the Mississauga Wayfarer/CL 16 Regatta
Mississauga SC * September 11-12, 2010
Regatta Report by Uncle Al

Sailing with his beloved crew, Marc Bennett (above right), was just what the doctor ordered for Uncle Al on the weekend of Sept. 11-12 after his confidence-testing 7th-place finish at the North Americans in August. In glorious sailing weather (about 20°C and winds mostly 10- to 15-knots), Al and Marc were never threatened as they swept a seven-race series. During a mid-May visit to Marc's new East Lansing, Michigan homestead, Marc and his wife, Julie, agreed that an annual Marc-Al regatta reunion would be a good and doable thing. This was the first of these, and it came not a moment too soon for Uncle Al.

Also looking much better than at the North Americans were MSC's Mark and Paul Taylor who brought home a solid 2nd in the 10-boat fleet of 7 W's and three CLs. Coburg's Colin Junkin upheld the CL honour very nicely as he teamed up with Dennis Richard for a fine series 3rd and tied with Conestoga's Leo and Joanne Van Kampen (4th overall) for Most Improved honours. Fresh from a great NAs performance, Mike Codd and young Lilly (5th overall) took the prize as best parent-child team.

We were very happy to have with us a team new to racing, Sergey Duko and his young son, Anatoliy, sailing "white sail" in CL1477. Not surprisingly, they failed to beat anyone but did look to be sailing their boat capably and happily while not keeping the rest of us waiting too long. Welcome to the gang, Sergey and Anatoliy. We hope to see you lots more times and with improving results.

Apart from the top two and our lone beginning racer, our fleet was very evenly matched and the racing very close (see pic above) in all seven races. MSC's Rob Wierdsma and son, Daniel, sailed a consistently solid series to take series 6th ahead of Detroit's Nick Seraphinoff who used this event to begin training a new long-term crew, Nikos Damiskino (his ex-stepson-in-law). 2nd-place honours among the CLs went to MSC's Gary McIlroy and John Butt who finished just one point behind Nick and Nikos. Sunday morning's first race saw Gary and John hit their series high point with a beautifully sailed 3rd. Well done, guys!

Although the scoreboard doesn't show it, our rookie team Bob Brown and Graham Bakelaar of the MSC continued to improve their performance level: In just one year, Bob has moved from beginner's errors and miles behind at last year's MSC regatta to being right in there with the bulk of the fleet in each of the races. Watch out for these guys next year!!

Your Uncle Al especially thanks our on-the-water photographers, David Bocking and Darren Brash, for providing the fruits of their fine labours for this site to use. And our particular thanks to PRO, David Whyman, and his committee for very well run races, and the many MSC members who made sure we were well looked after and fed while ashore. See you in 2011!!