District 3 Report: March 2009

This issue’s story of our frozen district is more about the Diaspora than the goings on in the Kingdom of Ontario.

The Miami OCRs, for instance, were invaded by some of D3’s finest; David Wright (5th), Lee Parkhill (7th), Chris Dold (17th) led the pack, while Rob Davis, Greg Clunies, Evan Lewis and Paul Brikis helped them drink American beer. Chris Dold says the regatta was “a tough event”—with lots of light air and high quality competition. It was for him a time for “lessons learned.” I’ve had a few of those.

In Radials, Joanne Prokop, Merry Claire and Ingrid Merry sailed well for the district and made us proud. The high number of D3 snowbirds seems to be the result of the National Racing Team renting a house in Miami for the season so our sailors could go down and train throughout the winter. I asked my boss if I could go down for the winter and race all day and drink all night. He said, “you’re 54 years old and you have a job!” He still hasn’t told me what his point was.

The Midwinters East in Clearwater saw even more D3 competitors in attendance. The evidence is in that Dold wasn’t’ kidding and did learn something from Miami. He beat all D3ers but Bernard Luttmer, who ended up 3rd. No wait, sorry, Lee Parkhill, punched in two places above him in 6th. Darn. My fascination with Dold’s sailing career and my inclination to want him to succeed stems from my actually haven beaten him in the National Capital regatta two years ago in Ottawa. Since then, I judge what I would have done at regattas I don’t attend by his results. For instance, if he wins Silver at the next Olympics, I will be comforted by the fact that, had I qualified to represent Canada, I would have won Gold. Don’t laugh, you do it too.

But there were more D3s around in both the Fulls and the Radials: Rob Davis, Evan Lewis, Matthew Ryder, Evert McLaughlin, Paul Brikis, Gregory Clunies and Master sailor Terry Neilson. In the Radials: Clair Merry showed best with a 16th place finish, followed by David Mori, Joanne Prokop, Ingrid Merry and Tyler Meyrick.

The Masters were not immune to diasporaing. The Caribbean Midwinters in Cabarete, Dominican Republic was the first stop. Terry Neilson came up 6th over all and first Master. He was joined in Cabarete by another D3 Master Andy Roy and was going to be joined by yet another D3 Master Rob Muru, but Muru got stuck in traffic. Or it was something about work? 

Terry showed up also when the circuit continued in West Palm Beach for the Florida Masters and placed 3rd overall there. Along with Terry, Joe Van Rossem from Water Rats, Jeff Fullerton from London and I headed down to Florida for the Master circuit: Florida Masters, Midweek Maddness and the Masters Mids in Sarasota. The turnouts for each regatta broke records, with over 70 in West Palm, over 60 admitted to Maddness in Jensen Beach and over 80 at the Mids. Both Florida Masters and Middweek Maddness blew hard, while Sarasota did what Sarasota apparently does –six to nine, no hiking allowed, or, at least, required. All in all, the regattas were a great way to start the Worlds year that Canada will enjoy this summer.

But there is another D3-related event to be excited about. D3 kid Vaughn Harrison and a friend from D2, Nic Kim have begun a Laser training centre in Mexico called Port Tack Option (PTO for short) that, in its first year, attracted some terrific training and perfect weather. Both juniors and masters sailors found opportunity to go down, and say the conditions comparable to the now famous Cabarete experience. Vaughn reports that the centre’s success has inspired them to scale up operations by moving from Malaqua to a brand new facility in Puerto Vallarta at the La Cruz Yacht Club.

“We are joining forces with leading Mexican visionaries to create the first development center in Mexico,” say Vaughn. PTO plans to add Opti's and 420's to the fleet, and “will open our doors more to local Mexican development and Collegiate racing.” Sounds like a Diaspora with a difference. Will we ever see those boys again?

And how about those D3 Masters sailors? Because the Worlds is in our backyard (if Halifax can be called the backyard of Ontario. Might get nasty letters on that one), a group of them have banded together to form the Ontario Masters Racing Team. The 13 members intend to conduct four clinics across Ontario during the spring and summer to push the pace in Ontario and find a few spots on the various podiums of Halifax. The group has representation in almost every fleet (there are seven) at the Masters Worlds and expect good things to happen as they pool resources and get all coached up. You’ll see them in force for the first time at the North American Masters in Wrightsville Beach. They will be the ones sipping protein drinks and going to bed at 9:00pm. Serious dudes.

There is one thing happening in our frozen regions. Kevin Biskaborn, an excellent sailor from London, Ontario and even more excellent web designer has agreed to completely revamp the D3 website. You can get a hint of what is to come by going to www.d3laser.com. There you will find the cover page and something of what the new website will looks like. You have to admit, the kid rocks as a designer. The new site will have more functionality than an Obama bailout, and we can’t wait to share his work with the world. The new site should be up and running by May. Look out for it.

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