Sunday morning: (r to l) Uncle Al and Frank, the Taylor brothers (Mark and Paul) and our newCanadian
champions Sue Pillling with Steph Romaniuk set off down a lovely run in pursuit of David and Anne Pugh.

Our 16-boat fleet included a pair of CL16's since the event was also the Mississauga SC's annual Wayfarer/CL16 Regatta which the hosts kindly allowed us to use as a replacement date for our Nationals which had been scheduled for North Bay July 8-9 but cancelled due to lack of interest. Special thanks to Mike and Marg Duncan (W10962) supervised the entire event and made sure it was tons of fun and ran like clockwork.

Mike and Marg led the way as sailors were invited to wear their national colours on Saturday evening.



Regatta Co-Chair, Mike Duncan, and CWA Chair, Anne Pugh present the
Smallcraft of Southampton Trophy (beautifully refurbished by Julia Schonborn) to Sue and Steph who ...


... captured the Sweet Award as top Female/Male Team.

As mentioned, our winners were Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk who sailed their wooden W397 Chich to 1-1-1-3-2-4-(7) finishes in taking their 5th national title since 2010.  This 4th-seeded Team Chich picked a perfect time to rise to the occasion after a disappointing result in the previous regatta, our Ontarios at Cobourg YC.

Taking Silver were Marc Bennett and his wife, Julie (above) from East Lansing, Michigan, who sailed their lovely Mark IV Jamaica Blue to 3-2-4-2-1-5-(5) finishes for 17 points, five more than the winners. Like Sue and Steph, Marc and Julie are relatively light and got their better results in the lighter airs.

  

There can be little doubt that the happiest sailor of the regatta was 5th-seeded Uncle Al who was sailing a dream come true as he landed "Wayfarer Man" (above left) himself, Frank Goulay from Ottawa as his crew (above). To Al, it felt like 20+ years had never passed, as he and Frank were immediately back in fine form, losing only to two significantly lighter crews in taking Bronze, three points back of the Bennetts: (7)-3-2-4-7-3-1.  Al and Frank plan to sail the US Nationals at Tawas together, also, the weekend after Labour Day.

Continuing their rapid rise up the ranks and finishing series 4th were 6th-seeded Leo Van Kampen and his wife, Joanne, from Conestoga SC. They were tied with Frank and Al for series 3rd entering the finale, but Team SHADES a.k.a. Glory Days won that one while the Van Kampens placed 4th and so ended up scoring 4-4-3-6-(8)-2-4 for a total of 23 points and 4th overall.

Top-seeded David Pugh and wife, Anne, of the Mississauga SC were very competitive including a run-away victory in race 6 but could not overcome their light-air 6-6-5 finishes from Saturday, and ended up series 5th only one point behind the Van Kampens. This despite a surprise OCS after crossing the finish line 3rd in race 4.

Our Regatta Chairs, Mike and Marg Duncan, had light weight in their favour in races 1 to 5 but were inconsistent: They began each day with a great finish, a 2nd on the Saturday, and a fine win on the Sunday where they banged the right corner, found more wind and scored a run-away win. But those bright spots were offset when their gambles failed to pay off in the other four races: 5-7 and 5-6 finishes. And when the wind piped up for the finale, they fell to an 8th, hurt by their lack of avoirdupois.

Also returning after a lengthy absence from Wayfarers were MSC's Taylor brothers, Mark and Paul, who, like Al and Frank were hoping for wind that would make their weight an advantage. When our prayers were answered in race 7, the 3rd-seeded Taylors shot up to a 2nd-place finish after earlier 5-(7)-6-5-4-7 results that kept them down in series 7th when all was said and done.

The fight for series 8th produced a close battle between Conestoga's Jan d'Ailly and son, Hendrik, and TSCC's Kit Wallace with crew George Waller. Kit had to leave Saturday's racing - DNF-DNC - early to help his daughter move to college. Nonetheless, he and George came back to move past the d'Aillys by one point with a fine 6th in the finale. Jan and Hendrik did grab an award however: the Gillespie Award as top Parent/Offspring Team (below). And the d'Aillys did beat their seed by two places in placing 9th overall.

Les and Scott proudly display their freshly won Most Improved caps.

Rounding out our top ten was another team from our fast-improving Conestoga Fleet, Scott Ramsay and Les Sherratt (above left) who beat their seed by no less than five positions! Well done, guys!!

Our second US-based entry - from Detroit, Michigan - did not go home empty-handed either. Dave McCreedy (above right) teamed up in his "new" Mark III W8911 with Dave Wilpula, the new proprietor of the late Jim Fletcher's wooden Wayfarer, W453, to win the Canadian Nationals Rookie Trophy while beating their seed by a very nice three places. Well done, guys!

Representing the host Mississauga SC and winning CL16 bragging rights were Shelley Richards and Tony Bertram  (above). Shelley is a new sailor who is showing fine promise. Keep up the good work and enthusiasm, Shelley.

Once more our most adventurous sailor of the event was Susan Davis (above right) who solo-sailed her venerable wooden W300 the 10 kilometers from Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club to the Mississauga SC in Saturday morning's depressingly light airs and got there two races late - by the time she picked up her crew, Amanada Yilmaz. The ladies started right out with excitement as they finished in a dead heat for 12th with the two Daves. By the time Susan pointed out a scoring error and had me correct it, Susan and Amanda were wedged between the two CLs, half a point back of Shelley and half a point up on Gary McIlroy and his niece, Georgia, who ended up 14th overall despite completing only four of the seven races.

The scoring query came from Susan as follows:

From: Susan Davis [mailto:sd3693@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 11:58 PM
To: Uncle Al
Subject: corrected results

 

Appendix A, rule A7: "If boats are tied at the finishing line or if a handicap or rating system is used and boats have equal corrected times, the points for the place for which the boats have tied and for the place(s) immediately below shall be added together and divided equally." 

 

For race 3, Dave McCreedy and I should therefore each have 12.5, not 13, which finishes Dave on 70.5 points, and me on 74.5, which moves me into 13th place overall, rather than 14th.

Our fleet heavyweights, the 8th-seeded Rob Wierdsma and son, Daniel, completed only three races - all top ten finishes in lighter winds - but ended up 15th overall what with their numerous "alphabet" finishes, while new (relatively) Wayfarers, Katherine and Angelino Petrolito of the host club, sailing only their second Wayfarer regatta, finished up the standings.

From: Marg Duncan 
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 12:52 PM
To: Uncle Al
Subject: whom to thank in my Nats report?

Hi Al

Actually, Mike and I were in charge of the whole regatta.  We had lots of help. 

 
The racing team consisted of:

Matt Cooper as the PRO,  with Bruce Buckingham organizing the team.  Gord Leachman, Ed Dragosits and Simi Ahluwalia were also in the RIBs. Dave Daniel and Mary Louise  Canning were in the race committee boat with Matt.   It was Dave Daniel's motor boat.   Mark Taylor and Ross Thompson were on stand-by for protest committee.  Dave Tebbit did the scoring.  Gord Leachman took amazing photos.

Rob and Rose Wierdsma greeted incoming sailors on Friday night and manned the bar.  Rose Wierdsma and Anne Pugh were at the registration table.  Anne also did the bar.  Rod McIver organized coffee and donuts both mornings. Both Anne and David Pugh helped with the cleaning up. 

Food

Glen and Lindsey Storey shopped for the bulk of the food.  Heather and Ray Bechard were in charge of the food prep team. Scott Caple organized the racing team's lunches and helped with the prep of food. Milene Palha, Michelle Bertram and Martin Sibileau also helped. Mark Taylor cooked  the Sunday sausages.

Whew, I think that's it. 

Hope this is all ok,

Marg