The Cottonwood Regatta & U.S. Nationals Catawba YC, Charlotte, NC April 24-25, 2004 Regatta Report by Uncle Al

Flawless Cottonwood Regatta is a great hit again - this time as U.S. Nationals A fleet of 15 Wayfarers from all over eastern North America joined 9 Vanguard 15's and 9 Lightnings for the 2004 Cottonwood Regatta on the lovely waters of Lake Wylie April 24-25, and everyone had an absolutely marvellous time. Super organization spearheaded by Bill Wiggins and - for Wayfarers - Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, made this relaxing yet exciting weekend truly an event to remember and to return to next year. Sunshine and temperatures of 80+F brought an interesting variety of winds which our excellent Race Committee headed by Jolene Rasmussen and her husband, Eric, turned into a fine eight-race series. History was made as the Cottonwood doubled this year as the Wayfarer U.S. Nationals - with great success. Competition was good at every level of the fleet with exciting racing throughout the series. As expected, the series ultimately boiled down to a battle between last year's Cottonwood champion, Peter Rahn with his son, Alex, of Montreal, and defending US champion, Al Schönborn of Oakville with Marc Bennett of Toronto. When the dust had settled, Team Schönborn/Bennett had survived a late Team Rahn surge to win the regatta. The most impressive and heartening performance however, came from London's John and Dolores de Boer who had been sidelined for nearly two years while John awaited and went through double knee replacement surgery. The Cottonwood marked the beloved de Boers' return to action - a long-awaited event in itself. But John and Dolores didn't just participate, they competed at the highest level, scoring 1-2-2-3 in four of their 8 races, and ending up with a solid series 3rd. Having been seeded 6th, this made John and Dolores de Boer our very popular Most Improved team of this year's Cottonwood/U.S. Nationals. Well done, John and Dolores! Saturday's four windward-leeward races began with a somewhat patchy 5-knot NE breeze that turned into a drifter in which only 3 W's finished close enough to race winner, Uncle Al with Marc Bennett, to be counted under the provisions of the SI's. The latter required any boats not finishing within 15 minutes of the first-place finisher to be scored DNF. Our eminently reasonable PRO, Jolene, entertained a request for redress prepared by the venerable John Weakley and endorsed by the four official finishers, and by dinner time, all the DNF's due to the time limit had been reinstated. We all thought this to be only fair since the winds died almost completely right after Uncle Al and Peter Rahn crossed 1-2 in the last gasps of the NE breeze. After nearly an hour's rest, the wind began to return - this time from the south. The start area was moved to the middle of the lake and we were soon - too soon for some, but more of this later - off into 3 -5 knots of S winds for race 2. The winds held fairly steady and increased to up to 8 knots as the afternoon wore on. By just after 4 p.m., we had four races in the books and were more than ready to taste more of the free beer and the delicious results of the pig stickin'. Food and beer were again delicious and it turned into a nice, relaxed social evening for all. Our only disappointment was that the Gum Branch Partners, the super bluegrass group that had performed for us so brilliantly in 2003 was not available this year. We did have music, a nice, enjoyable and unobtrusive mix of favourites from a young man with an acoustic guitar and a lovely way of interacting with us sailors. Bill Wiggins' treasure trove of items from sponsors such as West Marine, Vanguard and Samson Ropes was nicely worked into the latter part of the evening as our guitar player made them into prizes for audience-inspired trivia questions. On Sunday morning, the regatta organizers who had raised more than a few eyebrows with the scheduled 0900 first start, were made to look like geniuses. A lovely southerly 8-12 knots of breeze awaited us and the RC wasted no time in providing us with four more excellent races. A fine balance again as the Cottonwood was kept moving right along and yet one never felt rushed. Amazing! By mid-afternoon, awards had been done and anyone in a hurry was able to get off to a good early start for the - in some cases lengthy - trip home. Beautifully orchestrated, Catawba YC! Our compliments and sincere thanks to all who helped make it happen! The Players: As previously mentioned, the top two spots went to the top seeds with Uncle Al and Marc Bennett edging out Peter and Alex Rahn by a couple of points, while series third went to John and Dolores de Boer. At the end of Saturday's racing, four boats were still very much in the hunt - assuming that there would be a drop race, which would kick in if we completed more than 5 races. John's best three races were 1-2-2 and Al had 1-1-3, giving each of the leaders 5 pts. Peter was sitting at 7 pts. from 1-2-4 but had no bad races he needed to drop, so was leading on total points. At 8 pts. from 2-3-3 was Toronto's Hans Gottschling with Ottawa's Frank Goulay. On the Sunday, Al and Peter really got into high gear, each scoring 1-1-2-2 which left them a fairly comfortable 1-2 in the series ahead of John and Hans. Detroit's Nick Seraphinoff and Joe Blackmore forgot to lengthen their vang with very non-fast results in Saturday's light airs. But they did considerably better in Sunday's more substantial breezes. This enabled them to come from way back to edge out the host team of Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, by a mere two points for series 5th. This maintained Nick's hold on the lovely Designer's Trophy as the top-placed U.S. Wayfarer in the U.S. Nationals. Richard and Michele really had it going in the light stuff, but fell just short in Sunday's increased breezes. Series 7th went to Joe DeBrincat of Walled Lake, MI, who sailed a nice, consistent series with pick-up crew, Paul McVey, and ended only one point behind the Johnsons. All the remaining boats were also teams sailing together for the first time. Charlotte's Joe Spencer teamed up with Toronto's John Weakley to sail his first-ever Wayfarer regatta and placed an impressive 8th overall - right at mid-fleet. Series 9th went to the Georgia team of Morris Metcalf and Bill Waller who were - like Joe Spencer - unseeded, although Mo has had previous Wayfarer regatta experience, having sailed a couple of US Nationals at Tawas more than 25 years ago! An auspicious debut/return, guys! Well done. USWA Commodore, Mike Anspach, of Lexington, MI who usually doesn't rush through his races, got together with new W cruising sailor, Sean Ring of Cincinnati, and promptly became a force to be reckoned with, placing 10th of 15 and beating their 12th seed by two places. Only John de Boer did better than that. There was a points tie at 11th. The tie-breaker went to Catawba's Jim Higgins with Joanne K... of St. Thomas, ON as crew, ahead of Mississauga, Ontario's Roderick Anderson who exhausted Phil Harbin, borrowed from the local club, on the Saturday and had to drag Alan Hallwood away from his picture-taking duties on the Sunday. Another tie at 13th saw Mike Murto and Gale Shoemaker of the Lake Eustis SC, the home of the Wayfarer Midwinters and one of North America's fastest-growing W fleets, edge out clubmate, Jim Lingeman and Australian, John Mitchell, who were also making their Wayfarer racing debut in this tough fleet. Despite beating 10 boats over eight races, the ever-smiling Jim McIntyre of LESC with crew, Alvin Wong, ended up in 15th place. A bit different, sailing those long, narrow lakes, eh, Jim??? Still - as they say - if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger and you learn from it. Uncle Al's Special Thanks to: Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, who again did much of the work so that the rest of us could enjoy a totally carefree regatta with superb food and hospitality Jolene Rasmussen, our magnificent PRO, who along with husband, Eric, spearheaded a race committee that was a model of how to run races where the competitors are #1 professional photographer, Josh Jones, who donated the photo above, and who has 145 Wayfarer racing pics from Sunday's fine winds posted at http://www.blubeacon.com/ where they can be purchased in a variety of formats The Thank Heavens for Tolerant Crews Dept: My gratitude to my fine crew, Marc Bennett, who not only did a masterful job throughout the series but was also remarkably tolerant of several of my gaffes in this series, ones which I hope not to repeat too often. In case others might benefit by avoiding such mistakes, I list my main faux pas: As we were sailing an increasing breeze towards the start area designated for race #2, our course took us along the east shore of Lake Wylie right past the little inlet which is home to the Catawba YC - and the Cottonwood's free beer. Need I say more? "Marc," I said, "look, it's only 100 yards to the nearest dock. You could run in and grab us a quick 6-pack." Marc demurred. "Boy," I whined, "it wouldn't take long at all - look at this nice increasing breeze - and they haven't even set the line yet." Against his better judgment, Marc allowed that it might be doable. Of course, the wind blew us right into the dock, Marc took less than two minutes on his beer forage, but the damage was done. The wind had left most of our side of the lake. We paddled furiously until we heard the second beep, which - God forbid - could have been our prep. We ghosted along in winds that were increasing ever so slowly as we neared the middle of the lake. A start went, and even from half a mile away, we could recognize Peter Rahn making his move into the lead. We arrived just in time for the Vanguard start and gave them a good race up the first beat. Finishing the second beat of race 7, we had a nice lead on Peter, when Al decided to shoot a mark that was a doubtful chance at best. Of course, we hit the mark. Nonetheless, a prompt 360 just past the mark would still have left us with a reasonable lead. Instead, Al got brain fade and instinctively re-rounded the mark as required by the "old" rules, falling behind Peter in the process. This one didn't even have the saving grace of a gain in liquid refreshment! The last one wasn't quite so bad, except that in retrospect, I can't see how I was so dumb. We were approaching Peter Rahn (starboard) on a collision course right near the finish of the last race. Marc was making noises that I later interpreted to mean, "Tack, you moron!" At the time, I was busy bearing away. Alas, once I had tacked, I realized that both Peter and I were in fact overlaying the RC boat at the unfavoured windward end of the finish line, and that by tacking to leeward and ahead of Peter, we could almost certainly have won the last race. Reminds me of one of the first books on sailing/racing I ever read, which started with the dictum: He who makes the fewest mistakes wins the race. How true!

...

2004 Cottonwood Regatta & U.S. Nationals results report photos: Friday - 1 Friday - 2 Saturday morning ashore Saturday pre-race Saturday: Race 1 Saturday: Race 2.1 Saturday: Race 2.2 Saturday: Race 3 Saturday: Race 4.1 Saturday: Race 4.2 Saturday post-race - 1 Saturday post-race - 2 Sunday (incl. awards & home)