Uncle Al & Son score comeback win

TS&CC's annual race around Toronto Island was held Saturday, July 9th in warm sunshine and exciting winds. With the participants' unanimous, enthusiastic approval of a Tom Wharton suggestion, this race will henceforth be known as The George Blanchard Around-the-Island Race. Once more, the race's 1 p.m. start followed the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club's annual sailpast, by which time the winds were gusting to over 20 knots, and at least two of the 11 Wayfarers sampled the restorative waters of Lake Ontario during their circumnavigation. Actually, it was very nearly a fleet of only 10 W's as Uncle Al hoisted his mainsail and only then discovered that he had lost the gooseneck off his brand new Proctor mast somewhere on the road. He and Tom Wharton hunted high and low in the boat park and in Tom's locker for an emergency replacement but it soon became apparent that the new design was rather unique and not easily substituted for. Al was about to give up his sailing for the day but decided on one last forage. He struck gold in the east parking lot where he spied a green Abbott Mk III with spreaders just like Al's new ones. A quick peek under the cover revealed the right gooseneck as well, which we duly borrowed for the race (and re-installed afterwards).

Shortly after the keelboats' 1 p.m. start, the dinghies (i.e. 11 W's) set of on the course shown above. Race Committee chairman, George Blanchard's first half-mile beat from TSCC mark #1 to mark D announced at the 1130 competitors' briefing had become a close reach (see photo below) by race time.

This little fact, alas, escaped Uncle Al's notice. He blithely assumed mark D would be upwind and got an uncontested RC boat end start. A few seconds later, the horrible truth dawned as he and son, Dave, peeked under the jib and saw Alastair Ryder-Turner and Kit Wallace leading Heider Funck and Brian Hickman on the straight-line course towards D, about 20º lower than Al had been sailing. Alastair ended up rounding onto the run towards Toronto Island's Gibraltar Point just ahead of Heider and Kit, with Al lying 4th, about 50 yards back, and just ahead of Dave Platt.

The first entertainment was provided by Kit and his new crew, Bastian Pfannkuche, recently arrived from Germany. Kit gybed with a bit too much gusto, did a U-turn, and went swimming. The leading boats soon decided the port tack run was preferable, and after the gybes, the spinnakers went up despite some scary gusts (see photo above).  Alastair and crew, Cindy McLaren, did well sailing the rhumbline, and were holding their lead nicely over Heider Funck with Tom Wharton as they passed Gibraltar Point. Meanwhile Al and Dave, spinnaker and all, had trouble pulling away from the spi-less Dave Platt with Ann Spence for the first half mile or so. But in the end, the spinnaker did make a difference, and it had become a three-boat race for the lead by the time we rounded the Point.

But wait - make that a two-boat race: in seemingly benign winds of about 8 knots, Alastair and Cindy were suddenly capsized about 200 yards in front of us - it must have been a very weird gust. Now Heider and Tom had the lead, and Al and Dave were faced with the daunting task of trying to make up a deficit of nearly 200 yards on Heider who is an excellent front-runner and nearly never caught once ahead. I recall saying to Dave - more to keep our spirits up than with any real hope: "Well, it's a good thing that we don't need to be ahead of Heider and Tom until the very end of the race!"

As we neared Centre Island, our first ray of hope appeared when Heider spinnakered into headwinds and a dead spot which allowed us to close much of the gap when we managed to douse early and sail around the worst of the calm. In the next mile or so to the Eastern Gap, the winds became very light and variable, conditions that are known to frustrate Heider. Giving these shifts our utmost concentration, Dave and I managed to get into a position where first we, and then Heider and Tom would get the wind and the lead. But on balance, we gained a bit in each exchange. By the time we reached the much anticipated Eastern Gap where we hoped the wind-blocking effect of the Island would end, we had established a few hundred yards of lead. The first part of the Gap had virtually no wind but the good news was that there was lots of wind visible on the water further up, and in the Bay, as far as we could see - whitecaps, even! It was here that we met much of the keelboat fleet who had been given the option to round the Island to port or starboard.

Soon we were hiking, grinning from ear to ear, as we beat up into the Bay and crossed most of it on a long starboard tack with only the occasional wild gust/shift to worry about. The wind remained healthy the rest of the way, giving Heider and Tom no chance to do to us what we had done to them: catch up when the leader hits the doldrums. In the end, the only other boat in view as we neared the finish line was the keelboat winner, Rob Logan's Soling, which had gained only one minute on us since our start over two hours before.

In the end, Heider and Tom rolled in second while Alastair and Cindy made a most impressive recovery after their capsize to place 3rd. It was a fine race for our only visitor, Brantford's Brian Hickman. Sailing with John Bouckhuyt (Brian's daughter, Crystal's boyfriend), the 7th-seeded Brian took 4th place so that he and John were one of our two Most Improved teams. Well done, guys! Next came Fred Black with a new crew whom he knows only as Sarah. Fred and Sarah edged out Sid Atkinson with Jeff Lepper. The 6th-place for Sid meant that he too had beaten his seed by three places and tied Brian for Most Improved honours - no small feat in these tough sailing conditions for a guy in his eighties who can barely hear and see!!

The new team of Dave Platt and Ann Spence was next across the line, holding off Kit and Bastian (above) who had finally recovered from their early capsize. The remaining three teams were sailing mostly for the fun of going around the Island on a lovely summer's day. Two of them were making their racing debut: Annelies Groen raced for the first time in John de Boer's old W6090 with Reg Bunt, while Ken Devlin made his long-awaited Wayfarer racing debut with crew, Dean Buskirk. Taking it easy with veteran poise and guarding our rear were Ted Lacelle and his wife, Sheila.

A fine day was completed with well earned thanks to George Blanchard and his committee, with the Wayfarer awards for first through 10th, and with a delicious burger/sausage barbecue. Do join us in 2006 - the event welcomes all Wayfarers and there is no entry fee!