Doering sets sail to Canada Games

Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

Devinn Doering has spent the past seven years calculating a way to dominate the sport of sailing.
With the Canada Summer Games kicking off July 28 in Winnipeg, Doering will represent Alberta as a member of the two-man sailing team on the 29er Skiff boat.
Doering got hooked on sailing when his parents sent him away to summer sailing camps when he was nine.
“I just love the feeling, ripping through the water at 20 knots — it feels like you’re flying,” said Doering. “There is nothing better than being out on the water on a nice sunny day.”
From summer camps, he moved into the world of amateur competitive sailing.
His first boat was an Optimist, an individually operated boat for beginners, which he used to compete in U16 events.
Early on in his career, he competed in regattas close to home, in the Glenmore Reservoir and nearby lakes in Alberta.
The Wild Rose province isn’t well known for its sailing. Being landlocked with smaller bodies of water compared to other provinces, Doering started attending regattas further west. Hitting up the hot spots on the west coast turned his career around. He would travel to Vancouver or Vancouver Island annually for training sessions and to compete in regattas.
All that time on the salt water paid off. Doering built himself a dynasty, capturing the provincial title for three straight years, from 2013-2015.
People began to notice once he established himself as one of the top sailors in the province.
Team Alberta manager Fie Hulsker and Team Alberta head coach Kelsey Stroppel reached out to him one day, offering Doering a spot on their roster.
“There was no qualifying tournament to make the Canada Games team. We contacted him back in 2015 and asked him if he wanted to race with us. He had a new pairing at the time and we thought they were the best crew in the province,” said Stroppel.
His new partner was also cruising solo at the time. Connor Oliveira was born in Calgary, but grew up around the globe. Returning to Calgary, Oliveira was racing laser boats, a common adult racing boat.
“I wanted someone to sail with. I asked him one day at the (Calgary) Yacht Club and he said ‘sure.’ It was that easy,” recalled Doering.
Doering was the skip and Oliveira hung above the water as the crew member. Their first couple training sessions together were anything but smooth sailing.
“It was a complete gong show,” said Doering, who first hopped into the boat with Oliveira two Easters ago. “We capsized at least 10 times. It took us a while to get the hang of it.”
Not just anybody can team up in sailing. There is a certain sweet spot in crew weight that needs to be achieved in order to balance out the boat to excel in different conditions.
That was probably the easiest calculation Doering had to make. Problem solving is no big deal for Doering, considering that he recently graduated from Strathmore High School one year ahead of schedule.
Target tandem weight sat somewhere between 270 to 300 pounds.
Doering tipped the scales at 128 pounds and Oliveira originally clocked in at 180, giving them 308.
“The lighter the boat, the less drag and the faster it will go. But you don’t want the boat too light or the wind will knock you around on stormy days,” said Doering.
Doering could tell that something wasn’t right. So Oliveira cut 20 pounds to make the boat sail more efficiently. Once they figured that out, the results began to pile up.
They won the U17 category in the Sail West championship in 2016, at the same location in Gimli, Man., that the Canadian Games will be held.
The results gave them confidence into the winter, where they knew if they put the work in, the results would soon follow.
That winter they flew out to Victoria to work with Steve McBride, who coached the Canadian Paralympic team to a silver medal in Rio de Janeiro.
“Steve is great. He has years of knowledge competing internationally. He knows exactly what we needed to do to make our boat go faster,” said Doering.
Doering’s boat is humming now. Just last weekend, in their final tune-up event before the Canada Games, Doering and Oliveira placed 16th out of 24 boats at the Van Waves race in Vancouver, beating several B.C. teams. It was their highest finish in a non-age regulated event.
Now that school is out, Doering spends his days at the Yacht Club, working 50-60 hours a week, tinkering with boats and instructing others, constantly trying to hone his craft. He plans to stay with the Yacht Club for another year, while he saves up money to attend the University of Waterloo to study engineering.
In the meantime, the duo shifts their attention to Manitoba and the Games. Any previous regattas they entered in were two- or three-day events. The Games, however, will stretch over seven days.
“It’s going to be physically and mentally exhausting. It will feel like running 10 kilometres a day for a week straight,” said Doering.
For people not familiar with sailing and who don’t think it takes that much athletic ability, take a deep dive on YouTube and look up 29er Skiff race videos.
The south end of Lake Winnipeg, where the race will be held, has been known to have winds reaching up to 60km/hr with 20-foot waves.
“There is so much tactical work that goes into the physically challenging parts of sailing. It’s like playing chess while running a marathon. That’s why I think the sport appeals to Devinn so much,” said Stroppel. “The challenge for him at the Games will be, seeing if he can grind it out mentally, shake off the previous day’s race and find the creativity to work his way through another course.”
Making adjustments on the fly and figuring out wind and wave patterns while navigating through a difficult course should be easy for Doering, considering he just aced his biology diploma exam. Currently, he is waiting for the results on his math and physics diploma to come in, but “has a strong feeling about both of them.
“We are feeling good about the race. We aren’t sure exactly how we will do, but I just hope we can be a contender with B.C. and Ontario teams,” said Doering.
You might be able to catch a glimpse of Doering on TV, as he plans to take part in the opening ceremonies July 28 at Bell MTS Place.