The Lake Osoyoos Sailing Club is hosting the North American Seaspray Championships from Friday to Sunday, as well as an X-Class regatta for club members on Saturday and Sunday. (Alan Collins file photo)

The North Basin of Osoyoos Lake will be dotted with sailboats this coming weekend as the Lake Osoyoos Sailing Club (LOSC) holds its annual regatta.

The club is hosting the North American Seaspray Championships from Friday to Sunday, as well as an X-Class regatta for club members on Saturday and Sunday.

The North American Seaspray Championships alternate between Osoyoos and Huntington Lake, California, explains Garry Ford, the club’s commodore.

In years when Osoyoos doesn’t host the North American championships, such as last year, it hosts the Canadian championships.

Those alternate with Lake Newell near Brooks, Alberta.

Ford is expecting about 11 Seasprays to compete this year as sailors come from both Osoyoos and Alberta.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any boats in from the United States this year,” he said, noting that the Huntington Lake sailors had a conflicting event.

The Seaspray is a 15-foot catamaran with two parallel hulls of equal size.

The LOSC Member X-Class regatta is open only to club members, but any type of sailboat is allowed, said Ford.

“All boats have a defined handicap, so you can have a 30-foot boat racing with a dinghy,” he said.

In past years many youngsters have participated in the regatta and last year a contingent of young sailors came down from Kelowna.

But this year Ford is expecting mostly adults.

That’s because last week LOSC hosted a Learn to Sail day camp for children. That camp ran from Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 and was for children aged between six and 13 to encourage more youngsters to become active sailors, Ford said.

The camp offset the fact that children aren’t competing in the regatta itself, he added.

For the X-Class event, Ford expects a variety of boats including Lasers, a Flying Junior and possibly an Enterprise dinghy.

The club has a number of boats that it makes available to sailors who don’t have their own boats on a first-come, first-served basis, he said.

Depending on winds, the club tries to hold three races in the morning and three in the afternoon.

In recent years, some races have been cancelled because of lack of wind, Ford said.

Last year, the winds died down on the Sunday and only picked up enough to sail after the trophies were handed out and the out-of-town participants had left, said Ford.

“The club members were out sailing again, but it was after the event was finished,” he said.

For those wanting to watch the boats, Ford says the boats are usually out on the water around 10 to 10:15 a.m. on the Saturday and Sunday after a skippers’ meeting.

The races start close to the front of the sailing club, which is just south of Desert Sunrise Marina.

The starting line has been moved away from the shoreline to give boats more room to manoeuvre as they wait to start, said Ford.

The first race gets underway at around 10:30 a.m. and the final race on Friday and Saturday is around 4 p.m. The regatta winds down earlier on Sunday.

More information about the Lake Osoyoos Sailing Club and the regatta is available at www.sailosoyoos.ca.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times