Match racing for blind sailors is growing!

Transcription

1 Match racing for blind sailors is growing! The Royal Northern and Clyde yacht club in Rhu, Scotland was the gracious host for the 2018 World Blind Match Racing championships from September 1st to 7th. Five teams from four countries including Australia, Canada, the United States and Great Britian attended. Every team had at least one blind sailor that had not previously participated in a world championship match racing regatta. All teams took advantage of a three-day pre-event match racing clinic with women's match racing champion, Liz Baylis to prepare for the serious competition. The Canadian team was no exception with college student, Joshua Cook excitedly making the trip to Scotland for his first world championships. He has attended multiple Canadian regattas and he wanted to represent his country well. Joshua's father, Phil, was the coach for the team. He assisted in sailing the Sonar sailboat from the dock to the race course and back each day. Providing verbal descriptions of the race area, wind and weather patterns and other visual information was greatly appreciated. Each team had a totally blind helm, and legally blind crew for main and jib trimmers. All three marks for the windward-leeward course made distinct sounds and every one of the Sonar 23-foot sailboats had an audible port and starboard indicator installed. This allows the teams to orient themselves on the course. A brief video explanation is available at:

2 Canadian team: Phil Cook (coach from North West Territories) Joshua Cook (main trimmer attending college in Ottawa) Brian Arthur (jib trimmer from Toronto) David Brown (helm also from Toronto) The clinic was very beneficial for the team to hone their skills including communication, boat speed and maneuvering, and start timing. Sailing watches that both beeped and vibrated were used for starts. Mastering the watches lead to no late entry penalties for the team. The judges on the water could inform the competitors via radio to avoid a collision for safety reasons but would assign a penalty if they had to intervene.

3 The race committee patiently waited for winds to build and steady during the first days of the regatta but managed to complete two round robins in three days. Great Britain 1 (GBR1) was undefeated and chose the United States for their semifinal. Canada qualified for the semifinals with Great Britain 2 (GBR2) as our opponent. The race organizers had a special surprise visitor on the second last day of the regatta. Her Royal Highness, Princess Anne took to the water to watch some of the semi-final matches and then spoke personally to all competitors, coaches and race officials. She was treated to some of the closest racing of the week. Canada took the first semi-final match from GBR2 by only 2 boat lengths. The second of the best of three matches had a number of lead changes and GBR2 won by about the same margin. It came down to the final match which was again close but the GBR2 team held on for another close win.

4 Canada met the United States team in the petite final but lost to finish up forth for the championships. GBR1 successfully defended their title against their fellow country team GBR2 in the finals.

5 Our pool of Canadian talent was even further developed this year. Jodi Munden (pictured at right of photo) from Mississauga, Ontario accepted the invitation to join the Australian team as main trimmer for both the clinic and the regatta. Her enthusiasm and positive attitude that fueled many regatta experiences last year provide her with essential qualifications to respectfully represent both countries. Canada's base of blind match racing talent was significantly and successfully increased from the 2018 championships. The participants will be able to educate more local coaches, judges and sailors to build more skilled teams for the future..

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