Whitecap: The Canadian Sailing Podcast

She spent two years teaching sailing in the Mediterranean and Brittany, has a Yachtmaster Offshore certificate in England, did a transatlantic crossing from West to East in the middle of COVID, and is now one of 4 crew preparing for the Quebec a St Malo race in their class 40 Equinoxe

This episode is brought to you by North Sails.

Today we're previewing. The princess Sophia, Regatta, and Palmer Spain with me is Rob Hemming Rob is a former member of the national team competing in the Finn class from 2012 until 2017 where he rose to a top ranking of 30th in the world. He was also a coach at the 2020 olympics and most recently was the helmsman for Canada's entry into the star Sailor's league gold cup world championships in Spain. Outside of competing, Rob is also on the Sail Canada Board of Directors as an athlete Director

Fresh from their 8th place finish and OLYMPIC QUALIFICATION!!, Georgia and Antonia take us through their experience at the 49er Worlds in Lanzarote, Spain, including their emotional last day, coming 2nd in the medal race and capsizing right AFTER the finish line live on the broadcast.

Rolex Sailor of the year Melodie Schaffer raced her boat Whiskey Jack in the Globe 40, a 35,000-mile, eight-leg, double handed around the world race in in Class 40s. Seven teams took part in the 175-day event which started in Morocco and endd in France.

Overall, "Whiskey Jack", Melodie and co-skippers: Gary Jacques, Mikael Ryking, Jeronimo Santos, Robert Phillips, Paul Stratfold and Tom Pierce, took 5th place, and set the overall speed record for the race with an average speed of 14.3kn, for a distance of 347 miles in 24 hours.

Through the race, she also faced storms and countless broaches, over a dozen sails repairs, a spinnaker wrap that took 36 hours to clear in 25 knots and 5m waves, had a damaged rudder and two incidents of smoke in the cabin.

In this wide ranging discussion we discussed her early days dinghy racing, getting the offshore bug later in life and a terrifying story of a run in with a modern day pirate ship.

Today Chris Watters (East coast singlehanded coach, Star Sailors league tactician) is back on the show to discuss the top 10 Canadian sailing stories of 2023. From olympic hopefuls to offshore sailing, foiling and everything in between. Another great year.

The stories were determined solely and entirely by host Dave Cripton. If you think I've missed something please reach out!

Today we welcome back Lee Parkhill to recap the action at the 2023 Pan Am Games, from his terrific gold medal performance, to other medals for Ali Tenhove and Mariah Millen, Sarah Douglas and Will Jones and Justin Barnes, as well as a recap of all of the other classes. We get into the heartbreakingly close finishes, performance improvements and an atmosphere about which Lee commented "I don't know if I've experienced a regatta in my career where the team was so connected!"

One of the most successful multi class Canadian sailors of the 2000's. Luke was the representative in the 470 class at the 2012 Olympics with Mike Leigh, and the Nacra 17 in 2016 with Nikola Girke where they placed 15th and were ranked as high as 5th in the world during that quad. Also, Luke won the 2006 world youth championships in Lasers and is a two-time Pan Am medalist in the sunfish class winning a silver medal in 2015 in Toronto (just days after sailing at the Nacra worlds) and silver again in 2019 in Peru. He was also a member of SailGP Canada's inaugural season and is now headed to the Pan Am games in the Lightning class.

One of the most successful multi class Canadian sailors of the 2000's. Luke was the representative in the 470 class at the 2012 Olympics with Mike Leigh, and the Nacra 17 in 2016 with Nikola Girke where they placed 15th and were ranked as high as 5th in the world during that quad. Also, Luke won the 2006 world youth championships in Lasers and is a two-time Pan Am medalist in the sunfish class winning a silver medal in 2015 in Toronto (just days after sailing at the Nacra worlds) and silver again in 2019 in Peru. He was also a member of SailGP Canada's inaugural season and is now headed to the Pan Am games in the Lightning class.