The Canadian blind sailing team (CBST) attended the California Invitational blind sailing regatta in June this year. Their two crews, Team Canada 1 and Team Canada 2, finished 3rd and 7th. Four countries United States, Canada, Japan and New Zealand a total of nine teams participated in the 3 day event. The host California #1 team and the local San Francisco Bay area teams finished in the first two positions overall. Their local knowledge of the Alameda estuary with many changes from light wind to no wind aided their top placing in the 10 race aggregate. The Canadian teams rose to second and fourth places by the half way mark of the regatta but the locally described “fluky” wind conditions and a crew injury keeping one of our sighted jib trimmers cheering on the dock had adverse effects on the final results.
Each J24 sailboat team consisted of a blind helm, a blind main trimmer, a sighted tactician and a sighted jib trimmer. Note that the sighted tactician was restricted from touching any controls. Only verbal direction to the helm and crew was allowed.
The CBST is building towards the world blind sailing championships in May 2013 in Yokohama Japan.
