Strong Canadian Showing So Far at Laser Midwinter's East

 

A lot of Canadians are racing at the Laser Midwinter's East in Clearwater, Florida, including Montreal-area sailors like Martin Robitaille pictured above. Robitaille had excellent races the first day, placing in the top third of 90 registered boats. His best score amongst an impressive international fleet was 13th. Robitaille sails out of CVL. So does Olivier Corbeil who currently is in 23rd in the Radial Class. Holly McGarr from PCYC had a great Radial race yesterday picking up a 19th out of the 94 registered boats. 

There is plenty of Canadian representation at the regatta including Lee Parkhill only one point out of first place in the full-rigs. Mike Leigh sits in 6th overall. In the Radials, Jen Spalding and Lisa Ross are tied with 35 points each in 5th and 6th overall. Robert Davis from Kingston YC continues his climb up the ranks of Laser sailing. He took 4th in the last race yesterday to put him in 15th overall so far in the regatta. 

One sailor I enjoy following is an old guy named John Bertrand. After sailing large, fancy racing boats, big money sailing is in a deep slump. So, he has come full circle to race once again in single-handed dinghies. He took third in the last race yesterday, and holds down 8th overall. Wow.

The large number of sailors had been divided into different fleets. Now, they will be re-divided into gold and silver fleets for the regatta climax.