COSA sailors battle West Coast weather in season’s final event
Tough conditions greeted sailors from the Central Okanagan Sailing Association, like 17-year-old Brishen Slattery-Holmes, at a regatta in West Vancouver last weekend.
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The Central Okanagan Sailing Association’s (COSA) race team wrapped-up the sailing season with strong finishes at the Pumpkin Bowl in West Vancouver.
The year end sailing event near Horseshoe Bay is also one of the season’s largest with over 130 athletes in attendance every year.
Acting as the lone ambassadors for the Okanagan region, the COSA team secured strong finishes in the two different fleets they competed in.
This year’s event was particularly challenging, as it rained non-stop during the entire regatta, according to regional coach Devin Rubadeau who added that local sailors would have chosen to do dry land training if faced with the same conditions in Kelowna.
As such, strong winds and freezing cold rain made racing difficult, forcing the COSA team to compete in soggy conditions that played to the strengths of Vancouver and Victoria sailors. Despite environmental disadvantages, the COSA sailors did very well, earning top places in the large regatta.
Heather Halperin and Elizabeth Hardy, who won the last event they sailed in, worked hard to secure a sixth place finish in the 21-boat 420 class while Olivia Kirby and Matt Ryan finished further back in 19th place.
In the giant 31-boat Laser Radial fleet, COSA sailors struggled to earn 20th, 23rd, 24th and 25th place finishes. Emerson Kirby was the top Kelowna sailor, followed by fellow COSA team members Thomas Hardy, Robbie Stevens, and Brishen Slattery-Holmes.
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