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| NOOD Annapolis * May 5-7, 2023 Sailing World's Wayfarer promo Sailing World's report: Day 1 Sailing World's report: Day 2 Peggy Menzies report Uncle Al's report: 11 May 2023 at 1257 hrs |
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New Wayfarers Rocket to the Top in Annapolis NOOD Regatta
After making their Wayfarer debut in last year's HOT Regatta on North Carolina's Lake
Townsend, Maryland's John Driver and wife, Mary, made their second Wayfarer
sortie in the Annapolis NOOD Regatta May 5-7. And a spectacular performance it was! The Drivers (below) who
were seeded 5th in the six-boat NOOD Wayfarer fleet, placed 1-1-1 in
Friday's medium winds and coasted to victory in the six-race series
(one more race Saturday plus two on the Sunday) from there. Needless to
say, John and Mary were the six-boat Wayfarer
fleet's Most Improved team, the first time ever that a team seeded so low in Wayfarers has won an event. Congratulations, Mary and John!
 From: John and Mary Driver Hi Uncle Al,
As
you pointed out, I am from the UK where I grew up sailing Optimists,
Enterprises, Fireballs, Contenders, and 505’s. I came to the US a number of
years ago for my job where I met my wife, Mary, who is from Illinois and
convinced her that she would love sailing. We then bought a keelboat (J105) and
raced her in Annapolis. Having an opportunity to take early retirement, we
jumped at the chance to buy a cruising boat and head across the Atlantic
spending several years cruising the Mediterranean around Greece, Turkey,
Italy, etc. It was a wonderful opportunity and we had an
unbelievable time.
After
returning to the US in 2018 and selling our cruising boat in 2021, we decided
our next adventure would be for me to return to dinghy sailing and for Mary to
begin (learn) dinghy sailing. After a look around at possible boats we decided
that the Wayfarer was the boat for us. We
were then lucky enough to pick up one of the Wayfarers that were delivered to
the US for the World Championships in March 2022.
After
some practicing we decided to head down to North Carolina for the HOT regatta
where we met up with all the local sailors who were extremely welcoming. We
were given lots of help on what makes a Wayfarer sail fast and we were very
pleased to be able to finish mid-fleet. We
are now looking forward to several Wayfarer regattas in 2023 and continuing to
meet other sailors. Best
regards, John Wayfarer
11384 - Sirocco
 (l to r) Peggy Menzies, Will Helmen, Wayfarer Fleet Mom Ali Kishbaugh
Things looked grim for top-seeded Peggy Menzies of Michigan's Crescent Sail YC who had to pick up son, Will Helmen, coming in from Arizona State Unviversity at the BWI airport on Friday morning and missed the race 1 start by two minutes but avoided the start time limit and a DNS by three minutes. After scoring a less than stellar 5-3-4 on the Friday, Peggy and Will rounded into expected form with 1-1-2 finishes on the next two days to take series Silver.
It was Bronze for Lake Townsend's AnnMarie Covington and Gareth Ferguson who ended their series with an impressive last-minute come-back first-place finish the the finale. AnnMarie's LTYC clubmates, Ali Kishbaugh and Mike Sigmund, had an auspicious Friday, scoring 3-2-2 which left them a clear second as folks headed to the bar. But the light, flukey airs of the next two days were less to their tastes, bringing them 6-5-6 finishes and Ali and Mike ended up series 5th as fellow North Carolinians, Richard Johnson and wife, Michele, sailing out of the Oriental Dinghy Club surpassed them for 4th overall by one point.
Still getting used to W10888 Knights of Mayhem,
winner of the 2013 Worlds in Mississauga, Ontario, were Lake Townsend's
Andy Forman and Jason Leblanc who ended up series 6th in this strong
fleet. |
| Wayfarer results complete results |
album from various sources which includes the photos below photos courtesy Ali Kishbaugh    full-size image Wayfarer winners: John and Mary Driver  photos borrowed from Sailing World NOOD coverage             |