EYC Junior Sail - HF Youth Regatta

Wednesday, August 20 - Thursday, August 21, 2025

Etobicoke Yatch Club

2025 Notice of Race

The main goal of this regatta, held annually in mid-August, is to provide an opportunity for budding racers to take part in a friendly, less formal introduction to competitive sailing. This event is open to all participants of local sailing schools and yacht clubs who are under the age of 18. In previous years, we focus on two-handed boats used by many junior sail programs around Lake Ontario; Club 420 white sail and spinnaker, RS Feva S/XL, Opti and Oppi.

In past years, we have been very fortunate to have the popular Thomas Fogh, Han's Fogh's son and former member of the National Team and Team Canada Coach (Pan Am Games 2015) who generously volunteers his services as a special guest coach and we also fortunate to have the technical expertise of the internationally qualified race officer, Irene McNeill, as the principal race officer.

Check out this spectacular drone footage from a previous year's event! https://youtu.be/57UP7nYbCEs

For 2025, the Hans Fogh Youth Regatta (HFYR) will be held on August 20th and August 21st. To further expand opportunity for racing experience to an even larger and younger pool of budding competitors, this year we will again include Optimist and ‘Oppies’, a plastic roto-molded dingy, which is similar to, but heavier than the Optimist. This class is run on a separate, shorter "Bravo" course along with the Opti Class Fleet.

The standard cost for the Regatta is as follows:

$50+HST for the ILCA 4, ILCA 6 and ILCA 5 classes ($70+ HST after August 12th)
$50+HST Oppi/Opti fleet ($70+HST after August 12th).
$100+HST for Club 420, RS Feva classes ($140+HST after Aufust 12th)

HFYR regatta registrations will close at 9:00pm the day before the first day (August 20th) of the regatta.

Last year, we had 149 Main Fleet participants, 33 Opti/Oppi and 27 Coaches for a total of 109 participants - a record-breaking year for the regatta. This year, we are planning for similar numbers and hope all the local sailing clubs will come out and continue to support this important developmental event once again.

As always, this event can not be held without the many volunteers who give freely of their time to create the best experience possible for the youth participants. This year, we will need 40 volunteers and typically come from other clubs and participants' parents. If you would like to help out both on and off the water, please send us an email to jsp@eyc.ca and let us know if or how you can help out.

Coach/Club - Participant Check-in Procedure

We will again request the club coaches or representatives to check-in their team as a group, rather than by each participant. When all the specific club's team members have arrived and are physically present on Day 1 or Day 2, the coach or club representative will come to the Registration Tent and confirm the list with their club's registered participants. The Regatta Registration volunteers will confirm the official registered club list and check-in all the sailor plus provide the coach with the team's Regatta T-shirts (Day 1 only).

For Day 2, the process is exactly the same with the exception of the receipt of the T-shirts. Particular attention for the Coach's is to ensure the Sail Numbers and the Skipper/Crew names are correct prior to the regatta check-ins and also during the regatta. One extremely important note: this confirmed list will be the same list used by the Beach Volunteers to confirm who is leaving/returning to the beach and for individual race scoring. This makes this confirmation in your club's interest to ensure this list is complete and accurate.

Want to Help with this Regatta ?

EYC constantly strives to keep this event one of the most affordable regattas on the youth racing calendar and this is only possible with the help of people who generously donate their time to this event. No sailing or boating experience is required, just a wiliness to help out and have fun. If you are interested in volunteering or helping in any way to make our regatta truly successful, we would love to hear from you at jsp@eyc.ca.

For any further questions, please email us at jsp@eyc.ca

About Hans Fogh :

Hans Fogh was one of the most successful competitive sailors in Canadian history, with dozens of national and international championships in many different classes, including two Olympic medals. As a long-term member of EYC, he was a big supporter of our junior sailing program and developing youth sailing. We are pleased and honored to name our regatta after him.

Hans Fogh first made his Olympic debut representing his native Denmark at Rome 1960, winning the silver medal in the first-ever Flying Dutchman class with Ole Gunner Petersen. At Tokyo 1964, Fogh (with Peterson) just missed the podium in fourth with Miss Denmark 1964, and while representing Canada at Montréal 1976, he finished fourth again with Evert Bastet. Competing in the Soling class at Los Angeles 1984, his sixth and final Olympic Games, Fogh won his second Olympic medal, a bronze, 24 years after his first, an Olympic record at the time. He was also 16th at Mexico City 1968 and seventh at Munich 1972 in the Flying Dutchman.

Along with his Olympic success, between 1962-78, Fogh is a four-time World champion, winning a total of seven medals in the Flying Dutchman and Soling classes: for Denmark (three gold, one bronze) and Canada (one gold, one silver, one bronze). At the 1978 Pan American Games he won the silver medal in the Soling class. Fogh was on the crew of the Don Green at the 1978 Canada’s Cup and sailed on Canada II at the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup.

Fogh started sailing at the age of 17 bypassing the opportunity to take over the family gardening business. His first international title was winning the Flying Dutchman at the 1960 European Championships. Gifted in spatial geometry, Fogh could envision physical objects like a sail, and worked with Danish sailor and maker, four-time Olympic Finn class champion Paul Elvstrom. Midway through his illustrious sailing career, Fogh was encouraged to move to Canada by Olympic sailor Paul Henderson who knew Canada was in need of an experienced sailmaker. Settling in Toronto in 1969, Fogh opened Elvstrom Canada and later he produced sails under his own label (Fogh Sails and North Sails) and opened a retail store (Fogh Marine) which still exists today. He was married to his wife Kristen for 49 years, became a Canadian citizen in 1975, and had two sons.

Fogh’s sailing career spanned seven decades from his first race in the late 1950s to his last race in 2014. He shared the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 with his oldest son Morten and was able to compete in two subsequent Olympic trials with his youngest son Thomas. Born in Rodovre, Denmark, near Copenhagen, Hans Fogh died from Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in Toronto in 2014.