Reflections on the 2016 Régates Royales from a Canadian

As a child, I grew up around a lot of racing boats in the Toronto harbour racing with my dad on his 9 metre home-built wooden Thunderbird. However, I was always drawn to the very sleek lines of the classic 5.5 CAN 22 that raced out of our club, Queen City Yacht Club. The owners were family friends but I never had the opportunity to sail on her. Fast forward 40 plus years after racing and restoring many wooden boats, in 2009 I got a phone call from the son of the original owner explaining that