Tim Dowling Memorial Regatta
Clark Lake YC * Sept 21-22, 2013
Uncle Al's report
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Another fine Fall Regatta at Clark Lake


The lovely Clark Lake YC put on its invariably fabulous annual Fall Tim Dowling Memorial Regatta Sept. 21-22 in seasonal weather and great winds. Seven Wayfarers joined fleets of Rebels, Lasers, Sunfish and Interlakes plus a lone Mutineer in a six-race series beautifully orchestrated by RO, Mike Smith.

Westerly hiking breezes gave us three fine races Saturday (above) in which Marc Bennett and Julie Seraphinoff (left) dominated with a string of runaway wins. With their confidence buoyed even further by the fact that only two races were expected to complete the no-drop series on the Sunday and that 2nd-place Al Schonborn and Shannon Shank (above right) were sitting with 2-2-3, the leaders decided to try out a suit of new sails in Sunday's somewhat lighter and far shiftier northerly, cross-lake winds.

In a complete reversal of form, Al and Shannon promptly aced the next two races while the Bennetts scored a 2-4, leaving the leaders in a points tie that would have favoured the latter. Enter Mike Smith who decided to give us another race while the lovely sailing conditions lasted, a decision that did not sit well with Team Bennett who were finding their "new" sails far less than adequate.

Still, Marc and Julie were well up on Al and Shannon about half way through the deciding race as they sat 2-3 behind Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale performing consistently well in a Mk IV borrowed from Nick Seraphinoff. But near the second windward mark, Al got a big break from the wind and moved into second place just behind Mike. From there on, the leaders grimly held on through dead spots, 180° shifts, etc. as Mike edged Al by about one length and Marc fell to series 2nd with a 3rd-place finish. While Marc was contemplating a request for redress, Shannon and Al were quietly being thrilled at the greatest come-back in Uncle Al's decades-long racing career.

Not that there was no celebrating among the Wayfarers: Mike and Kirk were giddy with their fine debut Mark IV performance in the series and especially their win in the finale, while Conestoga's Leo and Joanne Van Kampen were happy with their visible improvement each time out since they bought one of the Worlds 2013 Hartleys in August.

The Van Kampens did in fact hang on to series 3rd despite a pair of 5ths late in the series as things got patchier and shiftier. With 23 points, the 5th-seeded Leo and Joanne edged out Cleveland's Tony Krauss and Ken Miller by a single point, while Toronto's Mike Codd with Kirk Iredale's admirable late spurt of 2-1 left them just a point short of Tony and Ken in 5th overall. By placing 3rd meanwhile, Leo and Joanne turned out to be our Most Improved crew as they beat their seed by two places.


New Michigan Wayfarer, Dave McCreedy teamed up with Matthew Romano, one of Nick Seraphinoff's enthusiastic adult sailing students at the Bayview YC and placed an impressive 6th despite a string of misfortunes which included a snapped tiller (thanks to Wendell Ohs for bringing over a replacement on Saturday night!!) and a capsize with fine submarine sequel (above). Dave and Matt looked no less enthusiastic after their various ordeals and we look forward to seeing them regularly at W events!!
FLASH!!! No more submarine scenes for Dave McCreedy who has just bought Impulse W10864 (the Hartley Mark IV that Mike and Kirk were sailing) from owner, Nick Seraphinoff.

Series 7th went to Michigan's long-time Wayfarer, Joe DeBrincat and his son, Jeff. They were seeded 3rd but completed only two of six races this time around.


Nine-boat Rebel fleet produces four different winners in six races!!

It was a very well matched fleet of nine Rebels that enjoyed this series to the max. In the end, rugby ref and Shakespeare actor, Scott Wright and son, Soren, won the series by only two points over Chicago's Wayne Rathbun and his wife, Renee, who were the only top-five boat not to win a race.

The tie-breaker rule was pressed into full service as three boats ended with 23 points and series 3rd. In the end it was local ace, Neil Robb and crew, Nick Tanis, who took the 3rd-place trophy on the strength of a pair of firsts (most firsts, most 2nds, etc.)

Sailing the lovely 4180 which RO, Mike Smith, has just bought from a heart-broken Dan Hockenberry whose knees will not at this time allow him to keep sailing, were Chicago keelboaters, Jarrett Altmin, Jen Hyla and young Dylan, long-standing friends of the Smith family. Sailing Mike's Rebel was - to hear Mike tell it - the quid for the quo that had Mike and family sail Jarrett's yacht back to Chicago from Mackinac. Anyway, the tje two best Altmin finishes were 1-2 which put them behind Neil in the series standings. But that 1-2 was good enough to win their tie-breaker with Brian Nickels and son, Tim, who are sailing the newest Rebel, #4200. Brian is the brother of Dave Nickels, many times Rebel National Champion.

Also among the pre-series fabourites were Larry Schmida and Scott Dowling. Larry has been a fine Buccaneer sailor for decades and showed well here (2-4-2-4) after two early disasters which consigned him to series 6th.

And then there was the Clark Lake team of Woody Woodruff and Bill Locke! How old is Woody? Very close to 90, I believe. Anyway, how can you not love a guy who comes in from the racing and tells you - seriously - his memory was failing and at times he forgot to move to the high side of the boat despite Saturday's blustery winds.

Rounding out the Rebel fleet were a pair of Clark Lake Rebels: Bruce Nowak with Josh Donkin (Josh is engaged to be married to Uncle Al's crew, Shannon, in May 2015! Congratulations, Josh and Shannon!!) and Brian Main with young Evan Dowling who packed it in after a pair Saturday's breezy races.


Three veterans and one rookie in disappointing 4-boat Interlake gathering

The veteran husband-wife team of Bob and Betsy Bradley scored four bullets in the six races and comfortably won their series by four points. The battle for series runner-up went back and forth between Bob Sagan with Jack Coleman and the evil twins, Tom and Tim Marriott, who have been coming to Clark Lake's Fall event for over 50 years. After 5 races, both teams had scored 1-2-2-3-3, so it came down to the finale, in which Bob beat out Tom to take 2nd in both the race and the series. Relative racing infants, Larry Lowry and wife, Julie, of Clark Lake continued their learning process and enjoyed their time on the water in a most exemplary way.


John Lowry dominates Laser fleet with six wins

Speaking of the Lowrys, their oldest offspring, John, put his ideal tall, slim physique to perfect use as he comfortably won all six Laser races. The other three Lasers were very well matched and in the end, Cameron Dowling took series 2nd by a single point over the middle Lowry brother, Justin, who in turn edged out his younger brother, Josh by one point. What fun it was to watch Josh having a great time planing along, capsizing and quickly recovering and so on. You are an inspiration to us all, Josh!!


Gail Turluck come-back falls short as Jim Richter takes Sunfish "gold"

After Jim Richter looked unbeatable with three wins on Saturday, long-time Sunfish veteran, Gail Turluck, won the first two Sunday races and set up a winner-take-all finale. But unlike in Wayfarers, the leader - not handicapped by second-rate sails? - rose to the occasion and won both the last race and the series. Also nicely competitive was Allen Dowling who took series 3rd. Lasting only one race was Terry Klaasen who rounded out the four-boat Sunfish group.

In Mutineer, the father/son team of Bill Harders set a record of sorts by winning their Class without finishing even one race.