The Spirit of Canada

Spirit of Canada, the first Open 60 Class Sailboat ever built in Canada, arrived at Port Credit Yacht Club Sunday evening.

The 60 foot single-handed high performance sailboat will be raced by Derek Hatfield in the Vendee Globe race in 2008. It's an Owen Clarke design built by a team in Coburg, Ontario.

The boat is still to be fitted with its keel and mast. Later this month, it will go to Port Credit Harbour Marina where it will be fitted with its keel. The official launch will take place in the Spring of 2007.

Derek Hatfield was 2003 Canadian Rolex Sailor of the Year who finished in 3rd place overall in Class II in the 2002/03 Around Alone race. Derek had originally planned to compete in the VELUX 5 OCEANS in October, but the boat wasn't ready in time.

Beautiful Day

Beautiful day Sunday for sailing here. A little hazzy but warm 25c and sunny. Winds when we left the dock were light and variable. A few miles out we found some SW wind 15-18kts that was building. Water was fairly flat. We made almost 8 kts and consistently did 7.5 kts.
Conditions when we returned to the harbour were a little stressful as winds were blowing close to 20 kts on the water and16kts behind the breakwall making docking a bit of an adventure ... But we made it in ok and helped our neighbours get their boat docked.
A super day ... Hope we get a few more like this before the season ends. I booked my haul-out date for October 21st, but hope to get out lots before.

Lazy Sunday

Just a lazy weekend. Rain on Saturday; Sunday was pleasant but moderate east winds made things unpleasant on the lake with some 2 meter waves.

Jamie's friend Patrick dropped down for a vist and we just lounged around taking it easy.

Last Day of Summer

Last day of summer ... Labour Day, September 4th ... fabulous conditions for sailing. Winds from the northwest, flat water and the Toronto Air Show flying above us.

We left the dock shortly after noon with the wind blowing a brisk 8-10 knots N/W. The lake was remarkably flat, considering what it's been like over the last 2- weeks (On Saturday night we had 4 meter waves with Ernesto). As we made our way to open water, the wind picked up nicely to a steady 15 knots with occasional gusts to 17-18. With our full main and genoa, we made over 8.0 knots and tacked to the Canadian National Exhibition and watched some of the Toronto Air Show.

On our way back, we caught up with our friends Donna and Peter Howells in their new Beneteau 343 named Cassis. We took a few photos then headed back to the club and enjoyed fittingly a bottle of Cassis with Donna and Peter dockside.

All in all a splendid day ....

Ernesto is here

It's here .... Gales 35 to 40 knots this afternoon. East gales diminishing to wind 30 after midnight then backing to northeast 15 Sunday morning. Rain at times heavy. Waves building to 3 to 4 this afternoon then lowering to 1 to 2 Sunday morning.

Ernesto is coming

Looks like Ernesto is going to hit us this weekend. Moderate to strong winds have been blowing from the east all week making sailing difficult. The current forecast: Gale warning in effect... Wind east 20 knots increasing to 25 overnight and then to northeast gales 35 knots Saturday afternoon. Waves 1 to 2 metres building to 3 to 4 Saturday afternoon. The outlook ... Gale force northeasterlies diminishing to moderate.

Oh well .. so much for sailing this weekend. Maybe Monday when things settle down.