2014 Wayfarer Midwinters
Lake Eustis SC * Jan. 31 - Feb. 2

Midwinters XV gets rave reviews from Wayfarers

Sixteen Wayfarer teams came from far and near to this year's Wayfarer Midwinters hosted Friday 31 January through Sunday 2 February by the Lake Eustis SC as always. This year, our fleet was a unique and very successful mix of high end talent and beginners with the former giving freely of their time and expertise to coach the newer sailors.

At the experienced end of things, our freshly crowned World champions, Peter Rahn and son, Alex, from Montreal became the first reigning champs to take part in a Midwinters. Leading an eager challenge to the Rahns were the current North American champions, David Pugh and wife, Anne, ("guest workers" from England currently living up the road from Uncle Al in Oakville, Ontario) as well as 2012 Mids champion, Trevor Fisher, who again visited from Belfast, Ireland, this time with his crew, Emily Watt.

Four new Midwinters teams were also warmly welcomed. Coming all the way from Idaho was Sarah Pedersen who is taking over the helm of the lovely wooden W8705 built by her late father, Frank. Crewing for Sarah was her brother, Jim, from Charlotte, NC.  Newer to Wayfarers and also sailing their first Midwinters - all from the Carolinas - were Ken Butler and his son, Ken Jr. as well as AnnMarie Covington from the Lake Townsend YC in Greensboro, NC, plus the newest of our new, sailing W10979 out of Greenville, SC: Jesse Tate and his wife, Carolyn.

(W's l to r) Trevor Fisher, Peter Rahn, Jim Heffernan, Cynthia Best

Despite flawless preparation by our always congenial hosts, and the fine efforts of our new PRO, Devon Farley, and his committee, the light winds only allowed us to complete four of the scheduled 9 races. And forecasts early in the week promised a warm front from the south with summery temperatures in the 80s F and winds up to 8 knots. Alas, the warm front was delayed and our Friday and Saturday racing was done in overcast and temperatures in the 50s and 60s. The winds though, got up higher than promised, such that the Bests and the Tates even capsized.

Sunday morning again began with mist but the promised warmth had at last arrived. Sadly - especially for the MC Scows who again had their annual Train Wreck Regatta on the Saturday and Sunday and only ended up with one race, a Saturday drifter - the wind never did arrive and further racing had to be cancelled.

Fortunately of course, regattas are about far more than mere racing and we all had a very fine time what with various dinners out, the traditional Saturday night gathering at the club built around Monte Stamper's delicious brisket feast not to mention the pleasant weather, a most enjoyably far cry from the sub-zero Fahrenheit blizzards many of us had happily left astern. Uncle Al himself, still requested by the ISAF to consider himself suspended until and unless he hears different from the ISAF Review Board, was the ultimate case in point, putting the lack of racing pressure to fine use as he slept in at the Murtos', coached assorted beginners, took pictures and imbibed. Did I say there was free beer - as early as Tuesday??!! A gloriously fine time was had by all!!

Who won, you may ask? In the eight-boat Spinnaker Fleet, the Irish team of Trevor Fisher and Emily Watt made the fewest mistakes in a fleet very well matched in the boat speed department. In addition to being light and pretty, young Emily contributed a killer smile and introduced us to the Baby Guinness (Kahlua under a thin layer of Bailey's Irish Cream in a shot glass). (Last night, our waitress at The Coach and Four, Julia's and my pub in Bronte was puzzled about the Baby Guinness, but her eyes lit up when I described the drink. "Ooooh!" she said, "an Irish Car Bomb!")

In the white-sail fleet, it was LESC's David Hepting and Charley Jensen sailing to an impressive win. More results details to follow soon.