Tanzer 22 North American Championship: Wrap Up

The T22 North American Championship for 2006 was held in plenty of wind, September 3-4th, hosted by Hudson YC. In fact, the first day had winds peaking at 25-30 knots. Racers used a variety of sail options with reefed mains, #2 genoa and #3 working jib foresails. There were gear breakdowns, and a Dragon approached Patrice Dehaes' Turbo on port tack, and got his backstay snagged. The Dragon lost it's mast which broke in two. Other boats were racing on the same course with different starts, but this was the only incident resulting in such a failure. Ambitious and Sine Wave did collide right in front of the finish line at the conclusion of the final race, while in the front pack! No significant damage other than frayed competitive nerves were the result. A lot of competitors crossed the finish line from behind while the collision victims sorted themselves out!

Regatta favourite, Patrice Delhaes dropped out of the first race after the collision with the Dragon, but it appears the day would belong to Ken Hodgson's Sloop de Jour anyway. With three 1sts. in the 4 heavy air races of day 1, Ken who owns Tanzer Boat Parts can also be known as this year's heavy air King. Other than the DNF due to the collision, Patrice' Turbo picked up a 2nd and two 3rds., HYC Club Manager, Trevor Collins was able to race his T22 this week end and took 3rd overall, followed by HYC Club Champion Bernard Le Duc a point behind. In 5th overall the first day, Derek Prest's Westerhall from Nova Scotia did well despite some errors in recording his finishes, and a spinnaker broach that filled the cockpit with water. Tanzer 22 sailors be reminded: keep your lower washboard in place in the companionway! Westerhall picked up a bullet in race #4 to top off the first day. Also from Nova Scotia, Doug Caldwell and crew picked up a 2nd in the first race of the regatta.

The second race day brought easier winds that were still strong enough for good racing. This day would belong to Turbo which took bullets in all three races. Patrice and his crew are able to extract extraordinary speed out of their boat, and this served them superbly. Trevor Collins and crew sailing Penny Wise came on big time the second day picking up two 2nds and a 3rd. Sloop de Jour took two 3rds and a 5th. Phil Wilcox from Ottawa was sailing with different and varying crew, and did very well with the more moderate wind the second day. In the final race he picked up a 2nd place.

I don't know about the first day, but Montreal Sailing must make special note of Ken Barrieau and Chris Campbell who each sailed their race boats with only one crew the second day, and did so with spinnaker very, very well!

It was good to see Tanzer sailors travelling to make their class' championship. Tanzerites came from 6 different clubs and three provinces. Daniel Godbout and Phil Wilcox came from Ottawa, and Doug Caldwell and Derek Prest brought two boats and an army of crew and partners from Grand Lake YC in Nova Scotia. 3 boats came from Lac St. Louis. With boats from Lac Des Deux Montagnes that made for a total of 15. Not bad considering the heavy air and rain the first day, and the difficulties being experienced by top end racing these days.

Regatta Chair Pat Patterson, main on the water race official and guru Ross Tellier, and all the volunteers from HYC and CVL worked hard to give the Class a great regatta. Run concurrently with Hudson's Annual Regatta made for great organization, fun parties, and the maximum number of Tanzers given the Class popularity on Lac Des Deux Montagnes in Montreal. The historic North American nautical clock trophy had no more room left for this year's winner plate, so Pierre Marois refurbished the trophy with a new teak base, and it looks as impressive as ever.

Results

Order of stats are position, boat, Sail #, skipper, club, finishes
1 Turbo, 650, P. Delhaes, CVL, DNF, 2, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1
2 Sloop de Jour, 1093, K. Hodgson, HYC, 1, 1, 1, 7, 3, 3, 5
3 Penny Wise, 489, T. Collins, HYC, 4, 5, 4, 2, 2, 2, 3
4 Maverick, 44, B. LeDuc, HYC, 3, 4, 2, 5, 4, 8, 6
5 Westerhall, 2172, D. Prest, GLYC, 5, 7, 5, 1, 9, 4, 4
6 Sine Wave, 835, J. Fichten, PCYC, 7, 6, 6, 6, 8, 5, 11
7 Beagle, 1681, P. Wilcox, 9, 9, 9, 10, 5, 6, 2
8 Freyja, 1801, D. Caldwell, GLYC, 2, 8, 8, 12, 9, 9, 10
9 Encore Une Fois, 1099, J. Linton, BYC, 8, 10, 10, 4, 6, 10, 8
10 Shigawac, 413, C. Campbell, HYC, 6, 3, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15
11 Knot a Clew, 1531, M.Laventure, HYC, 10,11 12, 11, 12, 11, 12
12 Charisma, 20, K.Barrieau, HYC, DNC, DNC, DNC, DNC, 7, 7, 7
13 Sherrie, 89, D.Godbout, 11, 12, 11, 9, 14, 15, 14
14 Ambitious, 92, R. Stocek, BYC, DNF, DNC, DNC, DNC, 13, 13, 9
15 Evergreen, 1618, C. Paynter, BYC, DNC, DNC, DNC, DNC, 10, 12, 13