Susan Hood Trophy Race

The Start at PCYC - The First Group (under spinnaker) Are Off - Next Groups Jockeying for Position

The Susan Hood Trophy Race would be my first long distance offshore race on Lake Ontario. Through the race crew bank I was able to get a spot on the Ron Ander boat ALCHEMIST, a C&C 29 Mk2. Ron is an avid racer out of Etobicoke Yacht Club.

The race is about 75 nm beginning at Port Credit Yacht Club (PCYC) then towards Burlington round down to Niagara and back to PCYC. It starts at 8:00pm on a Friday evening sailing all night so that it finishes by Saturday evening, weather permitting.

We had a good start under spinnaker until the winds died completely and bobbing was the state of affairs until the wind picked up about 6 hours later - a very frustrating night. My job through the early evening was sail trim and helm until the early morning when the winds were giving us a good close hauled tack towards the Burlington weather tower.

After a few tacks Saturday morning we were on our way to the Niagara buoy under good winds. The last bit was done under spinnaker and we were all quite giddy with the speed - 8 knots - we had achieved. We elected not to use the spinnaker earlier due to the wave action on the water.

Once the mark had been rounded it was now the final leg home. As the afternoon came on we could see clouds developing into anvils along the North shore of the Lake - trouble was brewing. After watching a few storms cross the horizon and going a number of fog patches, it was our turn to get involved with our own storm scenario. The winds picked up, the rain came, lightning blizted - we got the boat turned completely around in all that upheaval before getting the boat back on course. It was at this time that Ron wisely said we were retiring from the race and heading back to EYC. No one argued against that.

GPS Track of the 2 Day Race

Altogether an interesting experience of all night sailing - although in poor winds. The Saturday sail was rewarding where I helmed a lot of the day. It would have been great to finish the race but no one was interested in extending our storm experiences.