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Seminar: Racing the San Juans
February 24 @ 10:30 am - 1:00 pm
Speakers: Vern Lhotzky & Alex Fox
Date: Saturday, Feb 24th
Time: 10:30 AM
Venue: SISC Clubhouse
TO REGISTER, please email: courses@saltspringsailing.ca
About the talk: We will discuss our experiences at some of the northwest races over the last few years and reasons why we did well some years and why we didn’t do well on others.
At the session we’ll give a brief description of what racing entails including some of the following:
- different rating systems in use in handicapping sailboats
- one design racing, the different types of boats, types of sails used
- distance races as opposed to round the buoys
- boat prep, crewed or single handed
- familiarizing the crew with the sailing instructions issued for a particular race
- checking the weather forecast, the tides and currents for the area
- studying maps to determine how topography influences the wind direction or strength
- locating the marks of the course and plotting them on a chart or plotter
- identifying and navigation hazards that could be encountered while racing
- identifying the other boats in your division
About the Speakers:
Vern Lhotzky: Vern sailed for the first time in ‘57. Raced for the first time in ’65: Fireball, FJ, Sabot, and Starr in Vancouver and Sumerland and competed in the Fireball National in San Francisco in ’78. According to Vern “they sucked, there was big breeze in the bay and crew were too skinny!!” He got his first keel boat in ‘80 after racing on various other boats in and around Vancouver and raced it seriously till ’90. They moved to Victoria in ‘91 and, due to business constraints was boatless, for 20 years but still raced occasionally with other people. Vern has been racing his own series of boats since ‘99 including most of the north west distance races. He and his crew have won their division a few times in most of them including 1st OA at Southern Straits and 2nd OA at Round The County.
Alex Fox: Alex Fox is a lifetime sailboat racer, coach, facilitator, active in Around the Buoys small keelboat racing with a long list of West Coast One-Design and PHRF Regatta wins. These include North American and Canadian Championships in the Martin 242. His Long Distance Race resume includes wins in Van Isle 360, Vic Maui, Swiftsure, Whidbey Island Race week, MEXORC etc. Alex is the author of a monthly column “The Favoured Tack” appearing in Pacific Yachting magazine and has been manager of the Sailing Shop at Trotac Marine for the past 12 years.
