Fireballer weighs in on Montreal Sailing Top Dawgs

Malcolm Van Haeften is one of the great sailors and best known in Montreal. So, I stand up and take notice when he weighs in with some suggested contenders. The sailors he considers Top Dawgs are a diverse lot, sailing in the Fireball dinghy, the Shark keelboat, and I believe the Tornado catamaran. Malcolm is also at least the second person to suggest we have a challenge in single-handed dinghies! There are enough school boats around that this is highly feasible if the contenders find it suitable! It might be a little tough on some of the keelboat sailors. As for selection criteria, well we haven't developed one yet, but perhaps that should be one of the next discussion points. Currently, I'd say the criteria has yet to get tougher than receiving a nomination, though that is a pretty solid one so far. Any thoughts?

Hi Ralph,
I enjoyed the blog - here are the some of the names that come to mind.

• George Stedman,
  
• Tof Nicoll-Griffith,
  
• Olivier Blanc,
  
• Robert Levy.

I would be interested in learning what criteria would be used in the selection of invitees to The Top Dawg Regatta; the implication is that the Top Dawg would be a helm ( the Crews Union comments notwithstanding ) presumably the event should therefore be single-handed and one-design, to rule out the influence of the crew and " bought speed ".

Malcolm V.H.