What a fun weekend it was: on July 7, 8 and 9 the Newell Sailing Club hosted the Prairie Wind regatta as well as the National Championships for the Fireball and SeaSpray Fleets. All volunteers worked hard to make life as easy as possible for the contestants, who had come out from all over Alberta, BC and even Arizona. In total 58 boats registered and the competition on the water was therefore intense, but all in good spirits.

For the first time since the dreaded Covid spell, we offered our famous meal plans again. And boy, the Kitchen Crew sure went above and beyond, everyone was eating like they hadn’t eaten in days. We also had a very generous wine donation from Matt (NSC member) and this year for the first time we had “beer-tender” Scott providing craft beer from his son’s brewery in Calgary.

We can really go on and on about how much fun this all was, but really, you just had to be there. If you weren’t make sure you won’t miss it next year, keep an eye out on this page.

In complete random order you will find some of the highlights (pictures) below!

Anyway, the important stuff! Who Won and What:

Winners of the National Championships are:

• Fireball National Championships: 1. Debbie Kirkby & Gregg Ferguson (Calgary) 2. Ken Tichkowsky & Neil Tichkowsky (Edmonton) 3. Robert Thompson & Cameron Hay (Duncan, BC)
• SeaSpray National Championships: 1. Don Snell, 2 Richard Braul, 3. Hamish Ferguson, all from the Newell Sailing Club.

Winners of the Prairie Wind regatta are:

• Laser Full Rig: 1. Isaac Bussin (Calgary), 2. Phil Paxton (Chestermere), 3. Russel Krause (Edmonton).
• Laser Radial Fleet: 1. Lesley Reichenfeld (Chestermere), 2. Stephen Reichenfeld (Chestermere), 3. Lee Nagy (Calgary)
• Laser 4.7 Fleet: 1. Claire Wooldridge, 2. Zairyn Mierau, 3. Bernice Cao, all from Calgary.
• 29er Fleet: 1. Nathan Glendinning & Clayton Marriott from Calgary.
• 420 Fleet: 1. Aryan Virk & Barrett Duff from Calgary
• Optimist Pram (Int.) Fleet: 1. Samuel Mierau, 2. Finley Hoffmann, 3. Rachel Sullivan all from Calgary.

If you’d like to see the scores in detail, please click here.