Sailing competitors battle wind and waves on Lake Winnipeg

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This article was published 01/08/2017 (3120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GIMLI – Everyone at the Gimli Yacht Club will tell you it is one of the best places to sail in Canada.

Fitting, then, that the cosy club in the heart of Gimli, with its sun-drenched deck, landscaped lawn and sandy beach on the shore of Lake Winnipeg is the sailing venue for the 2017 Canada Summer Games where top young sailing athletes from coast to coast are testing the waters.

On Tuesday, after battling 1.5-metre waves and winds blowing up to 32 knots (60 km/h), athletes from across Canada were enraptured with the club’s serene setting and in awe of Lake Winnipeg’s power.

“We were pretty surprised with the big waves, they were really close together. We’re used to swells so it was awesome,” said Sophie Carter, 17, one half of the Nova Scotia female 29er team with Emily Roy, 16. The pair from Halifax often train and compete on the Atlantic Ocean.

“We were just in survival mode out there today but it’s cool, it’s fun and it’s nice to have something different.”

The 10th largest lake in the world by surface area, Lake Winnipeg is also considered relatively shallow with, in the south basin, an average depth of nine metres. 

“We have an ocean here,” said Charlie Burns, the commodore of the Gimli Yacht Club, with a grin. Burns is also a former provincial sailing coach in Manitoba and a Games volunteer.

“I thought people would be surprised (with the lake’s variable conditions) but this is a world-class centre, no question. Because it’s shallow, it has its own characteristics. The waves are closer together, they’re higher and steeper. It’s not that different, but it’s a warmer lake and that’s nice, compared to some of the Great Lakes.”

Events in all four sailing classes were on the water on Tuesday including laser male, laser radial female, 29er male and female (double-handed boats) and 2.4M (para).

Manitoba’s laser male crew of Hunter Kristjansson, 18, and his bother Bryce, 16, had a chance to take an unscheduled dip in the lake as the high waves boosted by a sudden wind gust capsized their boat during the afternoon race.

It took the determined brothers four tries to get upright again. No sooner would they right their watercraft, the wind would push it over again on the other side. They didn’t allow it to “turtle,” or go completely upside down, a dangerous situation when the mast could conceivably catch on the lake bottom.

Once they were upright, they put together a strong finish and sit in sixth place overall after three days of racing.

“We know this lake, but the top guys, they’re really strong sailors so it doesn’t really help us there. But it gives us an advantage over the mid-fleet. We were able to handle them a lot better,” Hunter said.

“It’s pretty stiff competition here so more days like this would help,” Bryce said, with a grin.

Hunter competed in the 2013 Canada Summer Games in Sherbrooke with another teammate, but this is the first multisport games racing with his younger brother.

“I had to wait for him to get a bit older and put on some weight. A little too much weight, maybe,” Hunter laughed, giving his brother a good-natured jab in the side.

Team Ontario’s laser male crew of Jake Adair, 17, and Galen Richardson, 16, said the changing conditions on the water made for a fun but challenging day.

“The chop really picked up. It’s pretty crazy. I was surprised at how choppy and windy it’s been. I’ve never sailed in conditions like these,” said Adair, who lives in Kingston and trains on Lake Ontario. “The waves were just really, really big.”

Richardson said the pair, who adapted to the conditions well enough to sit in second place overall, just started sailing together and had only raced in one event prior to these Games. 

Brigitte Smutny, the head coach of Sail Manitoba and a volunteer at the Games, said, “This venue in Gimli is just perfect to host big events, you can’t get any better. The lake today looks a little frightening to people who aren’t used to it, but it’s challenging and can only get better.

“We have so many volunteers here, about 150, everyone is in the groove. The athletes just love the volunteers. The cook is going out of his way to make everyone welcome. He’s bringing in mint leaves so the Quebec coach can have fresh peppermint tea. And I’ve heard stories from the village that the athletes love the volunteers, the transportation is excellent and they have everything they need at the village in the Gimli High School. They put beds in the classrooms, they have the showers and the cafeteria for breakfasts and dinners. They get boxed lunches during the day.”

The Gimli Yacht Club is bigger and better thanks to hosting the Games. Legacies from the Games at the club include a new race committee boat and the refurbishment of the club to make every area fully accessible to those needing mobility assistance, Burns said.

 “What’s great about a Canada Games is you do bring everybody together and kids can really learn from some of the best athletes around,” he said. “There’s volunteers and technical officials from all over the country here. It’s very much a Canada Games in that sense, in addition to the athletes.”

Alberta’s Peter Van Muyden was serving as the major technical official for the sailing event and chose a team of 30 high-level officials from across Canada.

“We come here as a whole team and we integrate with the locals to help train them, and for customer service to the athletes,” said Van Muyden, a 25-year veteran of the sport, who has been part of official sailing teams for regattas in countries all over the world such as Qatar, Australia, the U.S.A, The Netherlands, the Cayman Islands and Curaçao.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca