At some point in time in a sailors career there has to be a learning stage and this is where we are at the 2012 Youth Worlds in Dublin, ever day the team is getting better, not always at the finish but in parts of the race. Starts are getting noticeably better, first upwinds are definitely getting better, now we have to get better at finishing the race!

Wind today was light to start built to 7 to 10 coming from 270 on the compass, the first race was in these conditions although there were quite a number of pressure differences – then the wind in the second race really piped up with gusts as high as 29 kts on the Radial course!

Another day of sailing in the "emerald isle", named for it's beauty and greenery and also for its changing weather, cool, sunny, windy, slightly warm, rain, light wind, heavy clouds and this is all within 2 hours. Conditions bringing a whole new meaning to "if you don't like the weather wait a minute"!

There were 3 races on all courses today so we now have a drop in place. The wind ranged between 240 and 285 on the compass and velocity between 7kts and 18 kts, although the latter was for a very short time.

Day one of the Youth World Sailing Championships in Dublin Ireland yesterday, and another very cool day but it did not rain! Wind was from 285 to 315 on the compass but the occilations were fairly predictable so a good start would set you in phase pretty quickly. Velocity was 8-12kts.

Jean Sebastien Fougere (QC) had the top Canuck finish of the day with a 12 in the first race. In his second race he had problems getting off the line and ended up 27th on the RSX course. Max Flinn and Andrew (birthday boy) Burns, from Nova Scotia, had a good start in the I420 with a 13 and 16 in a very competitive fleet. It may be some of the better I420 Canadian results in recent years at this event but they feel that there are many more opportunities for them to move up in the coming races.

470 Europeans in Largs, Scottland are well underway, with only today and tomorrow left on the race schedule. Canada’s Mike Leigh and Luke Ramsay are rackin’ up top notch results, as they currently sit in 5^th over all with 3 races to go. Over the course of their regatta the boys scored a very notable 2^nd, 3^rd, and 1^st, in races 3, 4 and 9.

“In the first race today we got a little flushed at the start, but then Mike did a really good job calling tracks upwind.

Whoah heads up! The Kieler Woche (Translation: Kiel Week) Regatta is well under way in scenic Kiel Germany. This 130 year old regatta is host to a week of city wide events, centered around the sailing. There are over 2000 boats with fleets spread wide and far. Kite surfing, ORC, Swan 45’s and J-80’s are just selection of the handful of non-olympic boats that are racing in addition to the full Olympic spread. Canada’s Paul Tingley is there as we speak, representing in the 2.4mR. He’s had a great week so far, kicking things off with a bullet and maintaining 5^th over all. He’s races were scored – 1, 7, 11, DNF, 8, 8, 9, 3, 6, 3. Count em up... that’s right, 8 top ten finishes for Mr. Tingly as he maintains his reputation as one of the 2.4mR’s heavy hitters.

Check out the regatta here.

Sail for Gold today saw constant wind readings reaching near the 30 knot mark, way too much of the good stuff for a practical race. The majority of the fleet spent the majority of their time wandering the boatyard, telling war stories, playing cards or generally trying to amuse themselves while the race committee pondered the wind. The forecast Gale was ever present overnight as winds peaked out consistently in the mid 40 knot range with gusts in excess of 50 knots. Needless to say this whipped the ocean into an unrelenting fury. By 10 am the committee had correctly assessed that Paralympic sailing was likely not possible for the day and ended the series.

A huge congrats goes out to the Paralympic Canadian SKUD 18 and Sonar teams for snatching up a well deserved SILVER AND BRONZE!!! In the SKUD 18 it was Stacie Louttit and John McRoberts from Canada’s west coast who fought hard through 6 races to land 2nd overall, giving them the silver medal. Bruce Millar, Logan Campbell and Scott Lutes in the Sonar fleet also raced 6 tough races, taking a close third overall and the BRONZE medal. Great work guys, we love to see the Canadian teams representing on the podium!