Iced Capp
Five thousand kilometres from Budleigh, a 1975 Tanzer 22 flies the club burgee on Lac Saint-Louis, the wide stretch of the St Lawrence just west of Montreal. She is named after her skipper’s summer drink, on the grounds that a boat which only sails in summer has no business being named after a hot coffee. The crew’s only fixed rule: whoever spills one buys the next round.
The Boat
- Class
- Tanzer 22, one of 2,271 built
- Designer
- Johann Tanzer
- Builder
- Tanzer Industries, Dorion, Quebec, about ten miles from where she sails
- Built
- 1975
- Length overall
- 6.83 m (22 ft 5 in)
- Beam
- 2.39 m
- Draught
- 1.04 m, fin keel
- Displacement
- 1,315 kg
- Rig
- Masthead sloop, 20.9 m²
- Sail number
- “1975”, her year, painted on by a previous owner and never corrected
- Season
- Late May until the lake starts to think about freezing
- Winter quarters
- A steel cradle, a blue tarpaulin and about a metre of snow
How She Joined
Her skipper’s great-aunt lived in Budleigh Salterton for fifty years and left him, in her will, a club burgee and a strongly worded letter about keeping it flying. He did not own a boat at the time. He bought one the following spring, which the family regard as the letter working exactly as intended.
He attends the Annual General Meeting by video, which in Montreal begins at five in the morning. He has never missed one, and has never been seen in anything but a dressing gown.
“In Devon you sail all year and complain about the weather. Here we get five months, so we just sail.”
Where She Goes
- Across the lake on summer evenings, when the westerly fills in after a hot day.
- Alongside the Seaway, where ocean-going ships bound for the Great Lakes pass close by. She gives way to every one of them, early and without argument.
- Upriver to the Lake of Two Mountains for a weekend, with a cool box that is mostly ice and a crew that is mostly cousins.
- Back to the marina before the mosquitoes come out, which on a still night is the only race she takes seriously.
Racing
She sails the Wednesday evening series when there is wind and the crew can leave work, among enough other Tanzer 22s to make a proper one-design start. Her trophy cupboard contains one mug. The mug is for the most improved boat, and her skipper says it is the only kind of trophy that tells the truth.