Chester Yacht Club Junior Sailing

Sunday, August 23, 2009

POST HURRICANE BILL 420 RUN WITH JACOB AND JOSS

Kristen Berry,"The man on the land" covering the event.

L to R: Capt. Koloff,Videographer Foss and Spotter Megane.

Jaccob's face is a study in concentration before he hits the high seas.

A splash and a smile.

A serious Joss on board the 420 dinghy.

The following photos speak for themselves. Enjoy.
(click on images to enlarge)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

New Jersey LISOT Clinic: April 9-12

Hi again. A couple weeks ago I was at a training clinic at the Mantoloking Yacht Club in New Jersey. The clinic was hosted by the LISOT team who are probably the top American 420 team (along with other classes of boats) at the moment. There were around 15 of the top American boats all sailing International 420's. The competition, and coaching were amazing at the clinic. In all I think that the experience I gained at this clinic will be the most useful for me when I go to Worlds this summer as it is the only experience I'm likely to have in an I-420 before the event.
Unfortunately my crew Joss was not able to miss school or his school sailing team practice on that weekend, but Alex Scales crewed for me. The partnership worked really well and I'm sure he learned as much as I did.
Just for a bit of background on the coaches, Simon Cooke is a New Zealander who builds International 420's and designed most of the boats being sailed at the clinic. He has competed at at least one Youth Worlds in I420s as well as Worlds in the 470, with some work for the Kiwi America's cup boats. The guy was a genious and he knew everything there was to know about an International 420. Steve Keen, another Kiwi, is the regular coach for the LISOT team. There were two other coaches who deserve just as much recognition but I don't have the time right now... We had "chalk talks" from Dave Perry and Dave Dellenbaugh about rules, strategy, tactics and sail trim.
The clinic was well worth the price and I'm thankful for the support I've recieved so far. I am currently working on a fundraising project that I hope to get underway soon. I'll keep this updated as best I can, I've just been a little swamped with Track and Field, Schoolwork, fitness training and Spring Sailing has started up. I will also try to post some photo's from the Spring Sailing series that Craig Guthrie (Along with several other coaches) has organized on weekends in Halifax (RNSYS)

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

New Jersey LISOT Training Clinic

Tomorrow (Wednesday, April 8) I will be leaving for New Jersey for the long weekend. The purpose of this trip is for a training clinic put on by a really good sailing team from New York called LISOT. The clinic will offer international 420's, the boats I will need to race at the worlds in Brazil. The experience I will get in these boats will be very valuable when I compete against sailors from across the world who already sail these boats. In North America, we sail Club 420's which are basically a dumbed down version of an International 420.
I'll make sure to recap on the clinic when I get back next week.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Hi this is Jacob again. I just returned from my trip to Florida and the Mid Winter Regatta a couple weeks ago. The trip was a success, my crew Joss and I placed top Canadian boat at the regatta, qualifying us for the 2009 Volvo Youth Worlds. The conditions for qualifying to represent Canada at the worlds were to compete at the Canadian Youth Champs, then to be the top Canadian Male or Female boat in the top 50% of the fleet at Mid Winters.
We are pleased to have accomplished our long time goal of qualifying for the Youth Worlds. However, the rest of our regatta was not terrific, we finished 26th out of 73 boats. Our other goal for the regatta had been to place in the top 10 overall. The conditions on the first two days were the toughest that either Joss or I had ever raced in. The wind was all over the place and unfortunately we were consistently making tactical errors that set us back several positions.
Going into the third and last day of the regatta, Joss and I were top Canadian boat but we were not quite in the top half of the fleet. We didn't think that making the top 50% of the fleet would be a problem for this regatta. Going into the last day though we had to make up 3 or 4 places as well as stay ahead of the second Canadian boat (who were only 1 point behind us) in order to qualify. The weather forecast during the whole regatta was calling for high breeze on the last day of racing. The forecast turned out to be correct, the breeze was around 13-15kts when we got out on the water at around 9:15am, and building. First race was scheduled for 10:00am. The race committee was going to try to get 4 races in that day.
Our first race went well, we would have finished 2 or 3rd had the race been counted. However due to an error made by the race committee the race had to be re-sailed at the end of the day. Meanwhile the breeze continued to build and was now consistently above 15kts. Physical fitness became a major factor in determining who won races near the end of the day. After 7 hours on the water and 5 hour long races with only 4 of them counting, Joss and I were exhausted. Our coach Oliver Bone fired us up at the beginning of the day and told us that we had better collapse from exhaustion as soon as we get off the water. In the end the whole day was worth it, we had all top ten finishes (with the exception of a 4th that had a Z flag penalty) and we moved up about 10 places. We finished 4 places ahead of Ted Murphy and Alex Scales, the second Canadian boat.
Unfortunately none of the 3 girls boats from Canada broke the top 50% of the fleet and Canada won't be sending a female 420 team to Youth Worlds. The girls and the other Canadians at the event saw it as a learning opportunity though and were happy with their results.
The next sailing trip on my schedule is possibly going to be a clinic in New Jersey in early April. The clinic will offer International 420's, which is the boat that Joss and I need to race at the Youth Worlds. The problem is that in North America only Club 420s are raced so Joss and I have never sailed an International 420. The I420 is closer to a 470 (Olympic class boat) than a Club 420 is. If this clinic doesn't work out then Brasil will possibly be my next trip. the regatta starts on the 9th of July.
Here's something you should check out. This is my coach Craig Guthrie's Youtube account where he has all sorts of sailing video from fall sailing in 2008 along with a bit from the summer.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=dinghyboy&view=videos
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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Hi everyone, this is Jacob Chaplin-Saunders. I'm 16 years old and I've been sailing out of Chester Yacht Club for 6 years. I've been racing for almost as long. Sailing has taken me all to places all over the world like Vancouver, Florida, Bermuda and Italy.
I raced Optimists up until the summer of 2007. I switched into 420's that fall and sailed them again in the spring of 2008. In the summer I started sailing with Joss Warren who summers in Chester Basin and has sailed out of Chester for as long as I have. We raced this summer in local regattas like ARK in Bedford (1st), two regattas in Masachusettes (2nd at one and unfortunately a bad finish at the other), CORK in Kingston, Ontario (4th), and ended the summer with the 2008 Youth National Sailing Championships where we placed first against the best youth boats across Canada.
After winning the Canadian Youths Joss and I set ourselves the goal of qualifying to compete at the 2009 Volvo Youth World Championships in Buzios, Brazil. The top male and female teams from each participating country compete at this event. In order to qualify, Joss and I have to place as the top Canadian male boat (providing we finish in the top 50% of the fleet) at the Midwinter Regatta in Jensen Beach Florida.
In preperation for this event Joss and I competed at the 2008 Orange Bowl regatta in late December in Miami, Florida. We finished 9th out of 113 boats at this event, we were also the top Canadian boat by a considerable gap. We learned a lot at the regatta with great help from our Coach Oliver Bone who competed at the Olympics in the 470 class this past summer. This was a confidence booster for sure but we have to repeat the good finish at the Midwinter Regatta. The regatta takes place from February 14-16, 2009. I leave for Florida on Monday the 9th where I'll meet up with my crew Joss, his father and our coach Oliver. There will be about half a dozen of the top Canadian boats at the event along with many of the best American boats.

I have some videos and pictures to upload from past seasons at the Chester Yacht Club.

This compilation video was made in the fall of 2007. The sailors are:
Jacob Zeh, Simon Zeh, John Hebb, Alex Scales, Rebecca Hebb, Olivia, Jacob Chaplin-Saunders, Graeme Chaplin-Saunders, Sam Flinn and Minette Murphy.
They were led by coaches Graeme Chaplin-Saunders and Andrew Bethune. The fall series was a very successful season of sailing with great winds.

Here are some pictures from the beginning of my 420 career up until recently where Joss and I competed at the Orange Bowl:

- This is me sailing with my brother Graeme in Chester, some time in the fall of 2007.

- Another of my brother and I sailing in Chester.

- Joss and I sailing in Halifax before the 2008 Youth Nationals hosted by RNSYS.

- Again, sailing before Youth Nationals.

- A look at the different uses of jib cunningham between Joss and I and our training partners at the time (Ted Murphy and Alex Scales). We're the top boat.

- Joss and I sailing in Miami Florida in December 08. Nice flat boat.

Photo © 2008 Tim Wilkes / www.timwilkes.com.

- Another of Joss and I sailing at the Orange Bowl Regatta. The wind was great for the first few days of competition.

Photo © 2008 Tim Wilkes / www.timwilkes.com.

That's all I have for now but I'll be sure to update this blog with results and photos after any regattas. I'll also dig around my house to try to find some more pictures of junior sailing at Chester. I'm sure they're around somewhere...