NORTH CHANNEL— The Little Current Yacht Club (LCYC) under the direction of Mike Coomes, Rear Commodore of Club Racing, started the race year with the Cooper Cup last Saturday and the Eaton Cup last Sunday.
Winds were light to non-existent at times during the Cooper Cup race which saw yachts sail down the Wabuno Channel across to the North Shore to Louisa Island and then eastward to round Eastern Island before heading homeward. The race course was shortened by the race committee due to the elapsed time caused by the light winds. It’s quite a sight to see eight boats virtually dead in the water pointing in different directions. There was one exception and that was a small 17’ catamaran, Windy Daze, skippered by Samantha Miller. After a long time without wind, in a five-minute period the wind went from 0 to 12 knots but it was far too late for anyone to catch Windy Daze which had sailed away from the becalmed fleet to take first honours across the line. The first place boat in the Jib and Main (JAM) Sail class on Saturday was Seabiscuit, second was Jessie and third was CaDaNa. In the Spinnaker fleet, Elusive came first and, with his time, also captured the overall prize of the Cooper Cup. Runner-up was Escape Plan and third was Blue Jacket.
The course for the Eaton Cup took the boats westward where they rounded the James Foot Patch buoy, north to Straubenzee Reef buoy and homeward. Good winds made for some exciting sailing and mark rounding with a downwind finish which made for the Spinnaker fleet flying their colourful sails all the way to the finish line. The JAM class was won by Jessie, a close second was Seabiscuit and third was CaDaNa. In Spinnaker class Elusive, once again, was the Overall winner of the Eaton Cup for a third year. Runner up was Escape Plan and Blue Jacket took third.
All the racers thanked Mike Coomes for organizing the races and special thanks went to the Race Committee, composed of Commodore Jim Corless, wife Judy and Vice Commodore Lianne Masson.
Coming up is North Channel Race Week with five daily races with marina stopovers starting from Hilton Beach on July 20 to Thessalon, Thessalon to Blind River, Blind River to North Channel Yacht Club at Spragge, NCYC to Gore Bay, finishing on July 24 as boats race from Gore Bay to Little Current. For information and registration, please go to www.lcyc.ca.
