The Wayfarer Midwinters of 2005
a report by Uncle Al with photos by Richard Kinnie

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Biggest Wayfarer fleet ever enjoys 6th annual Midwinters on Lake Eustis

A healthy fleet of 17 Wayfarers turned out to sail the 2005 Wayfarer Midwinters, held Feb. 4-6 at the Lake Eustis SC in Tavares, Florida, NW of Orlando. After a cold, windy Friday on which racing was postponed and ultimately abandoned, Wayfarers from as far away as Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit and Toronto were treated to two perfect days of racing with warm sunshine and N winds of 8 to 15 knots. Our capable, efficient Race Committee, headed by David Williams, rose to the occasion, giving us six fine, full-length races, in five of which we shared the course with a large, friendly and enthusiastic fleet of Flying Scots.
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In Wayfarers, the defending Midwinters champions, Al Schönborn (Oakville, ON) and Marc Bennett (Pickering, ON) (left) continued to make themselves right at home on Lake Eustis, as they systematically won all six races with an unbeatable combination of good speed, fine boat handling and sound strategy. Team SHADES switched places for the final race, but even with Al as a crew, Marc managed to win in convincing fashion.

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Peter Rahn (Montréal) and Frank Goulay (Ottawa) (right) had to adapt and re-rig a borrowed boat which began to disintegrate in Friday practice sails. They then stayed up half the night to fix up a replacement which began to sink during race 1 and needed a lunch-time haul-out to seal a leaky bailer. After all that, mere sailing was simple, and Peter and Frank were quite impressive as they rolled to a runner-up finish with six straight seconds! Well done, lads!!

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The 8th-seeded Detroit team of Nick Seraphinoff (right) and his grandson, Joe Blackmore, continued to polish their teamwork at this Midwinters. They looked very impressive throughout the series, taking 3rd place on a string of 3rds, and beat their seed by five places.

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Leading the Non-Spinnaker division and placing an excellent 4th overall were LESC's Gale Shoemaker and his fine young crew, Taylor Arnold. Gale recently learned that his heart is only able to function at 40% of full capacity, but he did not let this slow him down, as he and Taylor sailed to a nicely consistent 4-5-6-5-5-4 and a nine-point edge over …

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… clubmate, Jim Lingeman, who very capably sailed solo on Saturday morning before being joined by Mike Tigue for the remaining 5 races. Jim and Mike took the runner-up trophy in the Non-Spinnaker division, and their 5th overall was a noteworthy four-place improvement over Jim's 9th seed.

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After a disappointing OCS (early start) and an eventual 14th in race 1, 13th-seeded Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, of Charlotte, NC, really pulled up their socks. By adding 4-5-4-7-6 finishes to their 14th, the Johnsons rallied to whip their Free Range Chick'n into series 6th. Richard and Michele thus beat their seed by a most impressive seven places and were our Most Improved crew of the 2005 Midwinters. Congratulations, Michele and Richard!

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Former DN iceboat champion, Eddie Kraft, who now sails on the softer waters off the LESC, was often up with the leaders for the first round, but lacked the finishing touch, so that he and crew, John Conrader, had to be content with third place in Non-Spinnaker, and 7th overall.

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Toronto's Geoff Edwards again combined with LESC's Pat Reardon to good effect, nailing down series 8th, an improvement of two places over Geoff's seed. Geoff and Pat will soon have another chance to shine, as the retired Geoff is again making a meal of it by spending three weeks in the sunny South, and will compete in the LESC's George Washington's Birthday Regatta Feb. 19-20.

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Detroit's Joe De Brincat finally had the crew he wanted in the person of his Quantum-sailmaking son, Brian, but found it tough to bring the freshly refurbished Maltese Falcon up to the desired speed with his current sails, which Brian doubtless feels should be replaced by the Quantum Mike McNamara-cut sails. A second-race DNS in the no-drop series did not help, either, and Joe and Brian ended up in series 9th.

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Dr. Robert Hart teamed up with Tony Krauss from Virginia who, along with Mary Abel, came to the Midwinters without a boat, but Tony and Mary are now proud Wayfarer owners, having bought W4105 The Rocketship from Ed Weber in Oriental, NC on their way home. Robert and Tony teamed up well enough to take 4th in Non-Spinnaker and 10th overall.

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LESC Commodore, Mike Murto, broke with tradition this year. He sailed with a crew - Patricia De Rubertis - and flew the spinnaker while Patricia helmed - despite suffering from a bad cold which kept her from sailing on Sunday where Mike reverted to his single-handed lifestyle. Mike and Patricia placed a solid series 11th, beating Mike's seed by three places!

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Our ageless Michiganders, Bob Frick and Peter Every (combined ages of well over 150 years!) sailed Hubert Dauch's Black Magic and its ancient sails to a very respectable series 12th before hauling W3636 back to Hubert in Michigan.

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Also scoring 77 points were Atlanta's Morris Metcalf and Andrew Parks who ended up series 13th
when they lost the tie-breaker: Morris's best finish of 11th was one worse than Bob's best at 10th.

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LESC's Ted Benedict with Donna Clark (Saturday) and Peter Hylen (Sunday)
moved up one place above their seed with a series 14th, beating out clubmate …

...… Dave Hepting, who made his Wayfarer Midwinters helming debut
sailing solo, after last year crewing for both Mike Murto and Peter Hylen.

Another LESC newcomer to the Wayfarer Midwinters was Sam Montondo. Sam and the very personable and enthusiastic young C.J. Rush started the series very nicely with 9-11 finishes, but a race 3 capsize marked the end of the weekend's sailing for Team Montondo who ended up 16th when all the DNS's had been counted.

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Also hurt by masses of DNS's was the local team of Peter Hylen and Mike Tighe who took 13th in the opener, but Peter packed it in after that. Too bad, because he missed some great sailing!!

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Thanks!! We visitors again most sincerely thank the Lake Eustis Sailing Club and its friendly, helpful and hard-working members the making the 2005 Midwinters such an outstanding event. Special thanks to all those who helped directly, including ...

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... PRO, David Williams (left) and Sandy Sundberg, our outstanding Race Committee
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... our Regatta Chairman, Dotty Murto (centre), and Mike Murto, her assistant, our keg master and the Lake Eustis SC Commodore who threw paper plates better than any of the rest of us on Saturday night.

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... Dennis Oldham, mark layer and general hard worker around the LESC
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... Richard Kinnie (MC Scow 1919) (centre) who supplied us with
literally hundreds of super action shots of the 2005 Midwinters
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... Hank Van Twyver (rescue boat duty) who lent his W1395 to Peter and Frank
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... John Schneider (centre) and his son-in-law (left) on safety boat/jury duty with Sandy Sundberg
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... Bob DeWitt, Midwinters registration
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Our kitchen staff (coffee, treats, lunches):
(l to r) Darlene Poosch, Jan Montondo, Dotty Murto
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All expectations are that we'll be invited back in 2006 - same weekend, same place. Stay tuned, and, if at all possible, do join us in the fun next year!!

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2005 W Midwinters
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