Local Knowledge

Open Season!
The Outer Harbour is one of the best (unfortunately and not on purpose) kept secrets of dinghy (a.k.a. real) sailors in Ontario. At the end of Cherry Street is a little nook that houses a number of sailing clubs, and what is rumoured to be the largest fleet in Canada
- the Albacores. Three community clubs, Westwood, St. James Town, and Mooredale, each own between 15 to 20 Albacores available for their members to use at any time. And every Friday night starting in early May, between 40-50 Albacores take part in the Friday Night Races (and every weekend from June to September there is an Albacore regatta or Harbour Master race). This amazing competition has produced some topnotch sailors, but I digress.

In addition to these community clubs, there are also several clubs for
private boat owners, including Water Rats, the Toronto Multihull
Cruising Club, and the Outer Harbour Centreboard Club. OHCC's fleet is a mix of monohulls, including lasers, CLs, 505s, 470s, Albacores, and the coolest single-handed trapezing dinghy in North American waters - the Contender.

Despite an unusually warm winter, the harbour was still iced up last weekend, but this weekend the bergs were gone, and it was time to sail - for two insane Contender sailors anyway. Inspired by the practice of some of the top 505 sailors on the West coast (where I'll note it's much warmer year round), Neil Smith, the current Canadian Contender Association dictator, came up with "Team Sunday", where the most dedicated (and foolhardy) Contender sailors would meet every Sunday at some ungodly hour to work on boat handling and tune. A temporary blip, Team Sunday, comprising Neil and Roger Martin (who is new to the Contender fleet but clearly insane enough that we expect him to do well) got together on Saturday morning.

With overcast skies, snow on and off, the temperature below zero (before the wind-chill factor), and some Westerly breeze (enough to trapeze), Neil and Roger rigged their boats. That done, they trotted off to change (and took an awful long time, making me suspect they were also in the change room praying), and then they were off.

I watched from the shore with Neil's dad, and for the most part, it wasn't too exciting (for us, anyway). Westerlies tend to be fairly steady, so the chance of dumping (for experienced sailors) isn't too high. But when the boys started coming in, we watched a rather funny scene unfold. Heading upwind, one on top of the other, Roger (the leeward boat) luffed and hit Neil. That's right - the first and ONLY two boats in the outer harbour, and they hit each other.

The story was that Roger couldn't uncleat his main because it had frozen up (did I mention it was below zero?). With a gust hitting him, his only choices were either to head up (and hit Neil) or dump. He chose the smarter option. The contact wasn't serious, but it elicited a shriek from Neil (understandable since he has a nice composite boat). Dragging the boats in, we noticed that almost everything that had come in contact with the water had frozen up - the tillers, shrouds, lines, cleats, and deck were glossed with ice. Welcome to "spring" in Ontario.

While their sail today was short and mostly only served to shake the cobwebs off, Neil and Roger did manage to beat everyone else out (with the exception of a kiteboarder who was spotted last weekend. But they're certifiable and not in boats, so they don't count). Let the sailing season in Toronto begin!

(Note: OHCC has a club Contender that anyone can try. If you're in Toronto and interested in this fast and fun boat, contact Neil at ccc.contenderclass.org. Team Sunday is also keeping a blog on the with more pics to come). - Stephanie Mah.

04/12/07