Yacht racing in Toronto (and you ?)

There are many opportunities to be involved in yacht racing in Toronto. Most sailing or yacht clubs have a crew bank which matches crew with boat. Since 1998 I have owned a J24 and been a member of National Yacht Club (NYC). Last year, NYC had three nights devoted to racing. Monday night is for new skippers. Tuesday night rules allow the use of "white sails". Wednesday night rules permit the use of a spinnaker. A spinnaker or chute is a large colourful sail, which is used sailing downwind. The crew bank opens around 17:00 and the boats leave the dock around 18:00. The races start at 18:30. I believe a crew membership costs less than $200. All sailing clubs have a similar program.

The Lake Ontario Racing Council(LORC) is the main organizing body for weekend regattas. The highlight of the regatta season is the Toronto NOOD held jointly at NYC and RCYC on the third weekend in June. Another interesting event is the Youngstown Regatta held at Youngstown, New York. Youngstown is noted as a great party as well as a great regatta. A major long distance race is the Lake Ontario 300, which is a circumnavigation of Lake Ontario.

Most club races are organized under a handicap system (e.g. PHRF) since different boats will be racing against each other. Class racing involves the most competitive boats. When there is sufficient numbers, a specific boat class has a class organization. The ‘class’ organizes ‘level’ regattas. One of the more active class associations involves the J24. The governing body for sailing in Ontario is the Ontario Sailing Association. The OSA supervises ‘Learn to sail’ programs, provides support for sailing instructors, and trains race officials.(If you are not interested in racing, most clubs need volunteers to man the Race Committee boat.) There is also an active program for disabled sailors. The NYC is the base for one of Canada’s yachting para-olympians, Bruce Millar.

My 2006 sailing experiences can be found at my yahoo blog.