Cottonwood fun exceeds wildest expectations!
the Cottonwood as experienced by Uncle Al

The Wayfarer has landed - with a splash - at the Cottonwood Regatta held April 26-27 near Charlotte, North Carolina. Added this year to what had been a two-fleet regatta held annually by the Catawba YC on Lake Wylie just SW of Charlotte, the Wayfarer immediately became a full-fledged partner in the festivities with 11 entries alongside of 8 Vanguard 15's and 9 Lightnings.

The Cottonwood provided everything a sailor could want: not merely good competitive racing and summer-like weather, but also great hospitality, magnificent food and free beer plus an absolutely marvellous bluegrass band for Saturday entertainment. The whole thing was definitely worth the 1000+ km. drive that 8 of the 11 W's enjoyed to get there.

Much of the credit for luring so many W's so far from home - an amazing feat in these times - has to go to the two local Wayfarers: Richard Johnson and Jim Higgins. Most of us had met these two at the Midwinters and their friendly enthusiasm was definitely infectious (if that term is still politically correct in this time of SARS…) Could we do anything less than enjoy another weekend of racing with our Carolina Wayfarers? 

Our attendance supplied the answer to that one: Wayfarers came out from Montreal (Peter and Alex Rahn), Ottawa (Frank Goulay and Lucy), Lake Eustis in Florida (Mike and Dotty Murto), Michigan (Bob Frick with Peter Every, Hubert and Phyllis Dauch, Judd Lather with Cecilia Potts) as well as the Toronto area (Hans and Mudl Gottschling, Alan Hallwood, Al Schönborn with John Weakley). We even unearthed Windsor's Aaron Law who has been doing graduate work at the University of North Carolina, and who brought along his lovely wife, Dionne, and their lively 18-month-old daughter, Mary.

By the end of the regatta, all of us had enjoyed ourselves so much that we promised to return in 2004 with more Wayfarers. This prompted regatta organizer, Bill Wiggins, to groan theatrically and cry out: "You mean there's more??!!" When pressed, Bill hazarded April 24-25 as a guess for next year's Cottonwood dates. Of course, this is only a guess but it's never too early to make sure that space for the 2004 Cottonwood is ensured on our calendars! And now, more details about this year's Cottonwood:

Quick Chick fails to outrun its Shadow as Rahns win Wayfarers on a tie-breaker!

Peter Rahn and his son, Alex, survived some scary moments on the trip from Montreal to Charlotte and went on to win the first Cottonwood Wayfarer title in a close come-back victory over Al Schönborn and John Weakley in a 7-race series. Peter and Alex almost lost their lovely wood Wayfarer Shadow (not to mention their lives!) when an axle weld on their trailer gave way on the Interstate near Harrisburg, PA. The Rahns experienced first-hand, the amount of helm that can be created by a trailer axle that has pivoted 45º as the car-trailer combo tried to jack-knife. But Peter's cool reactions at the helm got them off the road and stopped safely without damage to W286 and their car. The trailer needed a new axle and wheels which were managed in time to get Peter and Alex into their billet at Richard and Michele's lovely home in Charlotte only about six hours late on Thursday evening.

After getting off to a relatively slow start with a 4th in the first race, Peter and Alex cranked it up a notch, and by the end of Saturday's 4 light-air races, were virtually tied for the series lead with Uncle Al and John Weakley who were sailing El Pollito Rápido (Spanish for Quick Chick). Sunday brought glorious sunshine and perfect sailing winds of 8 to 10 knots, more typical of the April sailing conditions on Lake Wylie, we were told. By handily winning the first of three Sunday races squeezed in by our speedy Race Committee "before noon", the Quick Chick appeared to be losing its Shadow, but Peter and Alex rose to the challenge and beat Al and John in each of the final two races to create a series tie at 10 points. With three firsts to Uncle Al's two, Peter and Alex won the tie-breaker and scored a well-earned series win. Congratulations on a super series, guys!!!

John and Al, meanwhile, were pleased with the performance of their borrowed W3627 which Richard Johnson had bought up north to bolster the Catawba YC Wayfarer Fleet. Al had volunteered to rig the new addition for racing and sail it in the Cottonwood instead of SHADES, and the result for El Pollito Rápido was a very competitive series second.

Third place went to Hans Gottschling and Wayfarer Man, Frank Goulay, who sailed a very consistent series in The Nutshell. Frank and Hans rounded off an outstanding 3-3-3-3-2-3 series with an exciting comeback victory over Peter and Alex in the finale.

A mere two points separated series 4th from series 6th, and when the dust had settled, it was our very gracious hosts, Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele Parish, who took 4th place in Free Range Chickin a point ahead of Aaron Law with Charlie Runkle in Old Leakwood, one of five wooden W's in the series! Aaron and Charlie were one of three boats to beat their seed by one position and could have laid claim to one of the green Most Improved flags, had Uncle Al not screwed up on Sunday's post-race calculations and mistakenly declared the wrong Most Improved winners. My apologies - it must have been the free beer or perhaps that Uncle Al was not used to so much sun and warmth in April!!

Michiganders (Michigeezers?), Bob Frick and Peter Every, sailed extremely well, especially considering their crew age total of over 150 years!! Despite a DNF in race 2 and a "senior moment" in race 6 where they were DSQ'd for crossing the forbidden start-finish line during the race, Peter and Bob ended up only one point behind Aaron Law in 6th overall. Bob and Peter's series highlight came early as they trounced the fleet with a magnificent runaway victory in the first race! Well done, guys!

Topping the three single-handers in the series was Walled Lake, Michigan's 76-year-old Hubert Dauch, who a year ago was at death's door following a botched surgery. Hubie ended up in series 7th with a fairly consistent series that was highlighted by a nice 4th in the third race. Hubert was also one of our three Most Improved. Congratulations, Hubert!!

Pretty amazing how the Wayfarer manages to successfully vaccinate so many of us against severe acute geezerishness!! Sailing Nick Seraphinoff's wooden beauty, Allies, were Judd Lather and Cecilia Potts who usually sail a Lightning and the J-22, Porcine Accoutrements in Michigan. Judd has been our excellent Race Officer in our past two Wayfarer regattas at Tawas, but decided to join us on the race course this time. Their series 8th was deceptive since they only finished 4 of the 7 races - races in which they were most competitive. Cecilia and Judd were further hobbled by the fact that nasty Nick had forbidden them to use his #1 racing sails, the Mike McNamara specials!!

A disappointing series for Catawba's Jim Higgins as he and new crew, Alex Roussel, could manage no better than series 9th, and only one race finish as high as 7th. When one has a disappointing race weekend like that, the regatta becomes less fun - unless there is free beer, fun competitors, great food and fine entertainment - all of which the Cottonwood fortunately provided, and I for one, never saw Jim that he wasn't smiling and looking like he was enjoying the weekend.

Following Jim were a pair of single-handers, Mike Murto and Alan Hallwood. Mike and his wife, Dotty, came all the way up from Lake Eustis, Florida, the home of our Wayfarer Midwinters, and managed an extended stay at the Cottonwood when unusually heavy rains left his camper trailer embedded deeper than a journalist. Being retired, Mike and Dotty don't let this kind of thing bother them, however, and they were easily on their way back home on Monday instead of Sunday.

Alan Hallwood is a keen new Wayfarer from the Mississauga SC who bought Tom Wharton's "other" wooden Wayfarer less than a month ago with a view to participating in the 2004 Worlds. When his intended crew had to cancel out, Alan was not deterred and drove the entire lengthy trip of over 1300 km. alone! Now that is true Wayfarer spirit. Welcome to Wayfarers, Alan!!

Notes:
The Cottonwood is not a good occasion to lose weight. We were extremely well fed throughout the weekend with delicious meals and desserts of every description. And then there were The Gumbranch Partners, a wonderfully authentic bluegrass band that entertained us Saturday afternoon and evening. Unfortunately, we only got to hear their afternoon performance which wafted out to the race course where we were completing our "drifter" of the series. But after supper, we got to be there for the second performance which we all enjoyed. Uncle Al even bought all three of their tapes which we enjoyed throughout our 12-hour drive home during Sunday night and Monday morning. 

Special Uncle Al thanks to:
* Dotty and Mike Murto who had been our Midwinters hosts and brought us a bunch of stuff that Marc and I had forgotten after the Midwinters, and who also delivered a beautiful Lake Eustis SC burgee to mark Uncle Al's induction as an Honorary Member of the LESC
* Richard Johnson, wife Michele and daughters, Alyssa and Emily who made John and me as well as Peter and Alex a part of their happy family and lovely home for the Cottonwood
* Alyssa for giving our Wayfarer a fine name and logo in time for the races
*Emily for being lots of cheerful fun all weekend
*Richard and Michele for supplying the entire regatta with free beer - the delicious Carolina Blonde and Low Down Brown which was not allowed to run out all weekend long!
* the whole Catawba YC for making all of us visitors feel so welcome and at home See you next year!!