LOORG - News from the Susan Hood Trophy Race and LOSHRS!

Lake Ontario

Offshore Racing Group

June 2012

In This Issue

The Susan Hood Trophy Race was a great success!

Lake Ontario 300 Challenge

Lake Ontario 300 GLSS

LOSHRS Update

Offshore Safety And Sea-Survival Training.

Quick Links

Lake Ontario 300 Challenge

Susan Hood Trophy Race

Lake Ontario Short-Handed Racing Series

Port Credit Yacht Club

SHTR on Yacht Scoring

LO300 on Yacht Scoring

LOSHRS on e-RegisterNow

LOSHRS on eRegister

Featured Sponsors

Archived Newsletters

An exciting start to the racing season!

Last weekend was a memorable start to the offshore racing season on Lake Ontario. A stormy shortened Susan Hood Trophy Race and a windy LOSHRS Course Race on Sunday.

As many people know, the winds on Friday June 1st were not conducive to safe deliveries or race. Our safety sub-committee held a conference call to determine the best way to handle the extreme conditions. With much input from our Safety Committee and Ron Bianchi, we decided to postpone the race until Saturday morning and shorten the course. From all accounts, this was the right decision and a popular one with all those who participated. Thank you, to Ron Bianchi for his continued support of offshore racing on Lake Ontario. Ron Bianchi volunteered to show up at 9am Saturday to give us a weather briefing, which was well received and appreciated by everyone in attendance.

SHTR 2012

Congratulations to all Division and Cup winners over the weekend.

Sincerely,
Darren Gornall
Chair, Lake Ontario Offshore Racing Group

The Susan Hood Trophy Race was a great success!

This year's Susan Hood Trophy Race was started Saturday morning. The course was approximately 40 mile long from Port Credit Yacht Club to Burlington Weather Mark, which turned out to be a fantastic windward leeward race. The fleet had a strong windward leg into Hamilton Bay with shifty winds gusting up to 30 kts. It made the leg extremely challenging. Where most boats were looking for a little relief going into the weather mark, the opposite happened. What is normally a windless part of the lake saw winds exceeding 28 kts.

As the majority of the fleet were headed home the winds began to dwindle down to 15 kts and then as seen on the lake many times, they disappeared completely around 6pm. Special congratulations to all the boats who hung in there to finish in light winds later that night while the rest of the participants were at the club enjoying the Sperry Top-Sider Post Race Party. Approximately 90 boats were at the start line out of the 114 registered, which given the extreme conditions on Friday is a great turnout.

SHTR 2012

This year's Susan Hood Trophy Winner is Encore, a Saber 386TM skippered by Tony Byrne from Youngstown Yacht Club.

Line Honours go to:

PHRF Line Honours- Carbonado, a Magonaghy 38 owned by Rob and Sandy Butler from PCYC, Carbonado finished in 5:29:27.
IRC Line Honours- Gaucho, a Farr 44 owned by Sandy and Larry MacDonald from Hamilton with a time of 5:59:41

For the first time in race history there was a special trophy awarded to the best Beneteau First 36.7. This fleet sailed within their Division, but had five boats and qualified for their own start. Greg Nicol of Canadian Yachting, quickly realized they needed a trophy and donated a wonderful and very practical inscribed Silver Bodum Coffee Press to the winner of this fleet. Congratulations go to Pierre Savard of Tango, for winning the First, Beneteau First 36.7 Susan Hood Beneteau Fleet Trophy. Tango was also 3rd in their PRHF 2 Division.

Ben 36.7 Trophy Winner SHTR 2012

Congratulations to all Division Winners listed below. All results are available on Yachtscoring.com

The North Division Flags were handed out at a great get together Saturday night at Port Credit Yacht Club, while people were enjoying the special Yacht Dogs supplied by Sperry Top-Sider, who also provided the colourful shirts. If you are a flag winner and did not pick up your flag please contact Monica Doedens at mndoedens@gmail.com

Trophies will be handed out at the annual awards banquet with the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge awards in September.

Division Winners

IRC - Full Crew 1 (10 Boats)

Umi Taka, Beneteau First 40.7, Chris Rypkema , Oakville, Ont, CAN -

IRC - Full Crew 2 (15 Boats)

IMXtreme, IMX 38, Joe MacDonald , Mississauga, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Double Handed (8 Boats)

Kaizen, Farr 30, Oleg Melnikov , Ajax, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Full Crew 1 (13 Boats)

Carbonado, McConaghy 38, Rob & Sandy Butler , Collingwood, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Full Crew 2 (14 Boats)

Encore, Sabre 386 TM, Tony Byrne , E Amherst, NY, USA

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Full Crew 3 (9 Boats)

Jersey Girl, Olson 911S, Mark Searle , Mississauga, ONT, CAN

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Full Crew 4 (8 Boats)

Bikini 11, C&C 33-2, Gary Bell , St Catharines, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO Flying Sails - Full Crew 5 (9 Boats)

Harrier, Tartan 30, Chris Chapman , Pickering, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO No Flying Sails - Double Handed (6 Boats)

Deva, Dufour 445, David Medhurst , Toronto, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO No Flying Sails - Full Crew 1 (13 Boats)

Freestyle, CS 40, Jim Oldershaw , Mississauga, Ont, CAN

PHRF-LO No Flying Sails - Full Crew 2 (11 Boats)

Kalona, Aloha 34, Philip Meiliunas , Cobourg, Ont, CAN

Lake Ontario 300 Challenge

Congratulations to Gary Silliker from Bluffers Park Yacht Club for winning this year's Early Bird Registration draw.

Gary is entered into the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge with his C&C33 named Mainau. He definitely has an added advantage this year with his new

Sailing GPS system manufactured by Sailtimer Inc.

2012 Lake Ontario 300 Solo Challenge

6 Weeks to Go!

There are only six weeks to go until the start of the 2012 LO300 Solo Challenge. So far the fleet is shaping up nicely, with 7 boats registered for this year's event. We have three returning skippers, including Gene Joelson on board Joely Rose returning for his 3rd Challenge in a row (way to go Gene) and Jason Smyth returns again on board Slainte. Chuck Watson, sailing Why Not, is also returning for another attempt at this years Challenge. After not finishing in 2010, Why Not was out of the water for a re-fit and a rest in 2011, but Chuck states he has some "unfinished business to take care of" this year. Good luck everyone.

In addition we have three non GLSS members hoping to make an attempt at this years Challenge. Congratulations go out to Carl Ricciuti on board Finito. Carl has just completed his 100nm qualification sail and submitted all of his required information to the GLSS Liason (me), in order to be invited to sail in the Challenge. This is a requirement of the GLSS, so please don't forget to submit all of the required documentation to bhughes@ucci.ca as soon as possible - time is getting short.

We look forward to seeing more participants sign up for this year's event. Hopefully the great weather we have been having will lead many more Lake Ontario sailors to consider the "Greatest Challenge Within the Greatest Race on the Lakes".

For further information please email bhughes@ucci.ca, or call Brent Hughes at 416-984-7967.

Good luck and safe sailing to all skippers.

LOSHRS Update

The LOSHRS Course Race held on June 3rd went off with great winds and an excellent turnout of 83 boats.

Just like the day before in the Susan Hood Trophy Race, there was a 5 mile beat into the wind, which saw some shifting and lighter winds happening at the Clarkson Mark. Despite the lingering clouds and potential for north winds, the trip to the Gibraltar finish line, was for the most part light and variable dead down wind. As the lead boats finished the winds picked up dramatically and provided a great finish for the higher divisions that started later, unlike the Susan Hood, being the lead boat was a disadvantage. That's why we come back for more!

Congratulations to the following Division winners:

DH Flying Sails 1

Shorthanded- Mike Pietz - PCYC

DH Flying Sails 2

One - Stuart Rice Alex Bay YC

DH Flying Sails 3

Umi Taki - Roger Van Vlack - ABYC

DH Flying Sails 4

Impromptu, Michael Cullen - NYC

DH Flying Sails 5

Critical Path, Tal Wolf - LCYC

DH White Sail 1

Glayva, Jeff Jeffcoat - MCC

DH White Sail 2

Jaeger, Carey Sawchuck - PCYC

DH White Sail 3

For Petes Sake, Peter Sandford - OYS

SH Flying Sails 1

Wave Walker, Martin McKenzie - EYC

SH White Sail 1

Mythos, Ted Spanos - PCYC

Multi-Hull

Flight Simulator, Tom Reese - YYC

LOSHRS Youngstown Race - June 16th

The next great LOSHRS event is the 2-day Youngstown Race June 16th & 17th. This race weekend features the famous dock gathering hosted by Jan & Maggie Stein.

The skippers' meeting on Friday night at 7:30pm; it pays to be there...

The 2012 yellow t-shirts can be p/u by every skipper who missed the Course Race meeting.

Yellow LOSHRS Pennants will be available for hand out to all who don't have one.

A great night of fun and mingling and of course there will be 5 Mount Gay Rum bottles raffled off.

Dinner at Youngstown will be hosted in the Youngstown Yacht Club: The charge is only $35.00 USD per person including tax & gratuity, a great price for a super dining experience....

Please let us know at the skipper and crew meeting how many will be joining the group for dinner, thanks.

All those who have registered should have received their information on the customs pre-clearing forms. If you have not received this information, please contact Ian at 905-823-1071 or email folichon34@rogers.com

LOSHRS Registrations are done on-line at www.loshrs.com

Offshore Safety And Sea-Survival Training

The Royal Canadian Yacht Club is conducting two personal offshore safety and sea-survival training courses June 23 & 24. This is a hands-on in-the-water experience where you will be trained by Captain Eric Hill, Air Navigator RCAF, and offshore training skipper for the Royal Canadian Navy.

The course is suited to both racers and cruisers and provides you with the skills needed when things go wrong and help is hours or days away.

The course is open to all but if you attended the RCYC 2010 Safety at Sea seminar and pass this exam, you will receive a CYA-ISAF approved Offshore Personal Survival Course certificate that endorses you to participate as crew in races such as: Route Halifax Saint-Pierre, Marblehead-to-Halifax Ocean, Ocean One International, Marion-to-Bermuda, Newport-Bermuda. This is a one-time offer only as normally you would have to complete both courses in the same calendar year to receive the certificate.

The course is a one-day event which will be conducted using the RCYC Island Club pool. It will be held twice during the weekend. Space is limited to 20 participants per day and spots are filling up quickly so register early so you don't miss out on this great opportunity.

The costs is CDN$359.00 per person plus HST and includes launch to the Island (parking and meals are not included).

Registration can be made through the RCYC Sailing Office at 416.967.7245 and more information on the course can be found here.

About Us

The Lake Ontario Offshore Racing Group is responsible for the planning of the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge, the Susan Hood Trophy Race and the Lake Ontario Short Handed Racing Series under the organizing authority of the Port Credit Yacht Club.