September 11th – 14th. 2025 Saltspring Island B.C.
The 2025 IOM National Championship Regatta took place on Saltspring Island at the Saltspring Island Sailing Club. The Organizing Authority was the West Coast Radio Sailing Club. 31 competitors from the US and Canada registered for the event. Interestingly, the fleet was almost exactly split between Canadian and US entries. Obviously, our American friends have discovered sailing at Saltspring and know a good thing when they see it. It is particularly gratifying that the event is able to attract such a large number of highly competitive sailors from across the US. Our Nationals were generously hosted by the Saltspring Island Sailing Club. The event took place over four days with registration and technical inspection on Thursday afternoon followed by three days of racing. Technical Inspection was carried out by Art Prufer with assistance from Bud Fassnacht and Don Martin. 29 boats were efficiently inspected on Thursday afternoon and only one late arrival needed to be inspected on Friday morning before racing began. Inspection included weighing of hulls, keel and rigs followed by float testing. Several boats needed additional corrector weights which were supplied by the organizers. A surprising number of boats failed the LOA test, often due to projecting transom bungs or backstay hooks. A number of boats also failed to have their hull number applied in compliance with the current IOM Class Rules. On completion of technical inspection each competitor received a personalized, engraved glass to commemorate the event (thanks Art). They also received an event shirt designed by local artist Clare Strain.
On Friday morning, after a brief delay to complete one late technical inspection, racing got underway at 10:15 am. Two seeding races were followed by A & B heats using HMS. Winds on Friday were from the SE at 5 to 8 knots. A significant amount of weed was collected by various foils during the first hour of sailing but once the tide went slack the course was pretty well clear of weed for the rest of the day. The course was ideal, being perfectly aligned with the 500-foot-long floating breakwater dock. The Sailing Club has a set of permanent IOM course marks set out and these worked perfectly with only a minimum amount of mark shifting to suit minor variations in wind direction. Volunteers, Steve White, Bob Matthews and Marc Owen-Flood looked after mark-set duties and also corralled the occasional errant IOM (thanks folks). Martin Herbert built a special weed rake which was used to clear a 10-foot-wide swath along the 500-foot float face when required between heats. At mid-day, a 45-minute lunch break was followed by the afternoon’s racing which concluded at 4:15. Seven races were completed on Saturday before everyone adjourned for an evening spent enjoying the bars and restaurants of downtown Ganges located about 2 miles from the sailing club.
Saturday was a carbon copy of Friday: wind SE, 5 to 8 knots, weed for the first hour in the morning followed by clear sailing for the rest of the day. There was virtually no current but upwind, some competitors found the short chop generated by the long fetch (5 miles) a challenge. Saturday racing concluded at 4:20 after race 16A. Throughout the racing there were very few significant rules issues. Our Chief Umpire, Sail Canada certified judge, Jennifer Ross assisted by two observers in each heat kept everyone on their best behavior. Almost every contact or protest hail resulted in a quick resolution with a prompt penalty turn from the offender. This high level of rules compliance was welcomed by all competitors. (Well done Jennifer). On Saturday night an enjoyable buffet dinner was hosted by the event at the Saltspring Island clubhouse. Thanks to Marilyn Woodward, Annabelle Martin and Tom Murphy for all of their help with the catering activities (and to Gary Boell for washing the dishes ;<)
Our final day started out very ominously, heavy clouds, major rain showers and practically no wind greeted us when we arrived early Sunday morning. All the weather models showed poor conditions with the wind dropping to zero and shifting through 180 degrees halfway through our day’s racing. Amazingly, our luck from the first two days held and just before racing started, the rain stopped, the skies cleared and the wind filled in again from the SE at about 4 to 6 knots. At 9:30 am we began our day with our group photo opp showing off everyone’s boat and all competitors in front of the Saltspring Island Sailing Club clubhouse. Racing got underway just before 10 am with a 12:30 cut off to allow people to make their various ferry reservation times. Once again weed plagued the first hour of racing but once the tide went slack the weed mostly disappeared. Another 3 races were completed before our 12:30 cut off leaving us with 19 races on the scoreboard. The series ended with a total of 38 starts which included only one General Recall and normally 1 or 2 OCSs in each start. The “start to start” time for the 38 starts averaged just over 21 minutes, mostly thanks to Art’s very quick scoring process (using the excellent Afleet software). The fleet was quickly packed up and everyone met in the SISC clubhouse for presentations.
When the results were tallied it was clear that, though we didn’t know it, we had all been attending a clinic put on by Mark Golison. Mark took first place in his Venti with a very impressive score of 28 points, George Pedrick with his V 11 was 2nd with 62 points and at 68 points was Larry Grant in his Viss. Art Prufer produced some very impressive back-lit plexiglass prizes for the top 5 finishers. (thanks again Art!). We also had a fleet within the fleet with our Woodie awards. This year 10 of our 30 competitors were sailing wood boats – an impressive display. First in the woodies was Barry Donaher sailing his Adriatic (143 pts) next was Jason Rhodes in his Equinox (146) and 3rd place went to Jess Atkinson sailing his Pivot (155). Martin Herbert produced a spectacular wooden perpetual trophy for the Woodie fleet and Barry D will be the first name on it. Award winners can be seen here.
At the awards ceremony Barry Donaher very generously donated his Adriatic IOM to the Saltspring Island Sailing Club with stipulation that it be auctioned to a local IOM sailor with the proceeds going to the club’s junior activities. Well done Barry! Another generous raffle prize was a set of A rig sails from Wilson Chong (HOT Sails RC). These were won by Peter Grimm.
On top of his major event awards Art Prufer also provided eight novelty awards in the form of specially engraved event glass beer glass which were awarded to deserving recipients during our fun and entertaining awards ceremony.
For a complete listing of the final results go to: https://westcoastradiosailing.ca At the same place you will find scores of great photos by our event photographer, Jennifer Golison (thanks again Jenn) and lots of video footage from our resident videographer Dan Shier (thanks Dan).
Now for a final thank you to those who worked behind the scenes to make our event such a success: Steve Kinsey, Brian Woodward, John Ball and Peter Grimm and all the others who put in so much time and effort. Including West Coast Radio Sailing, Canadian Radio Yachting Association and Saltspring Island Sailing Club. Saltspring Harbour master Bo Curtis and his wharfinger Shane did an amazing job to ensure that our entire control area was vacant and that each of our visiting support boats had moorage.
Our catering was especially good thanks to our generous sponsors Country Grocers who provided our delicious lunches Friday and Saturday, our dinner chefs, Sweetgrass Food Co for the amazing Saturday buffet dinner and finally; our catering coordinator Pam Green for making everything run so smoothly.
Next time you spot an IOM event coming up at Saltspring, jump on the entry list, the spots will be taken up very quickly.
Saltspring is an amazing venue for IOM sailing.
Don Martin, September 2025
