Sail Canada November Sailor of the Month – Queen’s University Keelboat Team

Dec 21, 2016

On November 7th, Queen’s University, became the second North American team to win the Student Yachting World Cup in its thirty-six year history. The Canadian boat was helmed by 4th year engineering student, Will Jones with crew members Clifton Kartner, Daniel Sheedy, DenbyMcdonnell, Sam Thompson, Adrienne Gudreault, Claire Boileau, and Connor Mackenzie .
The Canadians got off to a slow start, posting their first race win after 5 races of the 17 race series. The Canadians gained momentum throughout the week posting a 3-1-1-2 on the penultimate day. Canada sat in first place, with a 3-point lead, heading into the final day.

The final two races of the event would consist of a regular fleet race and a medal race that could not be dropped from their overall score. The first race of the final day, Queen’s managed to extend their lead to 4 points, but after missing the first shift during the medal race, Canada was forced to claw back into contention, finishing fourth, and ultimately winning the regatta by one single point.

Eight international teams competed in the 36th edition of the Student Yachting World Cup, held November 2 to 7 in La Rochelle, France. Sailing the 31-foot Grand Surprise in a mix of inshore and offshore races, the 2016 overall winner is Queen’s followed by the California Maritime Academy (USA) only one point behind, Southampton University (England), Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland), Loughborough University (England), EPFL (Switzerland), Strathclyde University (Scotland) and Kobe University (Japan).

Congratulations to Sail Canada Sailor of the Month, Queen’s University Keelboat Team! Oil thigh naBanrighinna’Banrighinn gu brath!