13 boats (9 Wayfarers and 4 CL 16's) attended the Wayfarer/CL16 Regatta hosted by the Mississauga SC September 17-18. After an inauspicious (rainy, cool) start to Saturday, the skies cleared and warmed up by our 11 a.m. race time. After that, the weather remained great throughout the rest of the weekend. A series of 7 windward-leeward races in fine light to medium winds saw very close racing as many of the boats were very evenly matched in boat speed.  Al Schonborn and Marc Bennett, who have been well nigh unbeatable in 2005, split up for this event: Al sailed with Tom Wharton as he traditionally does at the MSC event, while Marc helmed SHADES with the inimitable John Weakley as crew (see photo below).


Also splitting up for this regatta were the fast and wily Taylor brothers who each introduced their wives to the joys of Wayfarer racing. Mark, who usually helms the Taylor craft these days, sailed with his wife, Denise Wong in W7673  and was in a three-way fight for the W title all the way. Crew, Paul, showed up on Saturday suffering from the flu, but he and Naomi toughed it out (in Dave Daniel's W4617) and ended up enjoying a fine weekend.


This year's MSC Regatta turned out to be one of the most hotly contested in years as five of the nine Wayfarers were virtually even in the speed and pointing department, a fact underscored by the fact that in Sunday's final race, Al and Tom, Ottawa's Doug Netherton with Françoise Brossard, Mark with Denise, and Peter Kozak with  Matthew Visser all finished within 30 seconds or so of race winners, Marc Bennett and John Weakley. This kind of thing does make the racing a lot more exciting.

And speaking of excitement, four crews were in the thick of the title fight throughout Saturday's four races: Marc and John, Mark and Denise, Al and Tom plus Peter Kozak and Annelies Groen who won race 3, their first regatta race win. Things looked pretty grim for Uncle Al and Tom after a 5th in race 3 in which they were outspeeded and outpointed by their main rivals in ideal winds of 8 to 10 knots. But the veteran team who have never lost this regatta since their first victory in 1988, managed to do enough tweaking and fiddling to win Saturday's finale and jump back into the title hunt in time for Saturday afternoon's dinner and refreshments on the roof of the club.


Sunday morning brought sunshine and a rather patchy and shifty SW wind of 3 to 5 knots for race 5. This proved to be the turning point in the series as Al and Tom played the shifts and puffs like virtuosos to score a runaway win while their closest rivals, Marc and John could do no better than 4th after doing an in-depth study of several large dead spots. The winds picked up nicely to 8 to 10 knots after that, but the leaders were in a groove and won a hard-fought race 6 to clinch the series title.


This left an exciting fight for series second as both Mark and Denise, and Marc and John entered the final race tied at 12 points. The former had possibly the best speed/pointing combination of anyone in the series, a considerable achievement for a novice crew in her first Wayfarer series who was helming all the runs. But in the end, it was the veterans, Marc and John who prevailed and took the "silver medal" when Mark and Denise's gamble on the right side of the final beat did not come through. Still, Mark and Denise (right and left below with Regatta Chair, Scott Hansen) made a most impressive debut as a Wayfarer team as they grabbed a fine series 3rd.


Also looking fast and impressive was Peter Kozak who continues to get great speed from his Mike McNamara-cut sails from Quantum. After a fine set of four Saturday races, crew, Annelies Groen, was unavailable for the Sunday, and Peter had to call on young Matthew Visser for Sunday. A good bit of pre-race spinnaker practice paid off for Peter and Matthew as they held onto series 4th, which made the team of Peter (below, left), Annelies and Matthew our Most Improved crew of the regatta as they beat their seed by two places.


Our Ottawa visitors, Doug and Françoise, continue to make good progress. In this series, they showed excellent speed and boat handling, and took 5th, a mere one point behind Peter. Team Toodle-oo included two fine 3rds and an excellent light-air second in their "résumé". Well done, Françoise and Doug!!


Paul Taylor was also introducing his wife - Naomi - to the joys of Wayfarer racing (above). Despite having the flu, Paul did a great job with a new crew in a borrowed boat - all without any yelling!! - and took 6th overall ahead of his Mississauga club mates, Rodrick Anderson and Rod McIver, and TSCC visitors, Geoff Edwards with Hazel Hewitt.


The rookie MSC team of Mike Collier and his wife, Karen, had trouble keeping up, but had their sails and boat well trimmed whenever we saw them, and by their final race, had trimmed the deficit to much less distance than in the earlier races! Great to have you sailing with us, Mike and Karen!!

A close battle in CL's saw the MSC team of Gary McIlroy with Jennifer Ross (above) prevail over Coburg's Colin Junkin and Heather Wood. These two teams were tied at 1-1-2-2 after Saturday but Gary's three straight Sunday wins settled the issue decisively. Youngsters, Matthew Visser with Taison McIntyre, were having a good learning experience on Saturday until a shroud parted and their mast got bent enough that they had to retire from the series. As luck would have it though, Matthew and Taison still took series 3rd as Stuart and Kathryn Wilkinson only finished two of seven races and ended 4th.

Sincere thanks and appreciation to Regatta Chairman, Scott Hansen, and to his numerous Mississauga SC volunteers, who kept us very well fed and looked after throughout a great weekend!! Kudos, too, to RC Chair, Gord Leachman and his helpers who not only gave us great racing but also took superb pictures of that fact!!