Young Atlantic sailors towed to shore as storm hits race

A storm Sunday forced organizers of the Sail East junior regatta in Charlottetown to cut the final race short and tow the vessels competingto shore.

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The regatta over the weekend involved teens and younger sailors from all over the Atlantic region, somesailing in dinghies.

'It was an exciting exercise but ...I don't think anybody was truly threatened, Stephen Murray, CYC Commodore

"We could see this thunderhead coming from the north," said Stephen Murray, the 2016 commodore of the Charlottetown Yacht Club.

"Time was of the essence ... We didn't know how, if the storm was going to cross the harbour. It could have brought some very strong frontal winds which would have knocked these boats down."

'Exciting exercise'

Coaches and others helping out on the water had to quickly tow the dinghies to shore, because the little boats couldn't sail fast enough to outrun the storm, Murray said. It only took volunteers about 12 minutes to tow all the boats in to the Yacht Club.

"Kids would have been in the water, which would have been a really bad situation."

The storm ended up moving east and north, Murray noted, and only caught the outer fringe of Charlottetown.

"It was an exciting exercise ... in hindsight, I don't think anybody was truly threatened," Murray said.

Organizers left race markers in the water until after the storm passed.

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