July 10, 2005
After 8 races in big winds and big waves, Max and Andrew were able to hold their position of 50th at the world championships. They are both very happy with their great accomplishments since the competition was unbelievably tough. The team is taking a day off tomorrow to visit downtown San Francisco and will move on to the North American Championships in Oregon on Tuesday.
July 07, 2005
Andrew and Max sailed two races today, not doing so well in either but brining them down 50th place, but keeping them in the silver fleet. It can only possibly get better from here, since they are at the bottom of the silver fleet putting them in the top 50 for sure in the World.
The last two races of the day were abandoned due to excessive wind and class rules today. There was a 36 knot breeze blowing through the San Francisco Bay, and with the tide going out to sea (opposite to the wind) the waves because very choppy and it was almost impossible to sail upwind. Many other teams had things break like; sails, masts, hulls and sheets, costing them A LOT of money to fix.
July 05, 2005
On July 4th and 5th, the qualifying series were held putting Max and Andrew in 49th place, Yolande and Alessandra in 55th place and Peter and Brian in 59th place.
The qualifying series is to split the boats up into three categries; Gold, Silver and Bronze. The top 25 boats are in Gold fleet, 26-50 go into Silver and the rest are placed in Bronze fleet. Max and Andrew are currently 49th in the World which puts them into the Silver fleet.
Tomorrow all the teams have a "LAY-DAY" which gives them time to rest before the final day of qualifying and the finals start.
July 03, 2005
Andrew,
Max, Brian and Peter has many boat repairs and changed to do on their hulls
before participating in the worlds, so the morning was spent fixing up everything
so they would be legal. As the boys fixed up their boats the wind picked up.
The wind in san francisco picks up to about 25 knots on a regular day with a
light breeze being about 15. The team has been having some trouble in the big
winds since back in Toronto, a heavy wind day is about 15 knots and happens
ever blue moon.
The three boats went out for an afternoon sail and went onto the other side
of the Golden Gate bridge close to the mouth of the bay to the Pacific Ocean.
Andrew and Max capsized after a big gust of wind hit them through a tack, they
all spotted a shark in the water. They then decided that it wouldn't be smart
to sail so far out where the races will not be held and there were sharks. Also
happy birthday to our webmaster, Marc Tytus.
July 02, 2005
The 29er World Championships started today at the St. Francis Yacht Club downtown San Francisco, California. The team went out and trained all morning and into the early afternoon with the breeze picking up to about 25kts. The afternoon was spent measuring the boats to see if they weighed in and everything was properly configured.
July 01, 2005
Happy Canada Day! The team took the day off today to rest up after sailing the U.S. Nationals and went down to Santa Cruz to go surfing for the day. They all came home to an amazing barbecue which was held by out billets.
June 28-30, 2005
The team participated in the U.S. 29er National Championships, all three boats were in the silver fleet of the regatta. Max and Andrew had many breakdowns throughout the regatta and were forced to go in early to do major repairs, meaning that they did not place very well in the over all results.
Monday June 27, 2005
In the morning there
was not much wind so we did some more boat repairs at St. Francis Yacht Club.
The wind started to pick up around 1 o'clock, and we also needed to sail our
boats to Treasure Island, where the U.S. National
Championships were being held. Peter, Brian, Max and I sailed down to the Island,
where Yolande and Alessandra drove the van with our dollies. The four of us
rode down with the girls back to St. Francis to launch their boat and bring
their dolly to Treasure Island. We went out for a quick training session down
in the Berkley Circle, outside of Berkley, California where there was a lot
of wind and very little current. There was beautiful conditions except for the
thick fog rolling in. The team had felt they had a good session so they all
headed in and took the night off to prepare for the day tomorrow.
Sunday June 26, 2005
Sunday Morning was spend taking boats off the trailer and rigging/fixing up our boats for World Championship level competition. New halyards and sheets were bought and spliced and sails were cleaned and fixed. The afternoon the three boats went for an evening sail to get used to the wind, waves and extreme current in the San Francisco Bay.
Saturday June 25, 2005
I took
over Saturday morning at the end of the desert and right before the Sierra Nevada
Mountains. The brake light came on during the night so we stopped to get it
checked out in Reno, but they couldn't any problems with the brakes so we kept
going. I drove through the mountains at an elevation of approximately 6500 ft
above sea level, we passed many ski resorts where
there was still snow on the hills and back down the other side into California.
The five of us were very excited because we were finally almost here. Max took
over in Sacramento, California and took us straight into San Francisco Harbor,
where we dropped off our boats. Going across the bay bridge for the first time
was quite the thrilling experience, knowing that we would be sailing in some
pretty intense competition and waters. After dropping off the boats, we then
went to our new home for the next two weeks, in Sunnyvale, California to find
our billets and the rest of our team that had flown..
Friday June 24, 2005
As
the sun comes up from behind us, Max and Brian were in control takin' her through
the Nebraska plains. There was nothing but a long straight road ahead of us
and fields on either side. At about 9 o'clock we stopped for mbreakfast at Grandma
Max's road stop, where I carefully spot a tape adapter for CD players and Ipods.
This is such a vital piece of technology for this trip enabling us to watch
movies on the computer and listen to it throughout the car or play proper music.
As the day progressed we drove through the
southern end of the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, the Great Divide Basin and the
Wasatch Range Mountains. The day was long and the car was tired, but we kept
on trekking. We split shifts up into three hours of driving, then three hours
of navigating/keeping the driver on the ball, and the other nine hours was spent
recovering/ resting up. That night, Yolande and Brian took her through the Nevada
desert where not much was found other than some sand and a few plants.
Thursday June 23, 2005
The trip started at 10 o'clock on thursday morning from the Royal Canadian Yacht Club in downtown Toronto. Five of the team members set off on a crazy road trip to San Francisco and the Gorge. Max St-Maurice, Brian Blumer, Yolande Gooderham and Andrew Maloney set off with our mystery driver Scott Cook who was there to help us make the trek down to San Francisco. (The other two team members and the coach will be flying down on sunday night) We crossed the border in Sarnia at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and headed down through Michigan. The van doesn't have any FM radio or a CD player, the only thing that we can pick up is talk shows and a lot of Christian Rock on the AM radio, so at every gas stop we go scouting for Tape adapters so we can play some better music. The road has been very flat and we haven't passed through many very big cities other than Flint. After a long day on the road, by midnight we had made it to Iowa, Illinois. In Iowa, I took control of the van for a couple hours and drove it close to the border of Nebraska. There isn't much life around here other than lots of farms and a few cows here and there.
Wednesday June 22, 2005
Max
and Andrew have joined the Royal Canadian Yacht Club's High Performance Team
for the year. This year the team consists of three boats, two from Toronto and
Max and Andrew from Burlington. The team trains out of Toronto Island every
day during the week. This year the team is making a tour out to the West Coast
of North America to train and compete with the world at many
different regattas. The team will pull out of R.C.Y.C. in Toronto on Thursday
and head for San Fransisco for two weeks to compete in U.S. Nationals and the
World Championships before driving up to the Gorge in Oregon to compete in the
North American Championships. The tour will take approximately one month and
the website will be updated every other day, if not daily with updates of the
tour, regatta results and many pictures.