‘We work pretty well together’
Chester sailors weather adversity to earn Canada Games bronze
Chester Yacht Club sailors Alex Graham and Silas Conlin-morse might have struggled at the start, but their finish pushed the Nova Scotia duo’s boat to a bronze-medal finish in the Canada Games at Niagara-on-the-lake, Ont.
Racing in the doublehanded 29er class, Graham and Conlin-morse clinched their medal Aug. 21 on the final day of the Games and one week before the first anniversary of their sailing partnership.
“It’s a milestone, for sure,” said Graham, the skipper who just turned 15 but already has a decade of experience on the water. “It’s pretty special and a great thing to know that we’ve come a long way.”
The Nova Scotia teammates recovered from adversity early in the week and pulled into third place entering championship weekend.
“We didn’t start off too well,” Graham said. “Our jib, the shackle that connects it to the jib sheet, that came off. And that was a struggle, so we were like twice as slow as all the other boats for an entire upwind. That was definitely our low, but after that we’ve been doing well.”
Conlin-morse, a 16-yearold who has been sailing for just two-plus years, believes problem-solving skills and resiliency are critical qualities for sailors as they contend with unpredictable conditions.
“We often deal with things breaking on the water,” he said. “As happened with our jib, things break and you just have to be able to fix them on the go.
“Also, we’ve been really struggling just to start our races. We end up having to battle from the back of the pack in just about every race we compete in, just to work our way back up to where we want to be or get us as high up in the standings as we can be.”
As the young South Shore sailors regrouped to earn a podium finish, they counted on their cohesion and friendship. While they sail with the Chester club, both live in the Annapolis Valley, where Conlin-morse
is going into Grade 11 at Horton high school and Graham is entering Grade 10 at King’s-edgehill.
“We work pretty well together,” Graham said. “Usually, I make a lot of the calls and we’re not arguing too much. We understand each other. When Silas first got in the sport, I helped him with a lot of tactics and other basics, so we sort of have the same mindset. As we sail together for longer, we’ll both have more (input) in the tactics and both develop a strategy.”
This summer, Conlinmorse resided with extended family in the Chester Basin area and biked about 15 minutes to attend sailing practices.
He forged a special connection with Graham.
“We always click,” Conlinmorse said. “If there’s ever an argument, it’s always resolved very quickly. Our chemistry is really good.
“Alex is the skipper, so he drives the boat. He’s focused on tactics and where we are on the course. Whereas I’m the crew, so my priority is keeping the boat flat, making sure it’s going fast and feeding him information. So, it always has to be a constant flow of communication between us.”
Canada Games competitors became accustomed to delays as light winds postponed sailing races to later in the day.
“All in all, we’ve probably
waited like 10 hours on land when we should be on water, just because of the wind,” Graham said on the final weekend. “It’s been a struggle, but it’s new. Usually we don’t race in light wind, so it is nice to have that opportunity to learn. I think it’s really helping us.”
During those long delays, he said, it was important to stay out of the heat, spend time in the shade, drink plenty of water and conserve energy for the races.
The Nova Scotians’ maturity has helped them deal with the highs and lows of racing on water.
“Before, with a loss, I’d get angry and I wouldn’t want to sail anymore,” Graham said. “But now, I get past it a lot easier in races and I look forward to the next one a lot more than before.”
Downtime during the Games gave sailors more chances to meet athletes from other provinces and other sports.
“The social part of it, meeting people from all over Canada and talking about how they train, when they train, it’s really cool,” said Conlinmorse, a Wolfville resident who turns 17 in October. “I really enjoy the large-scale event, with people coming from everywhere and everyone is so friendly.
“Pin-trading is a really big thing around here. Everyone is after the Nova Scotia pins. I’ve made a collection of pins from like Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta. I’ve got all sorts of pins.”
Conlin-morse plays all sorts of sports. He gave up hockey in 2021 to focus on sailing, which he joined after the first wave of COVID-19. He’s a competitive runner and also plays basketball. Last spring, he won the intermediate boys’ 400-metre race in the provincial high school track and field championships. Now, he’s gearing up for the school cross-country running season this fall.
Graham is also a multisport athlete. While he plays school sports like soccer, he represents Nova Scotia in his competitive sports of sailing and snowboarding.
“They’re both the same in that, for me, there’s a lot of adrenaline to snowboarding and sailing and there’s speed involved,” said Graham, who snowboards out of Ski Martock in Windsor.
“Another thing is that in sailing and snowboarding, you’re not just on a field. There’s different terrain all the time. Every day is a different experience, rather than like in basketball where you’re just inside. If you’re outside, there’s just a lot more to do, a lot more freedom in the sport.”
Such freedom led Graham and Conlin-morse all the way to the Canada Games medal podium.
Nova Scotia sailors won three medals, including silver for Sullivan Nakatsu of RNSYS in men’s Laser and the Lunenburg Yacht Club team of Kat Lowe and Hailey Nichols in women’s 29er.