Uncle Al,
A hard copy is nice but I thought I would
send along the typed copy of the article I wrote for the newspapers -
Sault Star and North Shore Sentinel.
I will still send alone the copies once
accumulated.
Donna
SCHONBORN
DOUBLE AWARD WINNER
By
Donna Schell
Award winning skipper
Al Schonborn sailed to victory with two trophies and a handful of
cheques in his first ever Can Am CL-16 White Sail Regatta.
Schonborn and crew member Marc Bennett of Pickering
scooped up the Can Am CL 16 Regatta Cup, the newly introduced Hilton
Beach Cup and $3,400 from a possible $7,500 in total prize
money.
Schonborn won all five races, three on Saturday and two Sunday.
“It was a good
weekend for sailing,” Schonborn said following the race. Schonborn one
of 24 registered skippers said the secret to his victories were the
winds off the shore. “That’s my kind of stuff,” he said adding crew
member Marc Bennett and tactical strategies were contributing factors
to their wins. Schonborn and Bennett, 45, who started sailing when he
was seven have teamed up together for the past 15 years. “We are pretty
used to each other and travel well together,” Schonborn said. “Marc is
fun to sail with. Like me he is very mellow.” Before Bennett,
Schonborn said his wife Julia crewed with him for 10 years.
Prior to arriving on
St. Joseph Island late last week, the only image the 64 year old
Oakville man had of Hilton Beach was from its website and the only
communication he had from his fellow sailors of the North Channel Yacht
Club of Desbarats was also from its Internet. He said he was
pleasantly surprised with the friendly and helpful community, and how
the small number of club members were able to pull an event of this
caliber together in just a few days prior to the regatta. In his
home town, Schonborn said a weekend regatta would draw about 14
entrants.
The retired high
school French and German
teacher has been sailing since 1954 and sailing with the Wayfarer, a
copy of the CL-16 for 40 past years. Schonborn did not sail in
the weekend regatta with the Wayfarer but a CL-16 as required in the
racing rules.
“I am a Wayfarer
sailor for life,” he said “If I don’t win, I am a graceful
loser. I won’t give a win away; you’ll have to earn it.” He said
he stopped counting after having won more than 20 North American
championships. This year, Schonborn has competed in sailing
events from North Bay,
Ont. to Orlando, Fl.
Schonborn sails much of his summer weekends when not competing in a
race of some sort, on Lake Ontario and is familiar with the choppy
waves, similar to those sailors faced at the start of the fifth race
Sunday.
Commodore Mason
Phelps Jr. of the NCYC of Desbarats said the overall event was
successful. The wind conditions were perfect and participants found the
race course more challenging, Phelps said following the race. Phelps
also attributed the success of the regatta to the community, businesses
and municipal council of Hilton
Beach each
complementing the other. “The regatta has grown in leaps and bounds
with several improvements implemented this year over its premiere event
of 2004,” Phelps said. New to the regatta was a race commentator
on board the committee boat. Phelps pointed out how pleasing it was to
see the number of young people participating in the regatta. “We’re
bringing up a whole new group of sailors,” he said.
Other overall winners
included: In second place Steve Macklin. Third place 2004 winner
Jim Hill. Fourth place Kipp Sylvester. Fifth place was
Peter Foster. Sixth place went to Al Gawthrop and seventh to
Elizabeth (Becky) Sylvester.