That was the the total round trip. The 2006 NOD is now in the history books and by all accounts was a great success.

We left Friday morning about 9 AM. I was supposed to pick up Joe at around 8 AM so it was several hours before we got off the subject of time. He likes to be "on schedule". Stopping in Dalhousie to pick up the boat and Max, who was crewing for Paul, was pretty uneventful but anticipation was high. There's nothing quite like the beginning of a road trip to get you excited. Paul was already at the club and pretty close to leaving. In fact he pulled out just ahead of us and we were both off and running just before 10:30.

In short order the Hemi pulled past Paul who was taking it easy on his little truck transmission, which has been "going" for many years now. I did discover, courtesy of Joe, that my truck/trailer combination has no real difficulty doing 130+ Km/hr. I suppose moving from the Aveo to the Hemi gave him some kind of adrenaline rush and we had to tone it down a few times. Easy boy…we'll get there. We also apparently joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy when he pulled into the "we serve" aisle of the outrageously priced highway gasoline vendor. I reckon that it cost us about $2.80 for a windshield wash. The guy did a good job though.

The strangest thing appeared on the way up to Nepean. I was in the passenger seat so I don't have real good first-hand eyewitness status but by all other reports it appeared quite pasty-white and was apparently pressed quite flat against a piece of glass. It turns out that the vehicle containing said glass belonged to my crew who happened to be passing us on the 401. This strange pasty-white beast made several more appearances over the course of the weekend and curiously didn't seem to be getting much sun. I guess that's why they say "where the sun don't shine."

We arrived in Nepean around 4:30 PM. Paul arrived shortly after us and in no time at all the boats were in the water and rigged. NSC has quite a nice setup for getting boats in and out quickly. We thought that six hours was pretty good considering that we stopped three times and had a windshield wash as well. Tents sprouted, lawn chairs sprang up, Ashley appeared and other familiar faces began to wander by. In no time at all the Hibachi was fired up, beer began flowing and life was good.

As anyone who has ever pitched a tent can attest to, the minute you do pitch that tent the rain gods get an instant message from someone. Yes, it poured. The rain started with a small drizzle around 11:30 when most of the gathering decided to call it quits for the night. The Pablonians and a few of their followers were said to have stayed up past 3 AM however. Saturday morning was pretty much filled with activities related to the drying of clothes, tents and sleeping bags.

After the usual coffee-bagel-poop-skippers meeting-poop-get ice-get water-get beer ritual we were off to the racecourse. Racing on Saturday was a crazy mix of wind/no wind and a healthy dose of 30 and 40 degree windshifts. First to last in less than 30 seconds wasn't unrealistic. We had a nice breather with a no-wind break of about an hour where everyone just soaked up the summer. I'd like to say that we did poorly on Saturday because of some crazy combination of road-weariness, gin/tonic and lack of local knowledge. Too bad Insanity did so well or that excuse might have held some water. It must have been their new spinnaker pimping Barrie Ford. Either way, the racing was challenging.

We did the tourist thing on Saturday night. Ramzi spent some time living/working in Ottawa and took us to all the places a tourist might want to see. Pasty-white showed up again-the Prime Minister would probably not be amused. We found the lost ruby slipper and bumped into the Travelocity gnome as well. Back at the Yacht club the blender made its appearance and we put quite a few miles on it that night. Kirby tent city was definitely the place to be partying. The strangest thing happened to Paul where his shoe somehow became airborne when he slipped on something- or wobbled. The shoe in question landed squarely on his nose. You had to be there. And there were reports that Simon had a problem finding and/or losing some cookies. I wasn't there so I couldn't help him find them. Somehow Max managed to sleep in his tent only a few feet away from the blaring boombox. I heard many grumbles the next morning from some of the non-party participants. Oh well.

Sunday's racing started off quite pleasant. Good breeze and much more steady. For some reason the race committee took a break after the first race and waited for the wind to crank up to the extreme. The second race was a battle, mostly with the boat and not really with anyone else. We just couldn't seem to pull it together. Things were breaking all around us and every way we went seemed to be the wrong way. We decided to get an early start on the crane and bailed out after the second race. I heard that the third race was more of the same with some big wind and lots of fun.

Doug said that Insanity and his crew just got lucky…five times. We didn't find that kind of luck on the course. Hugh and his team on Wave were tough as well and Simon was keeping everyone on their toes. At some point or another every boat seemed to have their moments of brilliance and other moments of desperation. All-in-all the racing was tough and the best team won. The way it should be. We were lousy and it showed. Insanity is going to be tough to beat this year.

Thanks to Simon, Hugh, Dwight, Mike, Steve and the rest of NSC for showing us all a good time.

The results are here.

Check out our pictures here.

Official regatta pictures are here.

More than a few people have emailed me asking for the whereabouts of Radical. I have a few pictures of Radical but the previous owner has requested that I not pass them around. If someone finds the boat and takes some pictures please pass them along.

The last thing I heard was that the boat is currently in the possession of:

Brother's Roadside Assistant

(416) 702-2911

Hot off the press.

Hi Rick.

I am the new owner of Radical. The bad news is that after picking up the boat the trailer came off on the 407 and the boat was written off by the insurance company. The boat is still in Toronto and will be moved to Coburg sometime this week. Everything is still with the boat such as the motor, all sails, furling, mast, boom etc. I am looking to sell it as a package deal. Know anyone who would be interested?

J KirkHoward
River Control Operator
Mactaquac G S

So I guess we won't be seeing Radical at the NOD. Let the scavenging begin.

From Ashley:

Hello Everyone,
 
It is not just a rumour that Insanity will be at the NOD....we WILL be making the trek up to Ottawa and to every other regatta this season.
 
We hope that we will get a great turnout and look forward to seeing you all on the water and sharing a drink (or two) after the races!
 
See you soon,
Ashley (and the rest of Insanity)

I hope dancing Doug shows up.

We are encouraging people to register on-line and we want all competitors to note that the registration desk will NOT be open on Saturday morning.  Please see the NOR for more information - draft SI's will be posted to the NOD Webpage within a few days and the final SI's will be distributed at the event with your regatta package. NOD Regatta June 16-18, 2006. Registration now available On-line. Save time and money by registering early!

Regards
Bert Ritcey
NOD Chair 2006

Price reduced on hull #160, Under Cover.

They don't come much cheaper than this.

Update: Boat has been sold and moving to Dalhousie.