Chestermere YC hosted their first endurance race on Saturday 9th August. The format was teams would race a 420 and laser for 6hrs and the team with the most laps would win. A team was made up of a minimum of 4 sailors.
The course was set with short 400m Legs in front of the club lawn with the North Pontoon acting as the start finish line enabling the race committee to control things from the shore and challenge themselves to and endurance program of sitting in a lawn chair for six hours drinking coffee.
Four teams entered the event The Reservoir Dogs from Glenmore SC, Green with Envy, Team Oliveira and The Blue Team (Members who turned up). Each team flew ribbons to ensure the race officers could detect who was who.
The weather was very kind with a gentle breeze that constantly changed direction ensuring that every lap had its own individual challenge and each leg at some time became a beat. The race started promptly at 12:00 and each team’s laps were totaled every hour and posted to ensure everyone knew their position; the final places only being settled in the final hour of the race.
Green with Envy - 47 Laps
Reservoir Dogs – 44 Laps
Team Oliveira-- 36 Laps
Random Members-- 41 Laps
The event was a great success and many thanks should go to Art for pulling things together. A special thank you to the RC of the day – Karsten Dalberg, John Mustard, Terry and Travis Reid and Trina Buitenwerf. The event allowed club members and visitors to mix on the club lawn, water bomb competitors as they went through the start finish line and on some occasions from the support boat, throw a rugby ball (OK football). Some teams even found time to BBQ during the day and others partied into the night.
This event is a must for next year’s sailing calendar. It would be great get some more teams from CYC and other local clubs.
