The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

The site was started in February and still gets a surprising number of visitors on most days, with half a dozen or more usually having a look to see what was or what might have been. The bulk of our activity, though, was in August when we were really cooking. More than 7,000 visitors had a look that month, including nearly 2,000 on August 21 when the event had its spectactular wrap-up. We’ve started up a new site for this year’s North Americans and look forward to seeing many new visitors for another terrific event at the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron.

The text following comes from WordPress, where the staff is a bit younger than me. Their talk is a bit funkier but I am a wannabe hipster trying to keep up.

Crunchy Numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2010. That’s about 26 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 16 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 89 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 35mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was August 21st with 1,921 views. The most popular post that day was Results.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were rnsys.com, j24class.org, atlanticj.wordpress.com, j24can.com, and sbyra.ca.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for sperry logo, j24 canadian championship, j24 nationals halifax, j24 canadian nationals, and j24 nationals.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Results August 2010
4 comments

Program January 2010

Location January 2010

Contacts January 2010

Poor Results August 2010
4 comments

The finish of the 2010 J24 Canadian Nationals in Halifax this summer was probably the most remarkable I have ever seen. Three boats tied for first with the tiebreaker going to the Ian Dawson and crew on Yertle, who won the final race after the eventual second and third place finishers, Peter Wickwire and Johnny Whynacht appeared to have settled the regatta with a thrilling one-to-one contest in the penultimate race. In the second last race, Whynacht sailed Wickwire back to eleventh. While Johnny took an eighth, he was comfortable that he had done what he had to by forcing Peter to a poor finish that Wickwire would have to count because of a penalty and disqualification that he sustained earlier in the regatta.

The final outcome was the result of two inter-related factors. First, Ian Dawson and his helmsman Craig Noakes racked up two seconds and a final race first on the final day. Second, the Race Committee determined that competitors would be permitted to drop two races, although the Sailing Instructions were not clear on the subject. The Committee was essentially confirming a statement in the Notice of Race that two races would be dropped if ten were sailed. The tenth race was started only minutes before the deadline set in the Sailing Instructions for termination of the regatta

In the wake of the stunning finish that resulted, Johnny and his Sticky Fingers crew filed a protest arguing that there should only have been one drop, a circumstance that would have made them the Canadian Champions. The Protest Committee formed at the Squadron that evening decided, however, that the Race Committee, after consultation with the Protest Committee, had announced via VHF before the final day of racing that there would be two drops and that was sufficient for competitors to know the conditions under which they were competing. The Protest Committee noted that other competitors had skipped the last race on this basis and that no other participant in the regatta requested redress.

A Canadian Championship is, of course, a big thing – at least for Canadians – and the Sticky Fingers crew were not satisfied that the Halifax Protest Committee had made the right decision. They had, after all, cited Rules 90.3 and A2 noting that they required that the Sailing Instructions specify any variation from the default scoring system of RRS A2, which states that a boat sailing a regatta will be scored by “the total of her race scores excluding her worst score.” Sticky Fingers, consequently, filed an appeal from the Protest Committee decision with the Canadian Yachting Association.

If you would like to know the details, have a look at the Appeal Decision. Long story short, though, the CYA has decided that Johnny and his crew were right but that the resulting complications were such that it could not simply award the Championship to Sticky Fingers. Several competitors, after all, retired from the last race on the assumption that they could drop two races and the strategies of others on the final day were no doubt influenced by that same assumption.

Recognizing  the challenge of treating everyone fairly, the Appeals Committee decided to do Solomon one better. Whereas the ancient King of the Israelites settled the argument between two women over a baby by offering to cut the infant in half, the Appeals Committee decided in this case to provide a clone or more specifically two Canadian Champions. In fact, the final decision of the Appeals Committee calculated the finish of all boats in the Championship and assigned each the better of their two rankings.

Resulting changes only affected the top seven where it resulted in three ties. In the following I’ve included a few details left out of the Appeal Decision – the name of the helmsperson (and boatowner if different), the boat name, and whether their better finish is based on one drop (*) or two (**):

The list above happens put the one drops before the twos but there is no difference. If you run into Johnny, you can say “Hi champ,” which you can also say to Craig or Ian. You could raise your index finger to John and, maybe, your index and middle fingers to Craig and Ian but it’s all the same. They are all great sailors and two champs are better than one.

A lot will be the same. Dale Robertson is Regatta Chair again and many of the same people are involved in regatta organization. Expect the Web site to be pretty similar too. The site should be up in a couple of months and we will be linking from Atlantic J News as well as several other sites.

For many of us, the Nationals were the first regatta we were involved in organizing, although there were also many experienced hands. This time, nearly all of us will have the benefit of having gone once around the track and look forward to removing a few rough edges. Expect great racing, great social events, and great prizes once again though.

We promised early that we would have great pictures of the regatta. We didn’t take them to the drugstore but it has taken a little more time than I expected to get them all together. There were a lot to go through for one thing and Lynn spent a lot of time on the water to get them, which didn’t leave much peace for cataloguing and organizing literally thousands of shots. I too had a job to do once the regatta was over too and it can be hard to find a window to put things up when you have clients to keep happy.

In any case, I think its worth the wait. For one thing, I get to use a picture I particularly like to illustrate this post. One and two neck and neck. You’d think it was posed except for the absence of a spinnaker pole on number 2 (they’re supposed to try harder!).

Framed pictures of individual boats were distributed to everyone at prize giving emulating a Bermuda Race Week tradition that we admire. There are many more pictures on Lynn Gray’s site.  For those who would like to check out their form in motion, Greg Blunden has provided a video of the action.

This will be our last post wrapping up a very successful and, heaven knows, exciting regatta. Next August, the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron and the Atlantic Canada chapter of the Canadian J24 Class Association will host the J24 North American Championship. It’s another opportunity to experience the meteorological perfection that is Nova Scotia in late summer in what we hope will be an even bigger fleet. We won’t expect any better competition though. This one was as good as it gets.

Thanks to:

• Our hosts, the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron
• Rob Williams, Elizabeth Shaw, and the capable members of their Race Committee and Jury
• Our many, many hard working volunteers
• Our generous sponsors (see below)
• Canada’s best J24 sailors who fought hard to the end.

This site will remain until next year for those who want to review the event. Dr. Z, however, is retiring for now.

The Top Three

1. Ian Dawson, Yertle, BBYC, 26 pts
2. Peter Wickwire, Sunnyvale, RCYC, 26 pts
3. John Whynacht, Sticky Fingers, LYC, 26 pts

More results.

The 2010 J24 Nationals are over. Protests have been dealt with, standings finalized, and many, many prizes distributed. The win by Ian Dawson and Craig Noakes’ Yertle, which was reported first here yesterday, held up. The most remarkable result, of course, was that Yertle emerged from a three-way tie for first winning on the strength of three first place finishes in individual races.

If this has ever happened before, I have my doubts. Yertle had to win the last race and did so by overtaking Lisa Ross in Jamn It on the final leg. Ian and Craig needed Peter Wickwire to finish no better than third, which Peter, in fact, did, fully aware that if Lisa could hold on his Sunnyvale would win the regatta. Both required Johnny Whynacht in Sticky Fingers to finish eighth or worse (i.e., a drop), which he unfortunately did by coming in tenth for his worst race in what was otherwise a very consistent series.

The event closed with a first class lobster supper and prize giving in the Squadron’s Spar Loft attended by more than 150 sailors and officials. Class President Dale Robertson, who did a spectacular job recruiting sponsors (see the bottom of this page), distributed the largesse of Sperry Topsider, Slam clothing and gear, Jackson-Triggs, and others to the countless volunteers who supported the event as well as to top finishers and notable also-rans (e.g., Best Dressed Lisa Ross and Best Comeback Eric Koppernaes). Plaques were distributed to all crew members of the top five boats along with many sponsor-provided items. The event concluded after the Yertle crew collected their trophy and participants were told to look under their chairs for tags that indicated they had won prizes such as Sperry shoes or Henri Lloyd clothing provided by The Binnacle. A melee ensued and we can only hope that everyone left with shoes and jackets that fit.

By the time the band Big City was warming up for the finale, I have to admit I was too dog tired. It was nice, though, to see Tom Taylor from St. Catherines, who I used to sail with in Kingston, Ontario, and who brought his boat, A1, farther than any other competitor at the event. Tom was hoping for more wind than we provided this time but acknowledged that you couldn’t knock the sun, which is usually harder to find in Halifax than breeze.

I got a second wind, myself, when Big City kicked into their version of Suspicious Minds. I lasted long enough to get a few dances with my wife, Lorna, while the young women of Black Jack cut a vicious rug. Next August, when the J24 North Americans come to town, we’ll see if we can’t come up with a shorter line up for measurement, no fog, a touch more breeze, equally comfortable temperatures, and the same good times and terrific competition.

The following is based on a “by eye” calculation of final results. Official results have yet to be posted and protests from three Day 3 races are pending. Hold on for the final judgement. 

One of the most exciting things that can happen in a regatta is to see two leaders go toe to toe to settle the issue. We got it today in Race 9 but nobody apparently considered the potential outcome of Race 10.

In Race 9, Day 2 leader, Lunenburg”s Johnny Whynacht, took Day 1 leader, Peter Wickwire of Toronto, on head-to-head. Johnny, whose worst race was a 7th close covered Wickwire and sailed him into what looked to be an 11th or 12th against Johnny’s 8 or 9, cementing an apparently solid lead.

What Johnny apparently failed to calculate was that Craig Noakes helming Ian Dawson’s Yertle, racked up two races in the top three to start the day. When Race 10 got underway just inside the 3 pm wire established by the Sailing Instructions, Johnny’s Sticky Fingers had a clear lead over Wickwire’s Sunnyvale, but neither apparently conisdered the Noakes/Dawson team in the weeds and the influence of a second drop race in a ten-race series.

The Race Committee attempted to start Race 10 at shortly after 14oohrs but had to call it off thanks to the total absence of wind (on Swish to which yours truly contributed stellar  service as spinnakerer pole raiser and lowerer, we actually managed to go backwards rougly 10 boatlengths between the starting signal and the merciful abandonment).

Fortunately, a squirrelly northerly filled in not long afterward, just in time for Rob Williams and his Committee to get the final race underway. The race itself made the tough conditions of Thursday look like child’s play as wild shifts made winners into losers and the tough placement of the offset crucified multiple boats including my beknigthed Swish.

From it all emerged President Dale Robertson and lady helmsman Lisa Ross (suffer the irony Lisa, I just like the sound of it) in first place followed by Craig and Ian at the windward mark as  various other contenders, including Wickwire and Whynacht floundered in mid-fleet and/or struggled to round the offset mark (our particular torture on Swish). While Lisa and Dale took their Jamn It, which I am personnally calling “Slammer” or the ”Salami” according to my mood, around the final windward mark in first, Craig and Ian were hot on their tail. Over the final leg the fleet compressed remarkably and Yertle slid past Jamn It into first followed by what looked for all the world like a tie for third through about 25th, a cluster that included Wickwire, Whynacht, and the balance of the top ten. One top competitor doing a fine salvage job in this group was Greg Blunden, who managed a third.

With protests pending, its too early to declare a winner. The leader based on results across the line, though, is Yertle. If it holds they are to be congratulated on perseverence from their first race win through a tougher middle that included a disqualification to their fine last day. It is terrific to have been part of a spectacular competion that has come down to the wire.

Watch this space. We’ll be in touch when it has all been processed by the bureaucracy.

The Tentative Top Three

1. Ian Dawson, Yertle, BBYC, 26 pts
2. Peter Wickwire, Sunnyvale, RCYC, 26 pts
3. John Whynacht, Sticky Fingers, LYC, 26 pts

With an audience, of course, comes an obligation to perform and I have to say my sorries to “Sailor” and “J24Sailor,” who have been demanding rapid results from daily racing. We still haven’t got them up from Friday; nor has the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, whose electronic printing gets modified for presentation on our Results page.

The reason as explained at the top of yesterday’s post is the large number of protests arising from yesterday’s racing. At 2130hrs last night the Jury posted the outcomes of six protests all of which will affect the Preliminary Results posted on the Regatta Bulletin Board. Given the late hour there has not been time to re-sort the results, although I anticipate the work is underway.

As noted, the protests involved four of the six leading boats in the regatta, including members of the top three. While I’m 99 per cent sure Johnny Whynacht’s position at the top will hold, bets are off from that point down the table. Protest decisions were posted on the Board next to the Preliminary Results last night and I am sure they are still there this morning. Sailors with aspirations to move up should have a look at the Board and assess the implications for their chances and their strategies for today. While I haven’t done the math, my guess is that there should be quite a contest for the top spots today.

As today’s northwest winds look promising and are certain to drive out any fog, expect the Race Committee to get down to business to get things settled.