RCYC Open Regatta

 

This coming weekend, June 18/19, at the RCYC Open Regatta the IRC Lake Ontario Fleet will be hosting the 2016 IRC Great Lakes Championship. We are expecting a great turnout for this first IRC championship event of the year. It is likely the fleet will be split into four divisions for the closest racing possible. We hope it is on all your racing schedules to attend this excellent event hosted by RCYC. Our race officer Mike Milner always does an excellent job on the water and the RCYC hosts an excellent BBQ on Saturday evening. Remember to come back to RCYC after racing on Sunday for the presentation of awards.

Our first two IRC events of the season were the ABYC Open Regatta and the Susan Hood distance race. Good IRC fleets for both events even though we were disappointed that a number of our IRC regulars decided to register in PHRF for the Susan Hood event. Shame on you for picking on the PHRF fleet!

ABYC Open Regatta

 

At the ABYC Open Regatta it was congratulations to Richard Reid and team on his Beneteau 36.7 Zingara for winning IRC 2 in their very first event with the IRC Lake Ontario fleet. They had an outstanding battle with Jim MacGuinness's IMX 38 Five Fifteen to win with an eight point margin. In third was Peter Milligan's ever competitive Red Jacket. Is that boat fifty years old yet!

 

In IRC 1 Adam Farkas and his team on his X35 Xoomer Xpress notching their first victory of the season with John McLeod's J133 Hot Water taking second and Gilles Bisnaire's Farr 39ML taking third on their debut in IRC.

 

Susan Hood Trophy Race

 

For the Susan Hood distance race it was a pleasant race with not too much wind which meant its wasn't too cold during the night time hours. In IRC 1 we saw the debut of Darren Gornell's Soto 40 Afterburn. She is an impressive addition to our IRC big boat fleet and we hope to see her out on a regular basis. We know she is going to be serious competition for our other IRC big boats. Also making her Lake Ontario debut was Jonathan Bamberger's latest Spitfire, now a Farr 45, hot off a winter in the Caribbean doing events like the Caribbean 600. Joining them in IRC 1 was Farr 44 Gaucho out of Hamilton to complete a proper big boat division. We expect this distance racing battle of the big boats to resume with the Lake Ontario 300 in July.

 

Spitfire prevailed taking the triple of Susan Hood fleet line honours, victory in IRC 1 and corrected to the IRC overall win as well. Afterburn took second in class and ninth overall in IRC with Gaucho taking third in class and 12th overall. In the very competitive IRC 2 division the very well sailed IMX38 IMXtreme skippered by Joe MacDonald took the class win and 4th overall followed by Xoomer Xpress with second in class and 6th overall and Five Fifteen in third and 7th overall.

 

In IRC 3 it was a Beneteau 10R sweep of the top three and they obviously pushed each other to the front of both their IRC division and overall results. With third in division it was Chris Bobyk's Blast taking a 7th overall with the battle for first and second so close that it was decided by a twenty six seconds margin after IRC corrected times were applied. Mac Sadowski's Zoom crossed the line ahead of Ian Struther's Plika but the small rating difference between the boats reversed the order to put Zoom in second and 3rd overall with Plika taking the class win and 2nd overall less than twenty minutes behind Spitfire on corrected time for the overall IRC fleet win. 

 

Next up after the RCYC Open Regatta is the IRC Canadian Championship hosted by Port Credit Yacht Club on July 9/10.

 

IRC Lake Ontario Fleet Executive