due to some skippers having serious radio interference. Most problems were resolved by 10:15 and racing got underway in earnest.
It is worth mentioning that David Balsdon had to withdraw. His radio, an old wide band model, was being swamped by most all of the radios in the fleet. Also Craig Robertson, with the same interference problems but with a narrow banded radio, tried in vain all weekend to alleviate the problem by changing crystals, plugs, switches, servos, even Tx and Rx. Nothing solved the problem. The final thought was that , just maybe, the crystals used were too far away from the original frequency to which the radio was originally tuned. We hope you both get it sorted out for the future. When you sail with a large fleet equipment failure can, in one form or another, quite often rear its ugly head.
Racing, for the Saturday, was both exciting and challenging, the 720 penalty turn for on the course infractions kept everyone reasonably honest. After a 30-minute lunch break, the afternoon saw more good races with the wind picking up to about 8-10 mph. by day's end. Even so, there were still enough "holes" to sail into so that positions could and did change frequently.
Sixteen races were sailed by 3:30 pm which gave ample time for repairs, showers and getting over to Don Burton's home for the evening. Thanks to Don and Joyce for a super BBQ. Chicken and/or steak, plus all the trimmings. Dave Bowes, who had built up quite a lead during the day, was kept busy talking, by Ashley, 'til the wee hours, so I understand to try to tire him out for Sunday…...but to no avail.
Racing on Sunday was sailed on the same course with very little wind variance or shift. Dave was still the skipper to beat though. But Len Strahl and Dennis Hendel, who had both had some bad luck on Saturday, showed that they were not going to be out done and sailed to their true form, giving Dave a real run for the marbles.
Interestingly enough on Sunday Len, who had 98 points on Saturday, had 29 1/2 on Sunday to actually win the day and Dennis, who had 79 1/2 on Saturday, came in with 45 3/4 on Sunday to be 2nd. David actually had 38 3/4 on Saturday and 47 3/4 on Sunday, but was able to hang on to the lead he had built on Saturday. As I see it both Len and Dennis just simply ran out of time and races, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. I also recall that some years back there were quite a few lady skippers both here and in the US, and it was good to see one at this regatta. Mandy Strahl who, even though she is new to the sport, showed some moments of brilliance, finishing ahead of some veteran sailors. Keep it going Mandy.
Racing continued until 3 pm. and after the scores and drop outs were tallied, trophies and those super CRYA medals were handed out to the winners.
Gordon Grimes, the event coordinator, did a sterling job organizing the paper work, frequency assignments and information packages, plus making sure everyone had lunch both days along with liquid refreshment. The demanding task of keeping the scores accurate was handled by Don Burton with Ben Colenbrander and Ray Jordan the 2 judges at the finish marking positions, which eliminates any mix up in close races. Calling the start line were Erich Bruckmann and Ron Martin who also did double duty at the leeward mark. All infractions were worked out on the water so the protest committee had nothing to do but enjoy. My thanks to all the regatta crew for their weekend work.
Yours truly hopefully kept everything running smoothly ( I think ). In all 32 races were run over the two days, and the final standings are:-

RACE RESULTS

Copyright © 2002  - 2005 Canadian Radio Yachting Association
Last modified: November 24, 2005