LOOR: Dad and Son win LO300 doublehanded
August 3, 2022
Martin and Brian Rutter
What an incredible race! July’s LO300 with its many ups and downs and constantly changing wind conditions, continued to deliver this year an amazing racing experience! The level of competition and constant pressure from all the great sailors around us, just kept us pushing harder and harder to try and not make many mistakes. We exchanged places with our competitors multiple times over the course of the race, a mini victory each in its own when we gained our ground back.
After the long brutal leg from Oswego in the heavy rain and 20 knot winds we found ourselves particularly exhausted after 55 hours of racing and arrived in the Toronto area to some very light and fluky conditions.
Brian Rutter sails Neptune’s Car a B36.7 out of Mimico Cruising Club.
Race highlights:
– Short tacking the last 10 miles to Main Duck trading places with Zoe II a First 40.
– A fast, blustery and wet ride from Oswego to Ashbridges , wiping out multiple times trying to push the boat as hard as we could. Hit 13.5 knots surfing down one wave.
– Once we arrived in Toronto we ran into a couple of hours of very light conditions. We watched Aarrow an Archambault 40 who we were battling with for 1st in the double handed division catch a whisper of wind and go from 100 yards to a 3 mile gap in front of us. Not a problem at 6 knots but an issue at 1 knot. Thinking we had lost our class lead, we were just trying to limp home on each tiny puff of wind we could find. But knowing that 
the LO300 is never over until it’s over, we doubled down even harder on pushing through the remaining hours totally exhausted after the wide ride back down the lake, finally finding the breeze to bring us home.
We started club and regatta racing together on Split Second a C&C 34 in the early 90’s. It was great to see Split Second out on the start line for this year’s LO300!
We did the LO300 for the first time together doubled handed in 2021, winning the double handed division and placing 8th overall.
While we are very fortunate to have sailed countless team races together over many decades, to win the LO300 double handed as a father and son team has such special meaning and will forever be a highlight of our sailing careers. A huge thank you goes out to the race organizers, volunteers and sponsors for providing this opportunity to all of us racers and to our family and friends who have supported us and cheered us on to keep pushing hard to the end!
Race results for the Lake Ontario 300 can be seen at https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=14881
