Hilton Beach PMG CanAm CL 16 Regatta
once more a magnificent success

The third annual PMG CanAm CL 16 Regatta was held Aug. 12-13 in beautiful Hilton Beach on St. Joseph Island at the west end of the North Channel (just east of Sault Ste. Marie) (see Jake Cormier photo above which shows the leaders returning from the final race). To go with a heaping helping of fine social events, we were treated to two fine, sunny sailing days which tested the entire range of sailing skills: light, medium and breezy airs while a tack-by-tack description of each of the five races was broadcast live to spectators on shore at the Hilton Beach Marina. Four guest Wayfarer helms were made most welcome this year, and left their mark in the 18-boat fleet: in addition to Uncle Al, Wayfarers were represented by Mike Codd and the all-helm team of Andrew Haill (Thunder Bay) and Dave Hansman (North Bay).

Uncle Al and Marc Bennett sailed a lovely boat borrowed from Regatta Chairman and principal sponsor, Mason Phelps Jr.  to another convincing victory, albeit a much more challenging one.  Marc and Al, current holders of all four major Wayfarer titles (they are North American, U.S., Canadian and Ontario champs) took home a whopping $3400 share of the generous $7500 purse, as they again won all five races in the series.

The battle for series 2nd was far more exciting, going down to the wire before Kipp Sylvester and his wife, Anne, of the local North Channel YC took the runner-up spot counting 4-3-2-4 finishes. A mere two points back in series 3rd were Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale of the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club who sailed Kirk's cottage CL which Marc and Al used last year.

Only a single point behind, in 4th overall, were the local favourites, Jim Hill and his wife, Alice. The Hills sailed an extremely sound series with fine pointing as a very visible strength. However, they saved their best performance for the final race, a competition for the Hilton Beach Cup and a winner's purse of $1200, which they seemed poised to win until Uncle Al and Marc snatched the victory from them in heartbreaking fashion (for Alice and Jim, that is - it is after all, an ill wind that blows no one good!)

Hilton Beach Cup produces the most exciting racing of the 2006 PMG CanAm Regatta

This race had a strange beginning when the 12 to 18-knot "lake" breeze that seemed to have settled in for the afternoon suddenly died about a minute and a half before the start gun. A healthy-looking batch of ripples was very slowly and tantalizingly working its way across the course towards us from the SE, but most of us were left to wallow enviously as the two teams who had gone for the left-hand pin end of the line, Colin Junkin with Heather Wood, and Jake Dann with son, Jesse, romped to the early lead in a very healthy hiking breeze.

Unfortunately for Colin and Jake, even this new breeze had more holes than Swiss cheese, and lots of shifts as well. After finally limping over to the new wind, Uncle Al and Marc sniffed the shifts and puffs with championship ability, and passed the early leaders about two thirds of the way up the first beat. Things were looking great for Al until he glanced across at the right-side boats which were now on a huge starboard-tack lift in tons of breeze. 

So, we rounded 6th and settled in to the daunting task of trying to use the next two reaches to try to make inroads on the featherweight team of Steve Macklin and his young but oh so capable son, Andrew. They had been very fast on last year's reaches, and repeated their depressingly fine reaches this time. By the leeward mark, the Macklins had, if anything,  added to the healthy 120-second lead they had carried onto the reaches.

Looking for bright spots aboard our boat, Marc and I consoled ourselves with the fact that we were now lying 2nd, and that the winds were perfect catching-up winds: patchy and shifty. On the second beat, we kept a jaundiced eye on the right corner while trying to nibble away at the Macklins' lead as the shifts and puffs led us on a centre-left trajectory. Near the end of that beat, we were fortunate enough to sail into a nice lift that moved us past Steve, only to discover that Jim and Alice had milked the shifts and puffs even better and would round in first place.

So, an exciting stage was set for the spectators as Jim rounded only a couple of lengths in front of us with the ever speedy Macklins lying a threateningly close 3rd. With the puffs coming up from astern, Jim and Alice had a tough time holding off Uncle Al who moved into a brief lead only to have Steve and Andrew motor on past into a lead they would hold around the leeward mark and onto the final beat.

With the winds remaining shifty and gusty, the race for the Hilton Beach Cup (not to forget the $1200!!!) was still wide open with only about 100 feet separating Steve, Jim and Al who rounded onto the deciding leg in that order. Steve seemd to quickly get out of phase with the shifts, and halfway up the final beat, the battle for the lead was, in essence, reduced to Jim vs. Al, with Jim and Alice tenaciously clinging to a lead ranging from one to five boatlengths.

A couple of times, Al tacked quickly on a shift, hoping to get past Jim, but the latter was truly in tune with the wind shifts on this leg, and both times gained by holding on into a bigger header before tacking onto the correspondingly greater starboard lift. Both times this happened, Jim went further to the right side than we had, so at the next opportunity, we crossed behind Jim on port and went further to the right. This nearly worked. A good thing, too, since we were fast running out of time and distance!!


About 200 yards from the finish (see diagram above), we tacked onto starboard towards the line, expecting to underlay it by about 20 yards. (I don't think metric when stressed!) Wisely, Jim, who was now to leeward and ahead of us, tacked to port while he could still cross us, which he did, but only by about three feet. Jim then tacked on the layline and the stage was set for a nailbiting finish: Al had to pray that he'd get enough puffs to pinch up to the mark, i.e. that he'd be able to finish without having to tack. Jim had to pray that there would be no lifts or headers, and that Al would need to tack to reach the finish line. In the latter case, Al would most likely have to bear away behind Jim (the starboard tacker) and leave Jim and Alice to win the race.

But none of this ended up happening! When Al glanced aft, Jim was sailing a beam reach across Al's wake. It turned out Jim had fallen, coming out of his fast tack, and lost the tiller at the worst possible time. It was something that Marc and I really hated to see happen to someone who had sailed so excellently all race long. Congratulations on a super race, Jim and Alice!!

Meanwhile, back in the series standings, the team of Becky Sylvester and Kim Wood, representing the North Channel YC, were nearly unbeatable in the lighter winds but an 11th and a 9th when the breezes got stronger, left them in series 5th, only two points out of 4th. For Becky, her 5th overall represented a tangible improvement over her series 8th last year! Well done!!

Glenn Penner of Winnipeg was registered and eager to learn more this year but hit a deer and had to turn back. He was apparently planning to get a replacement car, but sanity prevailed: word is that Glenn would have been pressed to arrive in time for race 1 and would have had to really push to get back to Winnipeg early on Monday so that he could immediately drive his family to Banff in Alberta. Next year, Glenn!!!

The real CanAm fun began on Thursday night when North Channel YC Commodore, Mason Phelps Jr. invited regatta participants and families to dinner at his "camp" (photos below) as they call their summer homes in this neck of the woods.


A great time was had by all. An Uncle Al aside: Shortly after the above photo was taken a cold front roared in from the NW, and Marc and I spent an interesting night in our tent. Our campsite in the Hilton Beach Trailer Park, while one small step (good luck, Mr. Gorsky! - in joke) up from Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale's site atop the septic tank, was all gravel underlaid with mostly rock (photo below).


Thus our fly sheet was held up all night by only four bungee cords at the corners of our tent, and it funneled the 30 knots of breeze through the huge side vents (great for hot nights but on this night it went down to 4C, not counting the wind chill!) at a rate that might have let a CL plane! But at least our body weight held the tent down. And we certainly had no trouble waking up in time to be waiting as Anne's Café in Richards Landing opened for their delicious breakfast at 0700 hrs.

And Marc and I needed that nourishing bacon and eggs feast since Friday was "coaching day". In hopes of enabling out-of-towners to benefit from our seminars, Eric Kirby had scheduled all four sessions for the Friday.


We began at 0900 with an onshore session dealing with the do's and don't's of rigging, tuning and sail shape (above) and followed up with some Marc and Al roll tacking demos off the marina's main dock. After a lunch break at the Tilt'n Hilton, it was on to upwind strategy as per the material you can see by clicking here. Another (beer) break ensued - except for Marc who was sharing his considerable mark setting expertise with the CanAm mark setters.

Then it was Bob Tisdall's turn to shine as he ran a slide show of CanAm 2005 sailing pictures which Uncle Al used - as diplomatically as he knew how, and still a tear ran down Three's face, as I recall! - to point out examples of good and bad sailing form. We were, I think, nearly done, when the lovely Becky Sylvester was sent to gong me because I was beginning to run into the Official Reception time. Dejectedly, I turned away and consoled myself by wolfing down a bunch of delicious munchies and used a "beer" ticket or two that had come with our entry.

I was impressed that so many fellow sailors bore with me and Marc through the day's marathon. And Marc and I were really pleased that on this weekend, the boats were being sailed in a visibly more efficient and eye-pleasing manner. That made us feel really good, even though by the end of Friday, we were ready to collapse into "bed" at an unconscionably early hour. In fact, we abandoned the delights of the Hilton by 8:30 p.m. Fortunately, the winds were light and we had no wind tunnel in our tent this night.


After three interesting races in light to medium air, Saturday was topped off by a Sailors' BBQ in the Hilton Beach Town Hall: more masses of great food, beer and wine and a lovely band (above - with Becky Sylvester in the pink top sitting in for a few songs) plus the opportunity to see slides of the day's racing courtesy of Jake Cormier, and more lovely paintings by local artist, Doug Hook, not to mention lots of chatting with fellow sailors and their families. A great, fun evening for young and old!


Marc's coaching was not yet done though: on Sunday morning before race 4, he went aboard at least two boats to do some sail critique (see Steve Macklin photo above where Marc awaits his pick-up by Uncle Al which reminded Steve of someone waiting for the bus!). Two more races followed - right on schedule, and then the awards ceremony and lunch followed promptly to let those who needed to, get away in good time. Marc and I got the royal treatment later that afternoon as Jim Hill and Eric Kirby gave us a fascinating guided motorboat tour of the area's sailing waters plus their "camps". What a wonderful way to wind down! Thanks, guys!!!

On behalf of my fellow competitors, I sincerely thank the 2006 PMG CanAm Regatta's main movers: Mason, Eric and Jim, and the many, many other people who made everything run like clockwork and gave us all a lovely weekend that I for one, will never forget!