|
the
MSC Wayfarer/CL Regatta
Mississauga
Sailing
Club * Sept.
12-13, 2009Regatta Report by Uncle Al ... |
|
Spectacular weather blesses our
Mississauga
SC W/CL Regatta!
13 entries (10 Wayfarers and 3 CLs) got 2009's best weekend of sailing weather on September 12-13 as we sailed in Mississauga's annual Wayfarer/CL16 Regatta. Like always, the hospitality and committee work were great, and the entire 7-race series went off exactly as scheduled: four races on Saturday and three on Sunday in winds of 5 to 15 knots and sunshine most of the time.    Deserving special mention were our visitors from the Conestoga SC, Leo Van Kampen and his wife, Joanne (above). Despite Joanne's recurring bouts of sea-sickness as the Van Kampens sailed in the Lake Ontario chop for their first time, Joanne and Leo not only stuck it out but also beat their computer-predicted 11th by a mammoth four places to be our Most Improved team of this event. Again, thanks a ton to our hosts who gave us a spectacularly enjoyable event! (more complete list being awaited!) photography: Iza Hansen, Gord Leachman, Bob Tier, Uncle Al Race Committee: David Whyman, Jack Hayward, Scott & Iza Hansen, Christine Borgundvaag, Anna Wharton, Gord Leachman Registration: Iza Hansen, Lindsay Storey Food: Rod McIver, Scoring: And
here is the weekend that was - as the photos remind me of it!!
 Saturday morning arrived sunny and fairly warm for mid-September. The welcoming team from MSC was on duty good and early with Bill Taylor, father of Mark and Paul, guarding the gates to the harem (above) as always.  The spacious public ramp parking
lot provided plenty of room in which to rig up for the day's planned
four races. On the far left above, you can just see the regatta being
ruined for one sailor who was "on call" for the weekend. That sailor
was David Platt (below, right) who
explained his impending departure to the Taylor brothers.
  The Ryder-Turners are about to make use of one of the finest launch ramps we see all year.  Bright-eyed and beautiful, our
registration team of Lindsay Storey and Iza Hansen (r) are ready to spring into
smiling, helpful action. We can and do also thank Iza for the many
great shots
she got for us of the racing, including lovely close-ups.
 Making their Wayfarer racing debut were MSC's Bob Brown and his daughter, Deborah.  A pleasant surprise from the past
was Bob Tier who plans to revitalize W299 for a second time, twenty
some odd years after he and Dave Thorn showed up with their beautifully
re-done wooden W at a Nationals in the early 80s, a Nationals where
they did very well, too! Dave not only got to look at some other nicely
race-rigged wooden W's (above)
but also went out and took great race pics for us on the Saturday.
 Only Gary McIlroy was blessed with a "coach" for this event: the younger sister, Christine, of his crew, Emily Borgundvaag. Lucky, lucky Gary!!  Around 10 AM, our very capable
PRO, David Whyman, called us to order for the
Skippers' Meeting in the comfortable main room (below) of the MSC as Marc and
Julie scrutinized the remains of the free breakfast provided by
our hosts.
  We were now eager get out and do
battle in the four scheduled races in nice hiking breezes from a
generally easterly direction. The course format for all the races was
the MSC standard set-up of a double windward-leeward with a windward
offset mark, but no leeward gate, given the very manageable fleet size.
 As is often the case, Lake Ontario looked deceptively mild and flat in this breeze that was angled slightly off shore as can be seen by the angle of the moored boats above. Race 1:  Jack Hayward not only let us use his lovely Burgundy Jack as the main Race Committee boat but also provided himself as the chauffeur!  It was a lovely, warm morning to sail on Lake Ontario with the Toronto skyline in the background with ...  ... the winds a perfect strength.  About a third of us got off to
lovely starts with both of the favourites, Al Schonborn (l) and Mark Taylor (7673)
leaving the line in good shape. At the windward mark over Mark by a
length or so. The long-established and finely tuned Taylor machine
popped the chute on the reaching offset leg while the less practised
team of Al and Nick played it safe by putting off their hoist until
after the gybe onto
the run ...
 ... a move that enabled Al (red spi) to defend the left
(mark-room) side of the first run in this very close race. Close behind
and fighting over 3rd at this point were Alastair Ryder-Turner and Marc
Bennett (3rd and 4th from left),
with most of the rest of the fleet closely bunched. Interesting to note
that Sue Pilling (pink and white
spi) will end up finishing this race in 3rd place. What a
come-back!
 The chop was bouncing the spinnakers around a fair bit and keeping the crews on their toes - and in at least one case, making the crew sea-sick.  Here Iza has captured beautifully the close-action excitement on the latter part of the first run. Meanwhile, at the leeward mark ...  ... Al (3854) and Mark (7673)
have just rounded 1-2 with Al perhaps two lengths ahead. On open water,
these two have settled into a pattern that if one takes the lead,
that's it for the race, i.e. whoever gets ahead, stay ahead! But here,
that is about to change. Mark tacks right at the mark, a move that will
very shortly prove extremely fortuitous since the wind is about to veer
50° and let Mark lay the windward mark from right where he is now.
Of course, had Al been paying better attention and noticed the shift
sooner, he could have footed down over Mark. But no, Al and Nick were
...
 ... otherwise occupied. At
precisely the worst possible time, the tack pin of their mainsail came
out, and instead of just letting crew , Nick, deal with "repairs" in
his own sweet time, Al could not resist "looking over Nick's shoulder"
when he should have just put the matter out of his mind and
concentrated on where and how fast he could go. By the time the pin was
re-inserted, we looked up to realize we had been lifted by the
aforementioned 50° and had been overlaying the mark for some time.
We had not given away much but it was fatal as it allowed ...
 ... Mark to get his bow out in front of ours, backwind us, and ...  ... move into first place.  This view from the leeward mark
towards the windward mark shows how the wind had clocked enough to let
us all overlay the windward mark without tacking. Now the erstwhile
reach to the offset mark had become a run, and the Taylor "boys" wasted
no time in ...
 ... trying to stretch their very
narrow lead over Al and Nick (3854). Again opting to postpone their spi
set until after their gybe at the offset mark, the SHADES team became a comedy of
errors as we had tangle after tangle while Al sailed a run to help Nick
with that little matter. Of course, this leg was by now a reach and by
the time their spinnaker was up and working ...
 ... Al and Nick (2nd from left) had left Mark and Paul (l) to romp home in a veritable horizon job.  At the finish it was Mark Taylor
winning by a comfortable margin over Uncle Al while Sue Pilling and
Steph Romaniuk completed an impressive come-back with a 3rd ahead of
Marc Bennett with Julie Seraphinoff (4th) and John and Dolores de Boer
in 5th.
Race 2:  Similar winds but wave action
slowly increasing. Nick and I (3854) decided that the "pin end" was
favoured enough to warrant our getting into the risky mess at the leeward end. We generally do not
like starting there when it is clearly favoured since one tends to be
at the mercy of people screw it (and us!) up. And even if somebody ends
up having to do turns, getting fouled on line tends to be a very costly
business, especially on open water where come-backs are rare. A
textbook start for Nick and Al here: Rob Wierdsma (7372) is very well
positioned above but has had to bleed off almost all of his speed and
will, as the next three pictures show, be hard pressed to scrape past
the mark.
 On the start line, it truly is "every
man for himself", "kill or be killed", and here Uncle Al (3854) is in the
process of "sacrificing" Mark (7673) and Rob (7372) even though they are his good
friends: by speeding up, Al is pushing both boats into moving forward
sooner than they want to. Mark (7673) must keep moving so that Al
(3854) can't get a leeward overlap and them push Mark up into an OCS.
Rob, too, is in a no-win situation: if he does not keep moving, both
Mark and Al will have taken his wind just when Rob will need to pinch
around the mark. Colin (CL1820) meanwhile, daring young lad that he is,
no doubt dreams of port-tacking the fleet, something he has done
spectacularly in the past. Failing that, he no doubt hopes to find a
gap in the starboard parade and tack into it.
 Still about three or four seconds
to go til the "gun". Colin tries to tack into a hole that really is not
there, and is next seen heading off to do his penalty turns (below). Meanwhile, with nowhere
else to go, Mark (l) has
already crossed the line early and is starting a tack that will let him
go back and re-start (below)
correctly. As I recall seeing it, Rob (7372) will be right beside the
mark when the gun goes and will ...
 ... also end up having to re-start
after just squeezing past the mark without touching it. Taking the not
quite so risk-laden start usually recommended by the pros was Sue
Pilling (397) and she looked good for doing so above and subsequently
at ...
 ... the windward mark where she rounded a close 2nd to Al and just ahead of Marc. It was on this beat that the wind began to fade ever so slightly in certain areas. When the spinnies went up ...  ... at the start of the run, Al (r) looked poised to sail into a
big lead as he was sailing far nearer the rhumb line than his nearest
pursuers - l to r: Alastair,
Marc, Sue, Mark - who were pushing each other well to windward of said
rhumb line in hull speed conditions that could be expected to reward
shorter distance sailed.
 Anna Wharton had kindly driven
the Wharton-family Whaler, the former Killick
at the Port Credit YC, over from Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club to
act as an extra safety/photography boat, in this case chauffeuring our
other prolific photographer, Gord Leachman, who found good, exciting,
close action throughout the fleet. Here the two Friesians, Rob
Wierdsman (7372) and Jpohn de Boer (7351) are fighting it out while Leo
(9667) wisely tries the leeward passage.
 On the first run the wind
definitely showed signs of dying and now the spinnakers' role has
become more important since boats are not sailing at hull (= equal)
speed consistently. So that even Daniel's unique jib winging efforts
won't be enough to let 7372 keep up.
 Surprise! Surprise! Who should come out of the four-boat pack behind leader, Al, but Mark Taylor who has ...  ... moved into a clear 2nd while amputating much of Al's (3854) lead on this run where the Taylors (7673) have quite clearly outperformed all the rest of us.  As the four leaders - l to r: Mark, Marc, Al, Sue - are
about to round onto the second beat, the wind has clearly continued to
drop unlike the wave action as can be seen from the bow-up attitude of
3854. In writing this report over two months after the fact and without
any notes, I recall clearly that Nick and I were the beneficiaries of
two giant horseshoes that kept us from losing both race 2 and race 3 to
Mark and Paul. I believe the one that rescued us on this beat was this
one: To the best of my recollection, we let the Taylors split tacks
with us and by the time we followed suit, they came back, crossed and
sat on us. A tacking duel then went on until Mark gave up and let us go
near the starboard layline. By now the winds were shifty and patchy but
we were generally making equal speed with Mark being about 50 yards to
leeward but 100 yards ahead. I only looked over once in a while,
relying on reports from Nick while concentrating on boatspeed in the
difficult light winds and chop conditions. "You've gained," announced
Nick. I looked to where Mark had been but couldn't find any sign of him
- until Nick said, "There!" and pointed abeam. We were now about
100 yards to windward and slightly ahead. Mark had sailed into a big
dead spot that we had luckily avoided in these choppy conditions that
made it so hard to read wind on the water! Sailing into that hole,
dropped Mark and Paul into 3rd place behind us as well as Sue and Steph
by the end of beat #2.
 Nearing the end of the second run
and the finish line, the top four of were closely bunched in slowly
decreasing wave action. Al (red spi) again defended the left side of
the run, mostly to have the starboard edge over boats he might meet on
the way to the finish. In the photo below, we can see Al and Nick just
cross the finish line in first with the race for 2nd still up in the
air as Mark and Sue head for the line nose to nose. Note how below,
both Nick Seraphinoff (red spi) and Paul Taylor (blue/white) could be
used as illustrations of good downwind spinnaker form where the pole is
supposed to be far enough forward to let the foot of the spi be
perpendicular to the water. Steph Romaniuk (pink/white) meantime has
his pole way too far aft causing the spi foot to point into the boat.
Who knows if that was the reason that Mark edged Sue out for 2nd place
by mere inches. A sign of the seasoned pro: right after a very
disheartening piece of bad luck, the lads just put it out of their
minds, concentrated on speed on the run and caught the very speedy
downwind aces, Sue and Steph!! Alastair (above, r) and Dave took 4th place
ahead of Marc Bennett and Julie who rounded out the top five in this
one.
 Race 3:  I believe we had a 20-minute
on-the-water lunch break after race 2 which we - and the wind - used to
re-energize, and we were soon off in about 8 to 10 knots of easterly
breeze. Surprisingly, neither of the two leaders chose to go after the
other: for Uncle Al (3854) one trip to the pin end was enough for now,
but Mark (7673) was willing to give it another go. Ditto for Rob and
Daniel Wierdsma (7372) who ...
 ... got the perfect pin end start, hitting the line at full speed just about one second after the "gun" (above). In fact, we looked pretty good as a group on this start, off David Whyman's beautifully squarely set line.  An inauspicious start for John de Boer in this race where he has the proverbial "second row" all to himself!!  Bob Tier's reverse angle view of the start shows that the winds were not very strong, perhaps 5 knots?  A number of us held starboard off
the line until the proverbial "cows came home". Al and Mark, tied for
the series lead, were content to speed test against each other - a
roller-coaster ride if ever there was one as the wind began to increase
but came along in shifty streaks so that first one and then the other
appeared to have taken the lead. Finally, Mark hit a knock that he
couldn't refuse, tacked and barely crossed Uncle Al. The latter thought
we had been gaining on the fleet by going left and so held starboard
for another 100 yards or so before tacking pretty close to the port
layline. When we were perhaps 300 yards from the mark, Mark tacked
across, crossed us with a bit more room to spare than last time, and
tacked where he was supposed to: right on our wind. For once, I tacked
without even waiting to see if perhaps Mark's rudder might fall off or
some other possibility equally pleasant to contemplate. My crew, Nick,
expressed a certain amount of oral displeasure at the lack of
preparation time. We went across for perhaps 50 yards, just far enough
to (a) be able to tack without falling immediately into Mark's
backwind, and (b) to reach the dreaded layline where I am always
preaching "nothing good ever happens to you, other things being equal".
Doomed to second place, Nick and I were hoping against hope for a smile
or even just a wink from Lady Luck as we nursed SHADES the final 200 yards to the
windward mark in winds that had once more turned a bit anemic. Well,
Lady Luck didn't just smile on us, she grinned, laughed out loud,
perhaps even guffawed: While we continued in a decent breeze that
was allowing us to still lay the mark, Mark and Paul had sailed into a
different streak of wind that headed them perhaps 20°, but they did
not tack, thinking perhaps that only another minute or two would see
them able to tack and lay the mark without tacking twice more. Stuart
Walker, as he so often does, has this situation covered: If you see a
guy to windward and astern significantly outpointing you, you should
tack to ensure that you get your share of his favourable wind slant. Be
that as it may ...
  ... Marc Bennett (864), Kit Wallace (1037), John de Boer (7351) and ... ... Al and Nick (red spi) rounded onto the run with the lead over Mark (7673) with Rob Wierdsma and son, Daniel, (7372) having kept pace impressively with the two speedsters, and lying a clear 3rd above, with ... ... Marc Bennett (864), Kit Wallace (1037), John de Boer (7351) and ...  ... Sue Pilling (397) in close pursuit!!  Note that Uncle Al (3854) was again sailing the rhumb line while boats astern were once more sailing each other up high of the rhumb line which will result in ...  ... Al (l) and Mark pulling into a significant lead as they neared the leeward mark and ...  ... rounded onto the second beat.
Not about to give away another lead if he can help it, Al (3854) keeps
a close eye on Mark (7673) who once more tacks pretty much right at the
leeward mark - a good time since in this race, there was lots of room
to tack before 3rd-place Marc and Julie (r) arrived at the leeward mark.
 Waiting only for a relatively flatter spot wave-wise, Al and Nick tacked smoothly. Of course, the pressure was not on quite as much as this telephoto shot's compression makes it appear. The real situation was more like ...  ... this!! Al's slightly delayed tack
has paid off insofar as he does not have to sail through the wind
shadow of the four boats contesting 4th place - l to r: John and Dolores de Boer,
Kit Wallace with Peter Kozak, Sue Pilling with Steph Romaniuk, Rob and
Daniel Wierdsma. To make matters worse for Mark, Al seems to be getting
a lift that Mark has yet to see.
 4th place is definitely still up for grabs as (l to r) Sue, Kit, John and Rob round the leeward mark.  As Ed Dragosits (l) and Scott Caple can attest there were still lots of moments when the wind gave us a great ride, and the waves were still always a factor to be reckoned with.  Scott Hansen took over his wife's camera on one of the photography boats with very satisfying results: his wife, Iza (r) and Christine Borgundvaag.  Just before the finish: Al and Nick won the race to take over the series lead, while Mark and Paul (white and blue spi) remained right in the hunt with this 2nd just ahead of Marc and Julie. Race 4:  By now it was getting close to 3
PM and so warm that Daniel Wierdsma decided he needed a swim before
race 4 action heated up. At this point, the wind had in fact pretty
much died, and few of us held much hope that it would revive. Oh ye of
little faith, somebody up there might have said. A very light new
breeze came in off the lake - a thermal perhaps? I seem to recall that
our RC was set to send on a beat to the SE, postponed, tried a beat to
the south, didn't even start our countdown, before they and the wind -
such as it was, perhaps 2 to 4 knots? - settled on a beat into the SW
where the wind held up surprisingly well and easily let us complete the
final scheduled race of the day. Nick and I (2-1-1 finishes) - and I
dare say Mark and Paul (1-2-2 finishes) as well - had a pretty simple
strategy for the race this far into the series. The way we saw it, only
Mark was a real series threat to us at this time, so we did not need to
worry about picking the right side of the beat to sail to or any of
that esoteric stuff. No, Nick and I simply hoped to - as I like to put
it - follow Mark Taylor from in front, i.e. we would go wherever Mark
and Paul went but try to go there a bit sooner!
 Here we were nicely into the last
minute of our countdown, bouncing around in significant chop but not
too much wind. Still, it was eminently sailable as can be seen by
W397 (Sue Pilling) and CL2679 (Gary McIlroy). I will always recall this
race as one of my more elegantly sailed races ever. To look at us
above, the situation did not look excessively promising - blocked off
from the start line by Marc (864) and Mark (7673). However, Nick and I
(3854) cleverly got out of there just in time while Mark (7673) was
completely stalled in Marc's (864) wind shadow.
 A few seconds later we have popped through to leeward, luff up to close the gap between us and the RC boat in order cut off Mark in case he should speed up and try to pass.  With the gun about to go, we have gently sheeted in - not too far, speed is the #1 priority in this chop - and ...  ... get a flawless start at "full" speed, one that even Picky Nicky admired! (Nick often expresses the opinion that my starts are no dashing enough for a sailor of my calibre, or words to that effect.)  As my former crew used to say,
much to my delight: "They're off like a herd of screaming turtles!"
Note the well rounded jib luff entry on 3854 due to a fairly loose jib
halyard. The intention here was to widen our groove in these light-air,
bouncy conditions.
 Poor Mark (7673) had gotten so
stalled on the line that Sue (397) came in late and just cruised right
on past. Meanwhile, Marc (2nd from r)
had chosen to sail down the line but as so often seems to happen, the
boats further down the line from Al seem to be knocked in relation to
3854, something that can be seen even more strikingly ...
 ... in this reverse angle shot taken by Gord Leachman. Note how Al (3rd from l) and Sue (6th from l) are pointing a good 60° or more higher than Kit Wallace at the pin end!  It took experience and finesse to
move well upwind in this chop. Nearest the camera, Mark and Paul have
tacked in a search for clear air, so we can look for Al to follow suit
as soon as he's found a relatively wave-less spot in which to
roll-tack. Sure enough, there he ...
 ... goes. The rich get richer! Both Al (r) and Sue seem to have sailed into better pressure as the pros say. We are, of course, concerned about staying ahead of Sue here but the big series threat is still ...  ... Mark Taylor who here
brightens the day for Gary McIlroy and Emily Borgundvaag (CL2679) who
can cherish the fact that they were well ahead of last year's Canadian
champs at this point. For Nick and Al, the fact that the Taylors have
tacked presents a dilemma. Al knows he should tack to cover and
methodically protect his by now two- to three-hundred yard lead. It's
all he really needs. But, both
Nick and Al agree that it looks like a significantly better breeze is
filling in from the right side. The source of much of Al's wisdom, Dr.
Stuart Walker, has said - and Al agrees: "Don't be greedy!" But here, greed
won out (Sorry, Stuart!) and we held port for another five minutes or
so before we figured we were into the new wind enough and ...
 ... tacked. This shot by Iza
Hansen actually illustrates two useful things apart from Uncle Al's
snazzu Wal-Mart swim trunks: 1. note how easily I can judge how
far in my main has been pulled - block-to-block minus three inches
right after the tack is ample tension in these winds, I would
say. 2. As geezerishness takes hold of our here 68-year-old
bodies, comfortable sailing plays an ever more pleasant role in our
racing. So? I hear you say? So, I have taken - accidentally at first in
this series - to resting my extension tiller on the far deck and lean
on it as I stand up. Ah yes, laziness is indeed next to godliness!! A
note here: it wasn't until two weeks later at the Pumpkin Regatta that
I had my first accident with this system: I didn't place the tiller on
the far deck quite properly and it slipped off the deck just as I waxs
putting my full and considerable weight on it. Fortunately my reflexes
are still reasonable and I stopped my prattfall with my nose just short
of splatting itself on the far deck.
 Near the windward mark, Nick and Al were into the fresher breeze (note spray under bow) and well ahead as they rolled into the first windward mark.  A quick mini-reach to the offset mark and then ...  ... a gybe before the spinny goes
up. We have talked over the run strategy and see no reason why we
should not do Al's buoys-to-port usual: defend the left (facing down
the run). Not only will that give us mark-room at the end of the leg,
and starboard if we should need/want to gybe towards the rhumb line,
but here it will also take us west where the better pressure has been
up to now. Of course, we won't sail any higher than necessary to defend
the left against either our nearest comptitors or Mark Taylor, our main
series threat. One last thing: This picture illustrates the huge
difference made by apparent wind: While Gary and Emily in VAMOOSE VI are essentially adding
their boat speed to the wind strength, Al and Nick are subtracting
their boat speed from the wind strength by running away from the wind.
The visible difference in pressure is striking, isn't it? First time
I've ever really noticed this in a picture. Boy! You never stop
learning in sailing!!
 After being down a bit in the early going, Alastair and Dave (10137) have come back nicely and round a very close 3rd, just behind Sue and Steph. Looks like John and Dolores (r) are next in line.  Alastair (green hull) rounds the
offset mark just astern of Sue in Chich
(397) where Steph is about to do the "chucker" as Mike Mac likes to
call it: crew throws bundled spi up and forward on the windward
side and prays that the helm will be fast enough on the halyard to keep
the spi out of the water!! Needless to say this requires helm/crew
co-ordination!! Al and Nick are aimed nicely down the rhumb line but
have gybed to port and are ready to defend their left side as needed to
remain between their nearest pursuers and the leeward mark.
 A wider-angle view of the winward mark/offset mark area shows Al and Nick (red spi) doing a good old-time horizon job while the 2-3 boats, Sue and Alastair are in turn well ahead of whoever will eventually round 4th.  The wind continues to pick up a
bit as Alastair (10137) luffs up during his spi hoist to keep clear of
the oncoming starboard boat. In the middle we can see Scott and Iza
Hansen with Christine Borgunvaag nicely positioned to catch the action
as to assist in the very unlikely event of a capsize.
 There was, as can be seen, quite
a group of contenders for 4th place at the end of the first beat: (l to r) Colin Junkin with Heather
Wood, Rob and Daniel Wierdsma, John and Dolores de Boer, Mark and Paul
Taylor (7673) and Marc Bennett with Mrs. Bennett.
  At the offset mark: (l to r) Mark, Colin, Marc, Rob (hard to figure out what he is doing? penalty turns??), Alastair and John  Turn-about is fair play: Earlier
we saw Gary with sails straining due to going upwind while Al's sails
languished as he ran away from the wind.. Now Al and Nick have already
begun their second beat with lovely apparent wind, while the spinnaker
boats have to bounce and dawdle along - a tough spinnaker day for
the crews it was!!
 On this run, Mark Taylor (7673) made the best of a bad situation by moving past several boats into 4th place here. Once more, the winds held up surprisingly well, when many of us were pretty sure we'd end up in a drifter!  Gord Leachman captured Al and Nick nicely backlit as they completed their second beat, still with a very healthy lead over the fleet.  As Sue and Steph near the end of their beat, Nick and Al nurse SHADES and her spinnaker towards the finish line which will mark the end of the day's racing and beer time for Al and Nick.  Well! Alastair and David have
moved past Sue and Steph who likely should have covered but did not. If
ever there was a classic covering imperative, this was it: Rounding a
clear 2nd onto this beat, Sue had virtually no hope of moving up into
first and very little likelihood of losing to the 4th-place boat which
was well back. In a word, she needed to work on keeping her 2nd by
covering or at least going with Alastair.
 Nearing the fiinish: Al and Nick took a stranglehold on the series with their runaway first ahead of Alastair and David Ryder-Turner who in turn beat out Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk.  My goodness, you may well wonder,
is that the new tea,, Bob and Deborah Brown rounding in 4th??? Alas,
no. Even though their sail and boat trim look flawless here, Bob and
Deborah re-discovered the age-old truism that new racers get good in
medium airs first, then in heavier airs, but learning how to sail the
light stuff takes the most skills. Not to put too fine a point on it,
Bob is finishing his first beat here. And it appears that Marc has
reclaimed 4th place from Mark.
  Some more lovely spinnaker action shots from Iza (below) as (l to r) John, Mark and Marc are virtually dead even!!   Al and Nick nail down their third win of the day  Alastair and Andrew took 2nd as mentioned, followed by ...  ... (l to r) Sue with Steph, Marc with Julie and Mark with Paul in that order. All of the above boats have finished in a lovely breeze that was surprising us pleasantly by gaining in strength.  Still on the job: Gord Leachman and Anna Wharton  I do hope that this was after the race. While Ed and Scott (CL2412) take the more traditional approach to sailing back to shore, Rob Wierdsma takes his son, Daniel, tummy-surfing. Post-race:  Haul-out was quickly accomplished and foillowed by surreptitious beers and the usual burgers and sausages feasr. We sadly have no pics of the post-race feast; everyone was too busy eating, I expect. I know I was!! Sunday ..  Sunday morning arrived relatively
cool and cloudy with an off-shore breeze but things warmed up as the
day wore on. Long-time Wayfarer, Alf Easy (l), who had taken the de Boers out
for dinner on Friday evening, was there again to see John and Dolores
off.
Race 5: ...  This was to be another perfect sailing day but unlike yesterday, the winds were coming off the shore which reduced the wave action and created a day of oscillating shifts (as normally happens with an off-shore wind).  On a pretty square line, Al (port tack, middle) has decided to go for the boat end which will give him the freedom to tack when he wishes - an important consideration in these oscillating winds.  An odd start here by Sue and Steph (l) with still about a minute of countdown to go.  At the gun: We came in a bit late
at the RC boat so as not to be caught barging and were thus in perfect
position to hear 7673 (Mark and Paul) being recalled. They,
unfortunately, did not hear their recall and their well earned win in
this race became an OCS.
 With major shifts, gusts and dead
spots scattered across the course, all one could do was stick as much
as possible to the lifted tack (and avoid being trapped in the "no
tack" position!) Here Sue and Steph are riding a lovely port lift in Chich early in the first beat.
Actually, the next few pictures show how wildly the shifts of up to
40° can affect the sailing angles and relative positions:
 Perhaps half way up the beat, Al (l) and John (7351) appear to have a secure lead over Sue (r). But while those two went left, Sue held port and the next thing you knew, she had finally tacked and ...  ... was now ahead of John (7351) and about to starboard Al (3854) who is already in the process of ...  ... bearing away - note the eased
mainsail to avoid having one of those horrible windy air conditions
collisions that are so often caused when a helm tries to bear away
without easing the main, heels a lot, and finds his rudder unable to
fight the heel/weather helm combination caused by the strong breezes.
Al could easily have lee-bowed Sue as he approached on port, but would
then have been controlled by/at the mercy of Sue who would have ended
up to leeward and astern which would have prevented Al from tacking
until Sue chose to tack away. In the end, Al tacked on a header not
much after crossing behind Sue. When Sue sailed into a flat spot not
much later, Al got much of his earlier lead back - though his gains
were not enough to pass ...
 ... Mark (r) who in fact was leading here on
the first run - note apparent mast height - while Al (red spi) and
Alastair (l) were fighting it
out over 2nd place. Note the evidence of gusts on the water in which it
paid to sail down with the gusts and up a bit in the lulls.
 The fight over 4th was close
though here again, apparent mast height suggests that Sue (pink/white
spi) is in control at the moment. Considering that these photos were
taken by Sunday's sole photographer, Gord Leachman, near the leeward
mark ...
 ... we can see that Sue is
certainly sailing amply up in this lull, a bit extreme in this much
wind for my taste. By the end of the race, Mark
crossed the finish line perhaps 50 yards ahead of Al, only to be
greeted by an ominous RC silence, When Mark was OCS, Al was scored
first while Sue and Alastair took the 2-3 spots, while John and Dolores
de Boer (3rd from right) and
Marc Bennett with Julie Seraphinoff (4th
from right) rounded out the top five.
Race 6: ...  Same wind, same line, same course: two windward-leeward sausages.  The start flag has just come down. A beautifully judged and executed start for both Colin Junkin (CL1820) and Marc Bennett (W864) as well as ...  ... Leo Van Kampen (9667). And Uncle Al (3854) is where he wants to be: next to the RC boat so that he can tack more or less at will. The only other clear-air boat off this start was Gary McIlroy (CL2679).  I seem to recall that Marc and Julie (2nd from r) rounded off the beat with a narrow lead over Al (red spi) who in turn was concentrating on ...  ... beating Mark (2nd from r) which was more or less
all he needed to do to clinch the series title. Here, Al (r) went away from the rhumb line
far further than he usually does - note the windward mark near the left
end of the pic above. But the good news for Al is that at least Mark is
"taking him" ...
 ... to the left side of the run which leaves Al in line for starboard against any other boats he may meet later in the run plus at the mark, he'll be ...  ... inside for mark-room. As I
recall, this was where I got lazy/greedy: I hoped that we (red spi)
could sail this little distance by the lee and thus gain on Mark (7673)
and Marc (864) by saving ourselves a pair of gybes. Alas, right near
the mark - two lengths? - while Nick was dousing the chute, we
got a gust that gybed us violently and ended up wedging Nick and his
half-doused chute rather roughly against the leeward shroud. Nick
loudly proclaimed, "Will no one rid me of this boom??!!" or words to
that effect (apologies to whoever wrote Murder in the Cathedral).
Subsequently, Nick understood and heartily approved my decision not to
gybe immediately and end up on the wrong side of the mark. A few
seconds of pain is far preferable to either one of us than losing
distance in a race!!! Still, by the time we got ourselves untangled,
Mark and Paul had gone around the outside of us with fine speed and
moved into the lead.
 A head-to-head battle ensued between Mark and Al, with lots of boatspeed-testing opportunities. Near the windward mark, Mark (7673) pinched off Al (3854) and forced him ...  ... tack away - right into a nice port-tack lift! By the time Mark tacked to cover, Al's slant had passed and Mark ...  ... ended up falling into Al's backwind. Subsequently Al and Mark rounded off the second beat and the offset leg lying a comfortable 1-2, positions which they held ...  ... down the run to the finish.
Sue Pilling (397) moved past Marc Bennett (not in this pic) to place 3rd and
pretty much clinch a "bronze medal". Rounding out the top five in
another close race were Alastair and Andrew Ryder-Turner (r).
Race 7:  Just after the "class flag" was
lowered to signify the start of the race, we were off in rather lighter
winds than they had been earlier. Having clinched the series, Al and
Nick (3854) decided not to bother fighting over the windward end this
time, and to try a (for them) rare mid-line start instead, something
they have done very nicely here. Nick and Al hit the line on time with
good speed and ...
 ... were looking quite good (l) within seconds. Having every hope that the next wind oscillation should be a knock since starboard was currently in its favoured phase, Al and Nick felt that things looked auspicious indeed.  And sure enough, we sailed into a
major knock, tacked, and should have crossed Mark (3rd from l) by miles as soon as
our shift hit him. But no,
instead, we sailed back into Mark's wind and had to tack back due to
the knock and Mark's on-rushing starboard-tack bow!!
 As can be seen by looking at the
boat on the left above, our side of the course often looked grim, with
the boats that had gone far right poised to destroy us. But the final
shift and laugh went our way, and in fact, Mark (7673) rounded first
with Al sitting a respectable 2nd, perhaps 50 yards back. By the time
we reached the leeward mark and were starting the second beat, Mark was
still leading Al by about two lengths. This time we each chose to "sail
our own race". To protect his series second, Mark needed a decent
finish in this finale which meant it would be wise for him to stay with
the bulk of his nearest pursuers. Meanwhile, Al chose to once more play
the left side of the beat, something Tom Wharton (W600) who was
spectating from shore for this race, found hard to believe since from
his vantage point, it seemed obvious that those who went left would get
destroyed. And sure enough, a parade of boats came in along the
starboard layline on a great starboard tack lift: picture the above
photo with perhaps half a dozen Wayfarers on the starboard lift and
with great pressure, instead of just the one boat and you'll get the
idea of what Nick and I saw.
 The final run to the finish: Mark
and Paul Taylor are (fairly) long gone here, on their way to winning
the finale. Alastair and Andrew Ryder-Turner (10137) is at the head of
aboat half a dozen boats all still hoping to place 2nd. (l to r) Kit Wallace with Peter
Kozak, Al, Alastair, Leo and Joanne Van Kampen - not in this pic: Marc
Bennett and John de Boer
 Not far from the finish: Alastair has wisely gybed away to keep his air clear as the boats get close to the finish line. No need to worry about mark-room positioning here since this will be the finish. Al (l), meanwhile, continues to ...  ... challenge Leo (r).  A very close finish here as Marc and Julie (864) take 2nd ahead of Alastair and Andrew who finished at the port end of the line (not seen here). The wily Al (3854) ended up snatching 4th from Leo (9667) who ...  ... held 5th just ahead of John and Dolores (7351).  Looking good as they cross the line to take the regatta's CL16 honours, are Colin Junkin and Heather Wood. How we all did:  Our newcomers, Bob Brown and
daughter, Deborah, enjoyed their regatta and picked up lots of tips
over the course of the wekend. Though unable to upset any of the other
teams - all veterans - Bob and Deborah managed to look competent most
of the time, no mean feat in this variety of conditions! Well done,
Deborah and Bob!!
 12th overall and 3rd CL were Ed
Dragosits (l) and George
Scerri. Actually, Ed sailed with a different crew on Saturday: Scott
Caple (below right). Despite
sitting out Sunday's first race, Team Dragosits fell just a single
point short of upsetting CL veteran ...
   ... Gary McIlroy and his lovely young crew, Emily Borgundvaag, who took home the second-place CL hardware.   Sailing with/against
the Wayfarers in other regattas has certainly paid off for Colin Junkin
and Heather Wood who consistently outdistanced the other two CLs to
take the award as top CL16. Heather and Colin in fact tied on points
with the up-and-coming Wayfarer team of ...
 ... Rob Wierdsma and his youngest son, Daniel, who took the tie-breaker and got series 9th based on the fact that their best finish was a 6th whereas Colin's best was a 7th..  Despite looking good and sailing well as a team, 6th-seeded Kit Wallace and pick-up crew, Peter Kozak, seemed baffled by the wind and shift patterns in this series and could do no better than 8th overall.  Meanwhile, the other side of the
coin were the 11th-seeded Van Kampens from Kitchener's Conestoga SC.
Despite suffering from seasickness in her first big-lake regatta,
Joanne was able to help husband, Leo, to a sparkling 7th-place overall,
in this, their first Lake Ontario racing experience. As mentioned
earlier, Leo and Joanne were this year's Most Improved team of this event.
 Also improving on their seed - by one place - this year were London's John de Boer and his wife, Dolores who ended up in series 6th after counting a very consistent 5-5-6-4-7-6.  Representing the host club in fine fashion were Alastair Ryder-Turner and son, Andrew, who ended up 5th overall, only two points out of 4th place which was occupied by ...  ... Marc Bennett (Bramalea/Sarnia) and his wife, Julie Seraphinoff (East Lansing/Sarnia).   Continuing to move up in our fleet were North Bay's Sue Pilling with Steph Romaniuk. Seeded 4th, the two nailed down a very clear 3rd overall with very consistent finishes until the final race which they were able to drop.   As expected, our series runners-up, the Taylor brothers - Mark (r) and his excllent crew, Paul (left and below), our 2008 National champions and the top-ranked MSC Wayfarer team - had a fine battle with ...   ... top-seeded Al Schonborn (Oakville) and Nick Seraphinoff (Detroit) (r) who lived up to the fine form that had already seen them win the US Nationals and the Wayfarer North Americans earlier in 2009. |