2008 Canadian Youth Sailing Team Representation

From the CYA website - Ralph, Montreal Sailing

"Caroline Morgan (Westmount, QC)
Caroline’s parents were involved in a lot of racing when she was little girl and thus spent a lot of time around boats. She started sailing in her club's junior sailing program when she was the age of 7. Once Caroline finished her White Sail levels, she joined the optimist race team. Once she outgrew optimists, she moved on to Bytes for a total of 3 years. Last year was her first year sailing and racing Radial. Caroline placed 5th overall at the CYA Youth National Championships. When she’s not sailing, she enjoys skiing and snowboarding, cross country skiing, running, reading, and traveling.

"Vanessa Dallaire-Lagace (Quebec, QC)
Vanessa’s parents have always owned a keelboat. When she was 9 years old, they signed her up for an Optimist Sailing day camp at the Baie De Beauport Yacht club. She then participated in the regional racing circuit, progressing to the Laser 2 and the Byte. She began seriously competing and after only one year in the Radial, she made it to the Québec Sailing Team as an “Espoir” athlete. Vanessa placed 6th overall at the CYA Youth National Championships. Vanessa also participates in synchronized figure skating and is a full time student in Visual Arts."

I must also mention the son of dear friends of mine, ex-Montrealers now living in Burlington, Ontario. When one of the successful sailors at a qualifying regatta turned out to be a competitor from Bermuda, Oliver placed high enough to make the team. Oliver has sailed a huge amount of nautical miles and regattas, the only way to do it. According to Oliver, heavy air is a weakness, and a high performance training camp and regatta in the windy city of Kingston helped considerably. Great coaching, and time on the boat with a lot of focus and persistence are what he attributes to his progress this summer. Way to go Oliver Darroch!

Again from the CYA website:

"Oliver Darroch (Burlington, ON)
Oliver has been sailing since the age of 5. He began sailing dinghy’s when he was 9 and has been racing since he was 13. He also enjoys playing paintball in his leisure time. Oliver placed 7th at the CYA Youth National Championships and qualified to the team due to an athlete’s ineligibility."

Congratulations from Montreal Sailing to all the members of the team.