Report from Gaspe

By William Tuthill

Greetings All

Here is a quick report from lasts week's epic adventure to the race site for WISSA 2008.

It is Sunday night, and we have just returned from driving over 2000 km for WISSA. It was a productive trip.

The 3 day trip up took place during a record breaking storm that dumped 10- 50 cm. of snow and rain up and down the east coast. The whole family, with gear, and a load on the roof battled gale forced winds and swirling snow while packed into my rather small Honda. It was a stressful ordeal, but on Wednesday 18 April, 2007 we met up with Dominique Robichard [chief organizer for WISSA 2008] at Val Briiliant on the shores of Lac Matapedia. Things are looking GOOD!


There is a 9 member organizing committee, with a budget, and a plan.
The original accommodations were to be some condominiums on the lake, but they were just sold making them unavailable.
As a perhaps better substitute, the organizing committee has secured the base lodge at Val d'Irene Ski Mountain instead. Web: Val d'Irene

The base lodge has 26 rooms and a total capacity of 120 persons. It is 14 km. from the lake and will be connected by buses running continually between the two locations.

At the lake, there is a community center which will serve a center of activity for skipper's meetings, lunches, and equipment storage.

The lake is beautiful! We sailed on 60 cm. ice with the typical strong NW winds. At 20 km. x 3-5 km. there is plenty of room to move! The town of Sayabec is at one end and Amqui is at the other. Val Brillant is in the middle. There is NO DEVELOPMENT on the north side of the lake! This makes for exceptionally pure scenery.

Dominique has gone off to windsurf at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina for a week, and I have to get back to work. Just know this as you go into your summertime routines- WISSA 2008 is well under control! The dates are 10-17 February 2008, and we are looking forward to seeing you there. :-)

Look for more information and photos of Lac Matepedia on the WISSA web site soon.

Don't forget to "summerize" your skis!

Will

p.s. The ice on Matapedia is still good!