In contrast to the New Moon we will be experiencing this year during the Susan Hood Trophy Race, the 25th running of the LO300 will be under a full moon. Amazing that these 2 great offshore races will provide us the best of both worlds in the same year. It's great to experience sailing by the stars and enjoying the Milky Way through the night. It is also a great experience enjoy watching the moon pass over and set in the early hours, and not to require a flashlight every few minutes to see where your ticklers are. Dont miss out.

 

Customized Apparel Draw:

Don't forget to be one of the best dressed crews on the start line by registering for this year's Lake Ontario 300 Challenge prior to the start of this month's Susan Hood Trophy Race and have a chance at special commemorative apparel for your entire crew with your boat name or logo on it.

The prize will be drawn at the Sperry Top-Sider Post Race gathering.

 

Registration here for the Lake Ontario 300 Challenge!

The following article was found in our files while looking through for some information. It's always good to re-read something from one of our past races written by a great participant and former Chairperson, Gordon Elliott.

 

THE LAKE ONTARIO 300 CHALLENGE - JUNE 15th2000

THE VIEW FROM THE COCKPIT OF "TIGRESS"

 

The Lake Ontario 300 Challenge, run for the eleventh time last June, is really a great race and one of the few major long distance Great Lakes races that combines (usually) a good balance of up-wind and down-wind sailing. Having sailed numerous Port Huron to Mackinaw races in the 1970's when I was a member of Sarnia Yacht Club, my chief memory is mostly of spinnaker runs to Cove Island and beam reaches (when there was wind), south of Manitoulin Island, and on to the finish at Mackinaw Island. (I do also remember highly unpleasant weather in some other races when the wind was out of the North and lower Lake Huron produces those loveable 15 - 20 foot
waves !). However the Lake Ontario 300 is a two way race - if you get a downwind run all the way to Main Duck Island, you are generally faced with battling up-wind all the way back to the Niagara mark, and often on to the finish at either Oakville or Port Credit.

 

The Lake Ontario 300 is jointly organized by Port Credit Yacht Club and Oakville Yacht Squadron and the start alternates each year between P.C.Y.C. and O.Y.S. depending on which club is running the race. For the 2000 race it was O.Y.S. 's turn and the start was off the Oakville River, east to a mark off P.C.Y.C., then across to the Niagara River mark, on down towards Kingston, rounding Main Duck Island (leaving it to starboard) and back to the Niagara River mark and on to the finish line off the pier at the Oakville River. The rhumb line distance is about 305 nautical miles.

 

This year the weather had been stormy and wet and was somewhat unsettled - the sort of weather I would have happily avoided except for my intrepid crew of Joar Gronlund and Hal Mayer from O.Y.S. and John Williams from Sarnia who showed no visible concern for the elements! Crossing the start line on Thursday at 11.00 a.m. we had a fast spinnaker run down to Port Credit and a tight reach across to the Niagara River mark, arriving around the cocktail hour, (our log notes rounding at 16.57 hrs but the sun was at least well over our yard-arm !), from there it was a gorgeous spinnaker run all the way to Main Duck Island. With a full moon and 12 - 15 knots of breeze it was one of those truly magical nights that one never forgets. We were abeam of Pointe Petrie in the late morning, all alone on a large and empty lake. As we closed with Main Duck Island the first thing we saw was Jan Steyn's "Trpxprs" , a beautifully sailed Tripp 33, flying westward, tight reaching with a spinnaker, having rounded Main Duck Island on Friday morning at 11.17 a.m. At this point two small white triangles were also converging on the island, and as we got closer we realized that they were our Oakville opposition, Wally Krawec's "Lexington" and Ben Penman's "French Kiss" We rounded Main Duck Island with "Lexington" in the lead, "French Kiss" 1 00 yards behind him and "Tigress" 1 00 yards behind them. Our time at the shoal mark after rounding Main Duck was Friday 16.00 hrs. The Weather Man was forecasting ... "winds S.W. - going to W to N.W. and eventually to North" ... so we decided to stay on the rhumb line While we could, and then if driven North of the rhumb line, stay on port tack until the Niagara mark was bearing 46 degrees, then tack !. We carried the spinnaker, tight reaching most of the way to Point Pitre, close on the tail of "Lexington", then on the #1 as the wind tightened up. Crossing the shoal at Pointe Petrie in the dark I was somewhat worried when the depth sounder went down to 10 feet, but "Lexington" dead ahead of us seemed unconcerned. While I was re-checking the chart the depth went to 15 feet and then 20 feet and we all breathed a little easier!. Later that night we ran into a fairly major electrical storm with impressive thunder and lightning. The night sky was pitch black and very threatening but the bangs were at least three seconds after the flashes so we figured it was all at least half a mile away, but I was concerned for line squalls that can be very unpleasant. We were carrying a somewhat old and fragile # 1 genoa, rated for 18 knots maximum, and as the gusts built and our anemometer reading went up rapidly from 18 - 20 - 22 - 24 knots, we decided to change down to our #2. Sail changes at 2.00 a.m. in nasty weather are not quite as slick as when racing round the buoys, and the off-watch, hearing the noise and shouting, decided to assist in the sail change. With the No 2 Genoa eventually trimmed we had a problem - No compass light - no navigation lights - no Windex light - nothing electrical! Happily the main switch is on the side of the starboard bunk and the off-watch crew member, climbing out of that bunk to help, had accidentally brushed against it and shut it off !

 

The storm pushed us north of the rhumb line and we were hard on the wind still taking the preferred tack towards Niagara. At daybreak on Saturday we had light head winds and a "left- over" slop and slowly worked our way towards the U. S. shore. By late afternoon we were close to the 600 foot chimney near OIcott N.Y in very light winds and tacking out from shore, crossing about 500 yards behind us was our chief rival, Peter Miller's CS-30 "Sail la Vie", (who had beaten us soundly the previous year). On the next tack he was ahead of us by 500 yards (more wind off shore ?) and then the wind died completely and we sat 300 yards apart, going nowhere, for the next two or three hours. A small zephyr eventually filled his spinnaker and off he went. We were all geared up to go too, but felt nothing, and stayed where we were. By the time "Sail la Vie" got to the Niagara mark, around dusk, we were about Y2 mile behind him. At this point the breeze was blowing directly from Oakville to the Niagara mark and "Sail la Vie" tacked over onto port heading towards Scarborough.

 

As we rounded the mark I felt there was no sense in following him so we decided to stay on starboard and head along the Ontario shore for St Catharines and Fifty Point. With little or no wind we were making 1 knot, 1;2 knot, nothing, 1;2 knot, nothing, mirror calm and gorgeous lights from the shore, until 4.00 a. m. which was change of watch. Handing over to the other watch I gave them the bearing to the finish line, and the fact that "O.Y.S. was 16.2 nautical miles dead ahead". Falling into the bunk I was in a deep sleep for about five minutes when my watch mate, John Williams, in true Welsh form, shouted "Wakee Wakee we're nearly there" I had actually been asleep for over two hours during which the wind had finally filled in from the North. Putting up the spinnaker and dropping the # 1 genoa makes a noise like elephants on the deck of a Chaser 29 and I had not heard a thing! We were close reaching with the spinnaker at over 6 knots heading directly for the finish line. I called Oakville Yacht Squadron on channel #71 to report that we were within 30 minutes of crossing the finish line, and received a terse reply from the O.YS.  

Race Committee "We have you in sight - Tigress", We crossed the finish line at 06.44.30 on Sunday morning, dropped the sails and started the engine andmotored into the harbour. We received a hail from Johan Pederson, who not only was working on the Race Committee but was the original founder of the race eleven years ago, "Well done Tigress, you are the first boat home in your division" As a Chaser 29 we were the smallest boat in our division and everyone else gave us time, so we got to be "Numero Uno" ! This is a great race and one that you should not miss in 2001, it is one that you can really settle into and should enjoy thoroughly!

 

Gordon Elliott - Co-Chairman - Organizing Committee - 2001 Lake Ontario 300 Race