Palm d’Or

Guelph Lake, May 30-31, 2015. Report and photos from SCIRA Canada

A typical Canadian smorgasbord of conditions greeted the twelve Snipe sailors on Guelph Lake who traveled from as far as New York City and Hudson, Quebec to vie for the most coveted trophy in all of sport last May 30-31 weekend.

While there is the Canada Cup, Stanley Cup and Grey Cup, none compare to ferocity with which competitors vie for the Palm D’Or Snipe Trophy. Each spring a brave group of sailors converge on Guelph Lake (AKA “the Seventh Great Lake”) and see what kind of unpredictable and challenging conditions she can offer. This year was no exception.

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Saturday morning was met with warm wet winds from the SW gusting to 18knots. By the third race they had died to 4-6knots. Crews were sweating in all their foulies. Gear changes for both boat and crew were in order across the board. A short postponement was held as thunderstorms passed over. Two more races were held before the deluge came in. The steaks were cooked in the rain. Everyone had a blast.

Sunday was 9C, windy and rainy. Broken equipment and capsizes were the order of the day. Tough stuff but four races were held before everyone headed to shore for pizza.

Harri Palm and Molly Kurvink won the event with finishes no worse than second. Chris Hains and Barb Mann were a consistent second. Colin May and George Hughes won the last race and that was enough to give them second. With a recent second place at the Pan Am trials, Julian Inglis, with Dane Kirkpatrick, was looking good but suffered some gear failure and had to settle for fourth.

With three of the teams being juniors, this regatta was also the first in awhile Canadian Junior Championship. Leo Arseneault and Gordon Milley sailed convincingly to that title. Leo also had the highlight of the regatta with a cheeky but brilliant port tack start in the sixth race.

Results – old style