BC Championships, we were there, but the wind forgot us

Fall in Victoria BC. I always know that Thanksgiving is just around the corner when we have the Fall Dinghy Championships at Royal Victoria Yacht Club. This 2 day regatta was designated as the Fireball BC Championships this year.

With a delay to the start of racing due to both lack of wind AND a broken BC ferry, the 10 boats registered got down to the serious business of visiting. I had emailed, cornered at pubs, hassled and emailed some more to ensure that the 3 sailors traveling north from Portland would have local boats to sail. My campaign had the added bonus of getting a 10 boat fleet on the water.
I also managed to convince a lot of local sailors that there would be a coaching/learning aspect if we switched up our usual sailor pairings.
For me, I already knew I would be sailing with someone different as my skipper was not available for the regatta. See the results posted here (link to follow later apparently), to see who I convinced to switch up.

Day 1 saw breeze from 0-7 knots and the RC managed send us on 3 W courses of varying laps. Current played more of a factor in our afternoon of sailing than I was expecting. I'm not sure why I was expecting less current, I've been sailing here for a few years now and current is always involved.
After the dinner provided by the RVYC, the Fireball fleet got to hang out by the patio fire and enjoy more nibblies and cake, while telling stories of the good old days and the windy regattas held at this location.

Day 2 saw breeze from 0-2 knots most of the morning and left the fleet visiting on shore, until the day was abandoned at 1 pm. By this time the Fireball fleet had decided that a little time on the water was better than a whole day on shore and 6 boats headed out for a couple of rabbit start races in the bay.

Congratulations to Rob Thompson and Francis Thompson the BC Champions. Also, thank you from me, to the sailors who showed up to sail with whoever I arbitrarily decided to match them up with in whatever boat was available.

Photo taken by Jamie Cox

Highlights of the weekend for me; sailing with CBSA Brian in a regatta; meeting new Fireball sailors that I didn't even know were showing up; visiting around the fire on Saturday evening; making my non-sailing friend chauffeur me about town all weekend because I lent my car to our Portland visitors.

Next regatta I will have to attempt cc'ing my email campaign to the wind fairies to see if they will show up to play too.

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