J105s: The Generosity of Sailors … Once Again!

Oct 10, 2019

On September 27-29th, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club hosted Canada’s J105 Championship Regatta on Lake Ontario in Toronto with sixteen determined competitors. Terry McLaughlin, a five-time Canadians Champion and three-time J/105 North American, dominated the eight-race series, winning with partner Rod Wilmer six of the races en route to a final margin of 12 points over his brother Frank McLaughlin, an Olympic Bronze medalist.

There are 20 J105s on Lake Ontario, 16 of which are at the RCYC. Sonic Boom, the first boat at the Club was and continues to be skipped Ian Farquhanson who serves as Broad Reach Director for many years. Ian’s boat was followed by Jim Rathbun’s Hey Jude and Robert Baker’s Planet B. As a testament to the boat’s superior design, all of these boats are still at the club and actively racing.

On September 28t, the RCYC welcomed the competitors, friends and fellow sailors for celebration and recognition of all the winners, amid good food and drink, good spirits and conversation. As part of the presentation, the Broad Reach Foundation for Youth Leaders — one of the RCYC’s signature charities –received one of the most generous single donations raised at a regatta– a donation from the sailing community that was larger than some of the corporate funding to date!

As Doug Bullock, declared:

~ “The J105 Fleet is proud to announce they have raised $29,500 for the Broad Reach Foundation.”
 
As the J105 Canadian Championship Chair, Doug acknowledged that through the fundraising efforts of Michael Mountford of Live Edge and the Team of Wrecking Crew, the J105 Fleet had once again demonstrated their support and commitment to the Foundation.

After the well-deserved applause, Marguerite Pyron, CEO, the Broad Reach Foundation, shared some words and thoughts as to the importance of the donation and the work it supports.

~ “Our mission is to engage disadvantaged youth in the GTHA in the sport, science and experience of sailing in order to advance their education, knowledge, skills and social belonging. All our programming is absolutely free of charge.

Marguerite pointed out that charities are often not seen as contributors to the country’s overall economic situation, and that the public rarely knows the massive extent to which these 170,000 organizations are supported.

In actual fact, the charitable and non-profit sector creates an average 8.1% of the 1,711 trillion total Canadian GDP, which is close to the total economic value of the mining, oil and gas extraction industry! And that surprising result is supported by the almost the 13 million Canadians who volunteer for charities and non-profits.

“Without the Generosity of Sailors, throughout the years, and today, without all the support of the RCYC J105 fleet, it would have been much harder for us to grow our program from 50 youth in 1998 to over 500 in 2019, and to expand our fleet from one boat in the beginning to the six now in the fleet, of which five were donated. And yes, one is a J105!” This past May Broad Reach, with funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, acquired a J105 named Sottovento to provide a new platform for youth in the program including race preparation and training.

Photo Credit Christopher Howell

Sailing, as Broad Reach advocates, is about the pursuit of excellence through courage, initiative, tenacity, team work and hard work, and values that will serve the youth as they contribute to strengthening their own communities, and, on a larger scale, to become change agents and nation builders.

As Nik, a 16-yrs old 2019 Summer Afloat Broad Reach participant said: “I got on this boat, scared out of my mind. I was sure that if I go overboard – I’m done for. And then, the further from the shore we went, the more comfort, joy and confidence I got. This was a transforming experience for me”.

Should any of the readers of Canadian Yachting wish to contribute their skills and experience to the Broad Reach Foundation for Youth Leaders, please contact Marguerite Pyron, CEO, info@sailbroadreach.ca. Much needed and appreciated onations may be submitted through our website or by clicking on https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/4274.

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