The annual Clark Lake Fall Regatta was held Sept. 22-23 south of Jackson, Michigan, about an hour and a half west of Detroit. In lovely contrast to the black clouds left hanging over our minds by the terrorist insanity of September 11th, this weekend provided a cheerful chance to get away from all that.

In addition to the marvellous Clark Lake hospitality, we got fine warm sailing weather. Unfortunately, the RC was maybe a bit too relaxed for most racers' tastes, getting in only three races in ideal winds that could easily have permitted five races. CLYC Commodore, Dan Hockenberry, has however assured us that next year, every effort will be made to get all five scheduled races in. The latter is a thought that found favour with all the Wayfarers - especially Al Schönborn's crew, John Weakley, who was heard to remark that we had spent only half as much time racing as we did on the road getting to Clark Lake!

With many people still getting over the shock of September 11th, regatta attendance was down somewhat - especially in Wayfarers where we only had five crews enjoying the event. Uncle Al and John Weakley were the only Canadian guests this year as the prospect of hours of waiting at the border daunted the others who usually go. And even Al's regular Clark Lake crew, Marc Bennett, decided that he didn't want to try using his Jamaican passport under the circumstances.

The SHADES trip began right after Al had dropped his kids off at their respective high schools on Friday morning. After some heavy rains near London, Ontario, we had a pleasant trip and began to get the half-hourly border wait reports on WJR Detroit. These indicated a three-hour wait at the Bridge, a one-hour wait for the Tunnel and no delays at Sarnia. We almost decided to make the detour via Sarnia but finally opted for the tunnel. In the end, we spent only half an hour in the Tunnel. The checkpoint was a bit different with two guards at each gate - one well armed and sporting a Kevlar vest. Most of the vehicles just in front of us underwent some kind of search but John's optimistic view that we'd sail right through (so to speak) turned out to be right on the money. 

In fact, we even got a gentleman with a sense of humour. After explaining our weekend destination, we were asked if we had anything to declare. This made Al remember out loud that he'd forgotten to bring beer. "Well," smiled the guard, "you guys can't be sailors!" And he waved us through.

We were now early enough that we decided to take the scenic route along M-12 south of I-94 through the Irish hills of southern Michigan. Despite some heavy rain showers, we arrived in Clark Lake just after 3 p.m., the earliest Al has ever arrived there. As it was pouring when we neared the club, we made a detour to the Beach Bar and waited out the rain. The rain held off for most of the rest of the weekend after that but we did manage to hit the Beach Bar and the Eagle's Nest a few more times.

The racing was fun for all even though Uncle Al and John Weakley were clear winners in all three races. Among the other four, things were considerably more exciting but in the end the team of Joe DeBrincat and Mark Olsen scored three seconds while Joe's Walled Lake neighbour, Hubert Dauch and his crew of Robert Svensson, took three 3rds.

Cleveland's Bob Emans with Tom Reed were a welcome sight amongst us as Bob took time off from his newly acquired "big" boat to sail Corinthian once again. Bob and Tom broke a 4th-place tie with a 4th over USWA Commodore, Mike Anspach, and his rookie crew, Ted Hall, in the final race to capture not only series 4th but the green Most Improved flags for the event.

Ted Hall and his wife, Linda, of Bloomington, Indiana have bought a partly completed Wayfarer kit and drove 6 hours just to see and meet some other Wayfarers! In fact, it was a bumper weekend for meeting and welcoming undiscovered Wayfarers. 

On Saturday at lunch, we met new W owner, Mike Loviska, who sails W2940, a beautiful composite Mark I built by Avon Sailboats of Michigan in their Wayfarer heyday - a boat that Uncle Al actually borrowed a few times in the mid 70's from builder, Gene Smyers.

And after Saturday's racing, we met W2980, Elaine Seroka and Tom Czarnik, who - like Mike - sail their Wayfarer on a small lake just east of Clark Lake. Elaine proudly pointed out that she had sailed her W over 70 times in the 2000 season but that this year had been a bit off - yielding only 55 Wayfarer sails!

Well done, everyone! It was a pleasure to be with all of you and we'll look forward to seeing you - and lots more Wayfarers - at Clark Lake next year!