Report from Dave Adams:
There is no question about it, travelling and participating in regattas is key to a successful 505 career. There is no substitute but sometime you just want to try stuff out in a “sorta” race environment and that is where a training regatta shines.
Every year we gather in Kingston to do just that. It is a weekend of drills, practise starts and long on-shore debriefs. They are majic!
A big thank you to the Boyd family, Steve Yates on power boat, Ali Meller coaching and Renka Gesing and Marie Gendron for organizing. Also a big shout out to the Canadian 505 Class Association for subsidizing the costs. This is an investment that pays off because we had two new boats show up!
Report From Renka Gesing:
The training event at the Kingston Yacht Club was an unqualified success — a good deal for participants, great coaching and great training for all the different levels of sailing experience, a pizza dinner arranged by Florence Boyd, and wonderful sailing conditions.
Clinic fees were a good deal thanks to the Class subsidy that covered rental of the coach boat and gas. The fees were $40 for the “older” folks, and $30 for those under 25. Out of the 16 participants, almost half were in the younger group.
The youngest sailor was 15-year-old Luca Manning, who skipped for his grandfather, Adam Gesing. He was thrilled with the experience: “As an inexperienced sailor, this weekend was a very enriching and valuable experience. I learned so much about everything that has to do with sailing, from tactics to boat handling. There wasn’t a negative thing that I can say about it, except for it not being long enough. Another great value of this masterclass has nothing to do with sailing directly. I got to meet so many new people with great stories and experiences to share. The 505 community is truly an amazing thing that I am very glad to be a part of.”
The youngest combined crew were teenagers Evania Lovshin and Cameron Laing. Then there were the parent/son or daughter crews. It was great to see two new boats from Toronto’s OHCC. We welcome to the Class Hannah Abush and her father Joshua, and Drake Morrison and his father Conor. Another father/son team was Steve Adolph and Tommy Adolph. Yet another young newcomer to the class was Yunus Akcor, who crewed for Douglas Watson.
There was some representation from wife/husband teams: Deb Ashby with Dave Adams, and Shona Moss with Steve Lovshin.
Coaching was also a family affair. Jeff Boyd and his daughter Danielle joined Ali Meller to head up the sail training. The mornings were spent with boat setup, the afternoon sailing multiple shorter races. The three jumped in and out of the coach boat, driven by Steve Yates, to share their sailing prowess.
I sadly remained on shore but was happy to see such a successful event.
