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Double
windward-leeward with
gates for all 7 races.
Race
1: Light winds of 4 to 8
knots from
a generally SW direction started us off in 20C on
cold Lake
Ontario
waters after a day or two of
offshore winds as usual brought up frigid bottom
waters from the
considerable depths of the lake. Those with eagle
eyes spotted wind
filling in more from the west side of the course
and headed off towards
the right side where there were more and bigger
windier patches. Uncle
Al and Marc Bennett tacked to the right fairly
early, and moved SHADES well in the
breeze that came and went. They tacked a number
of times on headers or to chase what appeared to
be better wind
strength, and ended up rounding with a comfortable
edge on the Taylor
brothers, Mark and Paul, and
Heider Funck with Tom Wharton, who in turn were
closely pursued by a
bunch of boats. A slow-moving gust cell brought
the pursuers much
closer to Uncle Al, especially John and Dolores de
Boer who had gone
right early in the run and roared through into
second place, only a few
lengths behind Al as they rounded onto the second
beat.
For
Marc and Al, this beat became
a combination of two priorities: find the best
wind pressure and keep a
loose cover on the speedy John de Boer. Both Al
and John found the best
winds quite well by going generally towards the
right side and rounded
with a substantial edge onto the final-leg run to
the finish. About 2/3
down the run, Al met the forecast NW winds of
10-15 knots, doused the
spinnaker and sailed on to a comfortable win over
John. The two Conestoga SC
W's - the Laderoute brothers, Paul
and Alan, and Dwight Aplevich with Al Nichols -
were next in a
close 3-4, just ahead of Roger Shepherd and
Joanne. An
inauspicious debut for several times Canadian
champion, Heider Funck,
who hit several dead spots on his way to 6th while
TARTS champions,
Mark and Paul Taylor languished in 8th place.
Race
2: NW Winds
oscillating off
the shore at 6-12 knots with long gust cells of
15-18 knots. Boats that
held starboard for a few minutes off the pin end
of the line gained
when the wind backed a couple of minutes after the
start. Uncle Al had
tacked early near the RC boat end after a less
than brilliant start.
The lengthy port-tack favouring
oscillation gave him a good chance to boatspeed
test but he rounded 3rd off the first beat chasing
Mark Taylor and
Heider Funck who held 200- and 100-yard leads
respectively.
Not much changed down the first run and up the
second beat but the
final run to the finish heated up the action.
Bringing a gust with
them, Al and Heider closed in on the leaders
slowly but surely. As they
crossed the line in a very exciting finish, Heider
nipped Mark by a
couple of feet while Al crossed third just behind
the leaders'
transoms. Bad news for Heider though, as he had
been OCS (over early)
which left Mark and Al with the 1-2. A close race
among the next few,
too. Paul Laderoute ended up with his second
straight 3rd, ahead of
Doug Netherton with Roger Redwin
who had
their best finish of the series in this race. Nick
Seraphinoff and Joe
Blackmore nailed down a fine 5th ahead of John
Cawthorne with David
Weatherston who completed the top 6.
Race
3: Conditions similar to
race 2.
Mark Taylor again set the pace around the windward
mark with his new
Quantum Mike McNamara design sails, this time
closely pursued by Uncle
Al. A close downwind battle saw Al nibble at
Mark's lead, gaining a
leeward overlaps several times. Near the
gate,
Al went to windward and finally took over the lead
just before the
start of the beat. The close racing continued up
the beat until Al
extended his lead a bit as he got inside on a lift
near the mark. Mark
gave a good chase down the final run, but Al and
Marc were equal to the
task and preserved their second bullet of the
series. Playing the right
side up the second beat paid off for Roger
Shepherd and Joanne who grabbed a fine 3rd ahead
Heider Funck who had to overcome a
sizeable deficit acquired up the first beat. The
Laderoute brothers
were in it once more taking 5th place just ahead
of Peter Kozak with Annelies
Groen who
sailed an excellent race into 6th.
Race
4: Conditions similar to
race 3
with winds dying down a bit towards the end of the
race. Obviously in
tune with the day's conditions, Mark and Paul
Taylor and Al and Marc
again rounded 1-2 off the first beat. The run saw
the Taylors
hold their lead of about five
lengths despite Al's best efforts. It appeared
that Mark and Paul had
cemented their second victory of the day when they
sailed a superb
second beat and stretched their lead over Al to a
couple of hundred
yards. The latter in turn was holding a solid
second. This caused him
to consider straying from the straight and narrow
- his usual path down
the run's rhumb line - as both Mark and Al were
sailing in a relative
lull to start the final run. Al spied extra
ripples well off to the
right - a good 300 yards. After a brief
discussion, agreement was
reached that we would sail about 20° high of the
rhumb line on
starboard to see if we couldn't get into better
pressure. Luck was with
us as the pressure picked up shortly afterwards.
As soon as we got well
into the wind, we gybed
back towards the rhumbline,
sailing low of the line to try to
stay in the wind streak. The Taylors "boys" were
getting closer and we
wondered why they weren't coming out to grab some
of that wind we were
getting for themselves.
Then we saw why:
the 3-4 boats, Heider and Paul, were roaring in on
a big gust coming
off the TSCC shore. "I hope we haven't just traded
a 2nd for a 4th,"
muttered Marc. The Taylors,
meanwhile, were in a dilemma:
The gust off TSCC looked stronger and closer. So,
they held on and
waited… and waited… Finally the TSCC gust petered
out. By the time a
fresher breeze reached Mark and Paul, Al and Marc
were bow to bow with
them as they passed the gate marks. "I think the
pin end is closer,"
said Marc. "Gybe ho," replied Al. Marc had been
right. The pin end was
closer, and Al snatched a certain win from the Taylors by
a mere metre
or so. The lads were - justifiably - not pleased.
They had sailed a
great race and had been put into an impossible
situation. Heider ended
up taking 3rd ahead of young Paul Laderoute while
both Doug Netherton
and Nick Seraphinoff ended their day on bright
notes taking 5-6.
Sunday:
Generally westerly
winds blew a
parade of clouds across a cool blue Sunday sky.
Mostly hiking strength
winds with regular overpowering gusts thrown in
for chuckles.
Race
5: Heider cleverly
started near the
pin end at full speed while series leaders Al and
Mark got less than
great starts. Al got slaughtered after misjudging
an RC boat end start
attempt and ended up in the third row of a two-row
start. He finally
cleared his air by tacking and quickly bearing
away to pass astern of
the starboard Peter Kozak, only to discover Tim
Bider tacking just
where Al had been expecting to go. But at least Al
had the brains to
bear away and dive through to leeward of Tim
instead of tacking or
pinching up into hopeless backwind situations with
Peter or Tim. While
Heider romped along in clear air, Al and - to some
degree - the Taylors
had to eat left-overs
up almost the whole beat.
The bad news was that we were down around 10th
place as we began the
run, but the good news was that there was a big
clump of boats who had
rounded just ahead of them. Mark wisely chose to
go low after rounding
about 50 yards ahead of Al, but the latter -
having discussed the
matter with Marc as they were dawdling towards the
windward mark - went
one better and did a gybe set around the mark,
getting immediate clear
air while Mark and the others fought each other's
wakes and wind
shadows. By the leeward gate, Al had moved into
3rd place just one
length behind John and Dolores de Boer and more
importantly, just ahead
to Mark who was having
to battle several
nearby boats.
A crisp rounding of the right-hand mark let Al get
into clear air to
windward and astern of John. A subsequent
starboard tack knock reversed
the positions as both John and Al tacked. Both had
gained on Mark who
had chosen the left-hand mark at the gate. In the
end, Heider
comfortably held his lead over Al while Mark came
back to take 3rd
place ahead of Dwight Aplevich and John de Boer
who had been pushed
left to escape Al's backwind and lost a fair bit
of ground when he held
his tack for some distance. The Netherton/Redwin
team continued an impressive series with a
6th-place finish.
Race
6: Winds up
slightly. Another
misjudged start for Al who "goosed it" too soon
and ended up having to
slow down and die in Heider's backwind right off
the start. By the time
Al was able to tack to clear his air, Heider was
well on his way to
another win. Luckily for Al, the Taylors
had not distinguished themselves
with a brilliant start, either, and Al was able to
grab 2nd place ahead
of Mark to clinch the series victory and the 2004
Canadian title. Hans
Gottschling and Pedro Santos had themselves a fine
race and ended 4th
ahead of John de Boer and Peter Kozak who
completed the top 6.
Race
7: Conditions similar to
race 6 - until the new air mass arrived
with a rush of 18 knots and long
gusts of over 20 as the fleet neared the windward
mark. A super pin end
start by Paul and Alan Laderoute contrasted nicely
with another sloppy
effort by Uncle Al at the other end. Meanwhile,
Roger Shepherd and
Joanne had Invasion moving full blast, and
with the
Laderoutes suffering a puzzling case of the slows
despite their great
start, and Heider in pain from his recent hernia
operation, no one was
left to challenge them, and they were nearing the
windward mark with a
nice lead when the 20+ knots hit. Mark and Al were
by this time
fighting it out for 2nd along with Mike Codd when
the blast came. How
strong were the winds? Well, Al was just hanging
on to leeward of Mike
Codd and Kirk Iredale
when a real gust
hit. While big Mike and Kirk merely leaned out a
bit harder and went
faster, Al and Marc nearly came to a stop as Red
Top rolled on
by. And this was a rare moment when neither Al nor
Marc objected to
sailing in disturbed, diminished air! "Hmmm," said
Al - a loud "hmmm"
due to the noisy winds and Marc's severe hearing
loss - "do you suppose
we should forego the spinnaker?" "Let's wait and
see," said a cautious
Marc.
I recall us rounding 3rd, just behind Mark and
well behind Roger,
though I have trouble seeing how we could have
re-passed Mike and Kirk? Anyway,
the wind having veered as
well as bulked up, a gybe was in order to start
the run which was now a
broad port reach. Word is that Roger and Joanne
went against
conventional wisdom which dictates that you should
let those chasing
you take the risks first. Instead of waiting to
see if Mark or Al would
risk the spi, Roger hoisted the spi, an exercise
that took him well off
the rhumb line before discretion overcame valour
and the spi came back down. But by this time, Mark
and Al were taking
turns planning past each other down the rhumb line
even without the
help of a spinnaker and Roger's trip off the rhumb
line had dropped him
to 3rd place. Two other brave spinnaker
experiments ended in frigid
swims: Doug Netherton and Roger Redwin,
and Nick Seraphinoff and Joe Blackmore. Nick wins
the award for daring
however. "We were going great under the
spinnaker," Nick recalls,
"until the gybe…" Meanwhile, back among the
chickens, Al finally passed
Mark near the gate. Neither ever considered taking
the right-hand gate
which John Weakley had so thoughtfully favoured by
a few boatlengths.
Who needed the extra gybe??!!
A
hard-fought beat up a changed course saw Mark go
left near the mark and
erase a slight Uncle Al lead with a daring
port-tack approach.
Unfortunately for Mark and Paul, the wind chose
the moment of their
tack to take things to a new level and they were
flattened while Al
sailed delicately through the narrow gap between
the tip of their mast
and the mark. A dead run had too many death roll
possibilities for Al's
liking so SHADES was steered 30°
high of the rhumb
line and then gybed
for the finish line in
a (relative) lull. For a moment or two, Marc and I
even considered
finishing under jib alone. In the end, we had a
good lively ride to the
finish and an even better beam reach plane back
into TS&CC. Mike
and Kirk powered their way to a fine 2nd with
Roger and Joanne holding
on to take 3rd. 4th went to John Cawthorne and
David Weatherston ahead
of the ailing Heider Funck while Hans Gottschling
completed his series
with a solid 6th.
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