...
the George Blanchard Toronto Island Race
Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club * Sat 18 Sept 2010
a brief report by Uncle Al
...
Funck/Wharton again dominate Island Race



As races go, it was distinctly odd, but defending Island Race and reigning Wayfarer North American champions, Heider Funck and Tom Wharton (above), had no trouble pulling a horizon job in this year's event. Saturday, September 18th, the day of the 2010 George Blanchard Toronto Island Race, brought perfect sailing weather to Toronto's Humber Bay: southerly winds of 10 to 20 knots. But there were buts ...

In recent years, this race has been truncated and castrated by the weenies at the Toronto Harbour Commission, who no longer allow us to sail the Race through the Eastern or Western Gap. Instead, we have been sailing/paddling a supremely boring course to a turning mark off the Outer Harbour spit (#2 below) and back. And that was the course this year - for the half dozen or so keelboats plus an intrepid group of very capable paddlers. For the dinghies - 11 Wayfarers and one Laser 2, many of whom were not overly experienced when it comes to racing - Race Officers, Mike Codd and George Blanchard, decided that the gusty winds might well lead to rescue situations that our limited facilities would have trouble coping with over the entire long stretch from TSCC to the Outer Harbour.



Thus, Mike wisely decided to err on the side of caution and limit the dinghies to a buoys-to-port triangle (start-1-3-start above) that would start with a beat (sort of) to the Gibraltar Point buoy (#1 above) possibly followed by a sail to the Dufferin Buoy (#3 above) and back to the finish. In fact, this race turned out to be the ultimate parade as there were no beats and no useful spinnaker legs, with only Uncle Al and his rookie crew, Leah Russell, flying a spinnaker. And even they waited until the last half of the final leg from the Dufferin buoy to the finish, before giving Leah a challenging first spinnaker experience with a wavy close reach.



Ironically, from a pure fun point of view, the race was a glorious sail (see Hans above): Nothing but reaches with lots of planing and surfing but nothing really scary. In a pure boat speed contest, Heider and Tom were challenged only briefly - by Al and Leah who got the best start at the windward end. This was a situation where a superb and experienced crew like Tom was worth his weight in gold, as there was tons of wave sailing and the attended sail playing required.

To the best of my recollection, we (Leah and I) rounded the "windward" mark about 100 yards behind Heider and Tom and about the same distance ahead of John Cawthorne with Lou Scaglione who were in a close fight with Hans Gottschling with Brendan Woods as well as Kit Wallace with George Waller. After last year's Dufferin buoy location debacle, Al should have been ready this year but was not. Like a lamb to the slaughter, Al sailed north from the Gibraltar Point buoy, as the diagram in our Sailing Instructions oh so wrongly suggests. We never did see the Dufferin buoy all day this year, 0 for 2 we were. And I now have both the Gib and Dufferin buoy location programmed into my GPS which I plan to (illegally, by W Class Rules) use withouit fail next year - unless they actually provide mark-to-mark bearings in 2011.

By the time we rejoined the main body of the fleet, we had fallen to 5th, and in the end we climbed back to a 4th-place finish behind Heider, Hans and Kit. John Cawthorne was close behind us in 5th. Placing 6-7 were Tim Bider with his young daughter, Pascale, and Bob Stevenson with Jeff Hocking, both of whom shared in the event's Most Improved honours by beating their seed by an amazing three boats in this small fleet of 11. Also sharing in these honours were the 5th-seeded Hans and Brendan who scored a fine 2nd in this race.

Next across the finish line was the Fred Black/Leo Savitsky team who beat out Hazel Hewitt and crew, Marc Deniverville. After a lengthy absence, Hazel plans to sail her Wayfarer 3469 on a fairly regular basis once again. Great to have you back with us, Hazel. Sailing with new crew, Ernie Hee, Ed Tait placed 10th in his beautiful wooden W825, while Mr. and Mrs. Lacelle, Ted and Sheila, did not finish.
...