The BMW Lasqueti Island Regatta featured a neck-and-neck race between Westerly and Lawn Dart.
On corrected time, Westerly, of Royal Victoria Yacht Club (RVicYC) ended up edging last year’s overall winner, Lawn Dart of Nanaimo Yacht Club (NYC), by just seconds to claim the Windsor Playwood Trophy.
Westerly, a Santa Cruz 70 sail boat, skipped by Stuart Dahlgrin, crossed the finish line in 11 hours, 23 minutes and 33 seconds. Not far behind was Lawndart, a Santa Cruz 50, skipped by Bill Allan, posting a time of 11:24.23. Rounding up the top three in Division One was Dream Chaser from NYC with a time of 11:54.29.
The regatta was hosted by the Schooner Cove Yacht Club. It drew 200 sailors from the 37 boats that came from 11 yacht clubs from Vancouver Island and the Mainland. They were split into four divisions.
When the race started at around 9 a.m., the winds were a bit topsy-turvy. The speed that day varied from five to 15 knots Southeast, then changed to five to 10 knots Northwest, or just under two kilometres per hour. Most of the boats did not complete the race until after 11 p.m.
In Division Two, the boats from the Nanaimo Yacht Club swept the top three spots. Run Away Girl led the way, finishing in a time of 12:33.30, followed by Sea Lion (12:37.53) and Diligaf (12:39:27).
Topping the Division Three race was Pitoraq of the Canadian Forces Sailing Association (CFSA) of Esquimalt, coming in at 12:08.39. Placing second and third, respectively, were Freewind of the Schooner Cove Yacht Club (12:22.21), and Princesa of the Deep Bay Yacht Club (12:28:59).
Freewind took home the Fairwinds Cup for the highest-placing Schooner Cove Yacht Club entry.
Division Four was won by Pyrat of the SCYC followed by Regalo. The distance for this cruising division shortened and only these two boats finished the race.
This was the 30th anniversary of the regatta. More than 50 volunteers lent a hand with the different events that were held throughout the weekend. Participants complimented Schooner Cove Yacht Club for another successful regatta.
“The whole three days were well organized, most effectively catered and visitors were treated as special VIPs,” said Roger Kibbles, skipper of Electra of Salt Spring Island Sailing Club. “We shall certainly return next year. We also appreciated the challenging course.”
