Hope deferred makes the heart sick (Proverbs 13:12)
We did have a hope, here in Ontario (District 3 to Laserists). Buoyed by the promises of Al Gore and encouraged by our ever-increasing CO2 emissions, we truly believed we had a warm spring in store. We had done everything we could. We drove around the block for no reason. We tore the catalytic converters out of our cars. We purposefully provided false address information for FedEx deliveries so the trucks would travel aimlessly trying to find none existent addresses. We turned our thermostats up. We switched our subscriptions from the Toronto Star to the National Post!
To no avail. The spring in Ontario was heartsickeningly cold and wet and very un-Global-Warming like. The ice was out of the bay a week late, and the first boat in the water on March 15 (mine or Joe Van Rossems's, I can't remember) had to avoid ice flows.
And when the regattas began, it was in icebreaking fashion. The TS&CC Icebreaker regatta was bitter. The cold wind howled at Fanshawe for their June Bug regatta (June!! For the love of God!) The Flat Water Freezeout in Guelph blew small dogs off big chains and dipped every competitor into the frigid waters of Guelph Lake at least once, except for Brad Biskaborn.
The newly formed Ontario Master Racing Team (OMR Team), did the right thing by heading south to Wrightsville Beach for the North American Masters Championships. It was an excellent show of numbers if not results, with 11 of the 14 members making the trip away from 40-50F weather to more comfortable 70F-plus temps. I will leave it to District 11 to tell the story of the regatta, but I will say that our best, Andy Roy, was as fast as anyone on the wind, and rounded the top mark consistently high in the fleet of 90-plus boats. He finished the regatta a well-deserved fifth.
Back at home, we could be forgiven for allowing the coming World Championships to overshadow much of the activity surrounding District 3. In both the Open fleet and the Masters, the numbers competing from District 3 are impressive. Of the 16 Canadians registered for the Open, nine are D3ers. Of the 70 Canadian Masters registered for the Worlds this August, almost half are D3ers.
To prepare for the Worlds, the OMR Team had the first of its five planned clinics in Toronto in May with North American Open Champion David Wright coaching. Also gearing up, a number of the Senior Open competitors traveled to Holland to test their speed against the best in the world before coming back to Ontario to compete together in the Royal Canadian Yacht Club Open where the weather finally lived up to Globally Warmed hype-and coincidently killed the breeze. To attract them back home, RCYC offered the winner of both the Full Rig and Radial fleets a trip to England for the UK National Champs. 2002 Olympic rep Bernard Luttmer won the fulls ahead of David Wright and Chris Dold, and OMR Team member Nigel Heath won in the Radials over a fleet of hotshot youngsters.
At time of writing, some of us in Ontario have become skeptical of the Gore promise. We await the weather's decision for the North Americans we will soon host at Buffalo Canoe Club. Actually, I am not sure if District 3 is considered the district host, as BCC is a bit like Canada's very own Guantanamo Bay. When I first competed at BCC two years ago my cell phone rang as I entered the driveway of the club and sent a text message saying, "Welcome to United States and Singular Wireless!" I ended up paying international roaming charges in my own country!
I got vertigo looking around at the Thistle fleet lined up in the dingy park (Nobody sails a Thistle in Canada). I honestly thought I had crossed the border by mistake as I looked at the surrounding American architecture and was welcomed by twangy accents, American beer and the faces of American presidents on all the dull-green, monochrome money being accepted at the lunch counter. The only thing missing was Omar Khadr bellying up to the bar (Wait. I think after five years in Guantanamo he's still underage.)
When the club recently posted a reminder to foreign travelers that they needed a passport to cross the border, it took a second for me to realize the reminder wasn't for me. But let's not get political. As odd as a Canadian's first visit is, BCC truly ranks among the best places to sail in North America, whatever country it's in. Canada's Guantanamo will be welcome here till hell freezes over, which will be sooner than we think if our D3 spring is any indication.
Rob Koci races in both the Laser Full-Rig and Laser Radial fleets around District 3. Currently, Rob is the District 3 secretary and maintains a frequently updated race diary on D3Laser.com. Rob's home port is St. James Town Sailing Club in Toronto, Ontario.
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