the 2008 Wayfarer Midwinters
Lake Eustis SC * February 8-10, 2008
 miscellaneous reports and reactions
...
and from Uncle Al, a report cobbled together from assorted hearsay and the results sheet:

Peter and Alex Rahn impressive in Midwinters victory!
Montreal's Peter Rahn and son, Alex, came out of retirement with a roar as they captured the 2008 Wayfarer Midwinters hosted by the superb Lake Eustis SC on Feb. 8-10, NW of Orlando, Florida. Lake Eustis provided lovely, warm weather and a variety of winds that started light for 2 races on Friday, went to mid-range for Saturday's 3 races, and then gusted to 20+ knots for a Sunday finale. North Carolina's Jim Heffernan and wife, Linda, were the only series threats to the Rahns, moving into a tie for the lead after 4 races. But they ultimately fell just short, and ended up very solid runners-up.

An impressive Midwinters début for Coburg's Colin Junkin and Heather Wood, as the 11th-seeded couple sailed their CL16 to an impressive 3rd overall in the 16-boat fleet, and will be awarded the event's Most Improved pennants on a suitable occasion later this year - Uncle Al having been unable to bring them down to the Mids.

Non-spinnaker fleet honours went to Maine's Butch Minson who again sailed with Ottawa's Andy Douma as crew. Minson, who is the sailing coach at the Maine Maritime Academy, comfortably beat out seven other "white sail" teams in a fleet that was evenly split between spinnaker and white sail, and sailed a shared start. A pair of Jim McIntyres (who work at the same place, no less, but are otherwise unrelated) brought glory to the host Lake Eustis SC, as they took the runner-up spot in their fleet, ahead of clubmate and long-time Windmill sailor, Jim Lingeman. Jim has not had much luck with crews this past year. Last summer, Jim teamed up for Rock Hall's Chester River Race with the young son of the RHYC's Commodore who had told his son that the race would only be a couple of hours. Well, it turned out to be a bit of a drifter, and the two hours were up well before the end of the race. At which point, the young lad more or less said, "Time's up!" and had himself ferried to more exciting pursuits ashore. This time, the junior sailor Jim had lined up simply did not show up. So Jim sailed solo, as the LESC sailors often do.

This year, the fleet was more evenly matched than ever. Of the 16 teams who sailed, an amazing 15 scored at least one top-ten finish, and no fewer than eleven of these hit the top five at least once!! Now that is fun racing!!

4th overall were Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, from Charlotte, North Carolina, who beat their seed by a fine three places, while sailing a nicely consistent series, which they topped off with an excellent 3rd-place finish in the windy finale. Next in line were Detroit area veteran Wayfarers, Joe De Brincat and Nick Seraphinoff, who had consistency issues: three great races (1-2-3), but also a 12-8. Still they were in the "medal hunt", doing very well in the last race until they death-rolled and had to be rescued.

Our friends from the LESC MC Scow Fleet, Dave Moring and Kevin Rankin, borrowed Gale Shoemaker's fine W4106 and sailed in the spinnaker fleet this year, after winning in non-spinnakers in 2007. The two young whippersnappers began and ended their series well with a 2nd and a 3rd, but the middle was another story and they ended up placing 6th overall.

For Maryland's Tony Krauss and Mary Abel, who ended up a mere one point behind Dave and Kevin, the first and last races were their downfall: a 13th to start the series and then they sat out the finale when the winds really piped up. In a points tie with Tony - which they lost on the tie-breaker - was the first non-spinnaker team of Butch Minson and Andy Douma, followed by the second white sail team of Jim McIntyre squared in 9th overall.
Rounding out the top ten overall were Ottawa's Lori Beehler who shared helming duties with Andrew Haill of Thunder Bay. Andrew undoubtedly came the furthest to sail in this year's Midwinters, and had the most trouble getting there - see Lori's email below. Hosted by Andy Douma, team Beehler/Haill also got to sail Andy's lovely red Port Tack Too, the boat that many of us recall Bill Abbott delivering to Bob Brown at the first-ever Midwinters in 2000 - before the LESC even had a clubhouse (photo below).


Ironically, and perhaps a bit unfairly, these two were the 3rd-highest-placed non-spinnaker boat in the overall fleet, only to be done in by a scoring system that rescored both fleets as though they had not sailed together. Under that system, Lori and Andrew lost a 3rd-place tie-breaker to Jim Lingeman, who placed 11th overall, two points behind them overall.
Series 12th (5th in white sail) went to Ted Benedict of Lake Eustis who sailed with regular crew, Charley Jensen, on Friday and Sunday, while scows veteran, Bull Schmidt, filled in on the Saturday. Said Ted, "I learned a lot from sailing with him ... hope to again." Consistency will be the next problem for Ted to address: After surprising everyone, and perhaps even himself, with a stellar 2nd in the opener, Ted managed only two more top-ten finishes in the next five heats.

Toronto's Geoff Edwards again came all the way down on his own and picked up a local crew. This time it was Wayfarer veteran, Greg Murphy. Like Ted, Geoff and Greg lacked consistency, looking like world-beaters with a 4th and a 5th, but placing in the bottom half of the fleet in the other four races.
Our other friend from the Scows, Scott Tillema, borrowed a venerable Wayfarer just to be able to take part. Big lad that he is, Scott did not take well to the light airs, even sailing solo on Friday. Saturday, North Bay's light-airs star, Sue Pilling, made a cameo appearance and crewed for Scott, but even that did not help. It was a disease that only wind, and lots of it, could cure. Which Scott received in spades on the Sunday, when, despite sailing solo, he placed 8th in the finale. That 8th give Scott the tie-breaker over Mike Murto who may or may not have sailed with Chuck McLaughlin who sails a CL16 out of Hilton Beach near Sault Ste Marie in the summer. Rounding out the fleet was Dave Hepting of the Lake Eustis Sailing Club who sailed singled-handed.
..
from Tony Krauss (W4105):
----- Original Message -----
From: tmk-W4105
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 6:21 PM
Subject: Midwinters

... We just rolled in from the Mid-Winter's in Lake Eustis (stunk up Friday awfully, but outsailed ourselves Sat, bagged Sun. due to
gusty 22 kts and shifty: The Mar-ster was a grand sport, Sat. flying the spinny, and I can dig myself deep enough holes without actually having to push it).  Grand time, as always.   One hell of a group.

-tmk & mla.
...
from Sue Pilling (W4677):
----- Original Message -----
From: susan pilling
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2008 8:11 AM
Subject: Hey, Al

I made it up to the Mid-winters for a day, and flopped around in a boat near the end of the fleet. Still, nice to be sailing...
 
Sue
...
from Ted Benedict (W2415):
----- Original Message -----
From: Benedict, Ted W
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 10:20 AM
Subject: Mids pics info?

Good morning Al,
                            
What a nice surprise to hear from you! ... You and Marc were dearly missed this past week - hope you are getting good reports from your doctors and will be well soon to travel and sail. We had a very good time this year at the Mid-Winters as I'm sure you've heard - despite the light winds Fri & Sat, and then howling on Sun morning.

I was quite fortunate to have excellent crew the whole time with Charley Jensen Friday and Sunday ... and Bull Schmidt on Saturday as Charley couldn't make it.... thought I'd be singlehanding until Scott Tillema and Kevin Rankin said they knew someone who'd like to sail. Bull is an older MC Scow sailor from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin who's been sailing since he was 9 or 10, and is wintering down here for first time 
this year, though he's been coming down many years for MC Midwinters and other races.  He's a great sailor with lots of experience and stories and we had a lot of fun.  I learned a lot from sailing with him.. hope to again.
 
The award you see there is for "The Top of The Bottom" which Mike tells me he got at Rock Hall last summer and thought was a great idea. From what I understand it's for being at the top of the bottom half of the Non-Spinnaker rankings for the regatta. I'm honored and attribute a lot of my improvement this year to having 2 good crew mates.
     
We're planning to have 5 or 6 Wayfarers in the George Washington Regatta this coming weekend.  I need to fix a leaky centerboard bolt and forestay chain plate.  I measured about 15 gallons of leakage after pulling out last Sat. without taking any over the side and despite some feeble attempts to make the one bailer work.  I'll probably slap some plumber's putty between the washers and retighten (advice from Peter Rahn) and see how it works, and then redo later if necessary with a better caulk that can cure longer (advice from Mike).  The bent chain plate is from the disastrous end to my race on Sunday.  Too embarrassed to tell you.
 
With best regards and thanks for all you do,

Ted Benedict (W2415/w sail 991)

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