Locas & Bone do the Miami OCR

Stéphane Locas and Oliver Bone, competed at the top level Miami Olympic Classes Regatta in the 470 class. Both are Montreal sailors from the Beaconsfield Yacht Club. Both are members of Canada's Sailing Team and two of our best. Locas and Bone have been aiming at the Bejing Olympics.

855 sailors from 49 countries competed in the various classes, including world champions and Olympic medalists. There is no calibre of racing like this without going to Europe. So, the local boys and the rest of the Canada Sailing Team had a rare opportunity to congregate together at an elite event within trailering distance of Montreal. That should have saved some bucks over the Euro events.

There are not a lot of Canadian sailors competing in the 470 class. Stéphane Locas had offered to pay the Miami registration fee for any Canadian team beating them there! It doesn't appear that another team took up the offer. On the other hand, there were elite sailors, the cream of the crop, from all over the world who did best the Montreal-area locals. Yeah, that's one tough crowd. ISAF Grade 1 events are both competitive pinnacles and important, necessary training grounds for those climbing to the top. Montreal Sailing says congratulations and race on!

photo by Dan Nerney