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2015
Wayfarer Midwinters Lake Eustis SC * Jan. 30th - Feb. 1st regatta report by Uncle Al photos mostly by John Cole ... |
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2015
Midwinters
turn out to be the biggest and best
yet
..  A
record entry of 22 boats picked
the right year in which to attend
on
Jan. 30th to Feb. 1st as three
days of mild weather and perfect
sailing
winds of 6 to 18 knots
supplemented the unfailingly
perfect hospitality
and organization of the Lake
Eustis Sailing Club (below).
The
competition was keen and exciting
in the strongest fleet the
Wayfarer
Midwinters have seen since their
inception 15 years ago when the
club
used a rented tent as its
clubhouse.
 Midwinters organizers, Nick and Mary Seraphinoff, tirelessly promoted the event and even shuttled back and forth between their Detroit and Eustis homes a few times to bring several boats to the warmer climes for those who had to fly in or are not (yet) Wayfarer owners. In the end, we had a hot fleet that was reminiscent of the competition level at the 2013 Wayfarer Wolrlds and did in fact include the current champion. Also competing were our two most recent North American champions, the reigning U.S. National title holder. Geographically and numerically speaking, Ontario, Michigan, North Carolina and Florida were best represented, not to forget Idaho, Massachusetts, Quebec and Tennessee. What a pleasure it was to also see perennial Midwinters organizers, Mike and Dotty Murto, who came by for a brief visit. Mike looks frail but cheerful at the thought that the chemo seems to be getting the better of his cancer. Particular thanks to the many volunteers who served under the capable direction of Mary Seraphinoff and Monte Stamper (food), David Leather and Ray Laguna (RC), and of course our photographers - Disney's John Cole, Mari Johnson, Randall Moring et al - who contributed so many great shots that I have posted or will post on Flickr in the near future. Our top-seeded World champions, Peter and Alex Rahn (below) of Montreal, Quebec, lived up to their billing and had a clear edge in speed a number of times as they won the event for the fourth time in the past eight years. Peter and son, Alex, won the final two races in our nine-race series to pull away from a previously well matched fleet. The Rahns' four bullets included a pair of horizon jobs. Your web master has asked for a tell-all coaching article. Stay tuned.   Marc Bennett of East Lansing, MI demonstrated that his repaired rotator cuff is now well up to strenuous sailing action. In one of the more exciting duels in recent memory, Marc and wife, Julie (above), moved past Oakville, Ontario's Al Schonborn and his new super-crew, Jeff Gamey of Knoxville, TN, near the finish of the finale to move into a series tie for 2nd place with Al and Jeff. This gave the Bennetts 2nd overall on the tie-breaker.  In retrospect, Al should have listened to his own advice to Nick Seraphinoff decades ago after Nick had lost to someone he'd been well ahead of near the finish. Al had advised Nick to cover the competition when in any doubt at all. "Have you ever heard anybody say I wish I hadn't covered that guy." were my immortal words. According to my wisdom, I should have tacked to cover Marc after clearing him nicely on port in a good hiking breeze. Instead, I went for the finish line 200 yards away which we could practically lay on port. Nonetheless, Al, Jeff and dear old SHADES a.k.a. Glory Days gave the new Mark IVs all they could handle and were quite pleased with their performance. Marc and Julie were seeded 7th for this event and were declared Most Improved team in the fleet by finishing 2nd. Not recognized by a rushed Uncle Al at the awards ceremony were John Cadman and Mike Sigmund who beat their seed by seven places in grabbing series 13th and were actually the regatta's Most Improved team. My apologies, John and Mike.  Series 4th went to 2013 North American champions and Al's Oakville neighbours, David and Anne Pugh (above), who won two of the nine races but lacked the consistency to be serious challengers to Peter.  Our new Detroit Wayfarer speedsters, Doug Scheibner and Andrew Lockhart (above), were next in line in 5th overall sailing W10864 Impulse.   Our current U.S. champions, Doug and Andrew, got the ultimate Wayfarer experience as they capsized under spinnaker in the breezy finale as they responded to a Peter Rahn luff (above) on the first reach while the two boats were battling for the lead. A great addition to our Wayfarer family are Doug and Andrew.  8th-seeded Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, of Charlotte, NC were a serious threat throughout the event and ended up sailing Black Skimmer to a fine series 6th. Well done, guys!  No fewer than three Toronto area teams made the top third of the fleet as Mike Duncan and wife, Marg (above), who are clubmates of the Pughs at the Mississauga SC took series 7th in their Mk IV Gael Force.  Two wooden Wayfarers were next, in series 8th and 9th. Sailing their beloved W1066 Dawn Treader to 8th was less than the 4th-seeded Jim and Linda Heffernan (above) of Chapel Hill, NC and the Lake Townsend YC had hoped to accomplish, but the fleet was a hot one.  A pair of Bayview YC (Detroit) Ultimate 20 sailors made a fine Wayfarer debut. Keith Ziegler and Bill Jenkins sailed Nick Seraphinoff's classic wooden W864 (above) to 9th overall and were slowly but surely getting nearer the top when time ran out. Keith, the Chairman of this year's Bayview One-Design Regatta (BOD), cordially invites all Wayfarers to the BOD May 30-31 on the Detroit River.  Rounding out the top ten was Impulse II sailed by Nick Seraphinoff (above) with Lake Eustis SC Junior Sailing instructor, Craig Yates - for two races. Nick cracked a rib or two over lunch the first day. This left Craig to sail solo on Saturday until he was able enlist Junior sailor, Levi Butler (below), as crew for the remaining races on Saturday and Sunday. Levi looked good out there and enjoyed himself, says his helm. Well done, Levi!    Leading the way among the Non-Spinnakers was Dave Hepting of LESC with Ali Kishbaugh of the Catawba YC in Charlotte, NC. Seeded 15th, Dave came 11th overall, a nice improvement in his newly acquired Mark IV W10862 (above). Congratulations, Dave and Ali!  After
missing the
first three races, Jim Lingeman and Pat Kuntz (above)
of the
host club gave the Hepting/Kishbaugh duo and fine
run for their before
settling for Non-Spi 2nd and 12th overall.
 Congratulations once more to our Most Improved team (above): Michigan's John Cadman was seeded 20th in the 22-boat fleet and shot up to series 13th after teaming up with North Carolinian, Mike Sigmund, who is an active racer at the Lake Townsend YC. Very nicely done, John and Mike!!  Third place among the Non-Spinnaker boats officially went to Cleveland's Tony Krauss who sailing Mike Murto's W2959 as Mike continues his come-back from cancer - we saw him and Dotty briefly, and he looks better than we had expected. Our loving thoughts are with you, Mike. Meanwhile, Tony sailed 2959 with a new sailor, Marc Losh (above), Tony's long-time friend from New Orleans to 13-17-12-11 finishes on Friday.  The next day, Tony traded places with Tom Erickson of Gardner, MA who had raced the Wanderer (above) the day before. Now, W2959 looked like this ...   and the Wanderer (above) was now in the hands of ex-Coastie, Tony, our anti-PFD-wearing campaigner - not before you hit the water, anyway. After all that "musical helms", the Wanderer ended up in a points tie with W2959 but lost the tie-breaker even though 2959 was not sailed in the finale where Tom filled in as crew for Ken Butler.  New Wayfarer, Donna Gallant, and son, John (above), made it a trio of boats from the Mississauga SC just west of Toronto on Lake Ontario, sailed the borrowed Mark IV Green Stripe (W10874) to 16th overall as they enjoyed an occasionally scary learning experience without major mishap.  Lake Townsend's Ken Butler sailed W7372 with W449 sails that will propel the old woodie he has almost finished restoring. Bev Swanson who had sailed with Ken in the Killbear Rally as well as the Worlds in 2013 was back as crew (above) on Friday. Ken Jr. (below) stepped in on Saturday before Tom Erickson sailed with Ken in the finale.    Jim Burns (above), a Wayfarer who has recently moved to Florida from Michigan got to sail Pat Kuntz's Green Side Up and looked very good doing so while placing 18th. Hope we'll see more of you, Jim!!  Losing a tie-breaker to Jim and placing series 19th, was LESC's Izak Kielmovitch who sailed with Ron Plank (above) on Friday and Jim Rottela (below) Saturday and Sunday.   Yet another Townsend team, AnnMarie Covington and Matthew Stalnaker (above), sailed W276 Epiphany very well but had another episode of the W276 jinx when they were hit by a give-way boat and had to forego all four Saturday races. Only a couple of weeks previously, Epiphany had suffered a 420-profile-sized hole at Lake Townsend that was quickly and beautifully repaired in time for this event. And at the 2013 HOT Regatta, an out-of-control Flying Scot caused this:   Mike with Mary on the Friday  "Room for improvement" is what I would have written on a Mids report card for Mike Tighe who sailed with wife, Mary on the Friday and son-in-law, Jason Palosauri, thereafter. The boat and sails look good but W3654 nonetheless seemed to have a bad case of the slows and placed a mere one point ahead of the last-place boat which only competed in four of the nine races. I plan to study Mike's boat in our many fine Midwinters photos to see what I can recommend by way of long-distance coaching - instalment #1 coming up below:  While
racing,
the helm should as much as possible sit with
his/her forward leg
against the thwart..
Doing what Mike is doing here is what I call the "cruising position" and is slow!!  Actually, the true cruising position requires sitting on the floor and leaning against the aft tank as demonstrated by Uncle Al above - the 30+ knots of breeze and rain are optional. Or there is the extreme cruising position shown below by Tom Goldsmith.   One time everyone should sit aft (on the tank) is under tow in a water-filled boat (above) . If Sarah and Nick were sitting way aft, far less strain would be put on both boats and their gear. And on a dead run, the greater my fear factor, the further aft we sit.  Idaho's Sarah Pedersen teamed up with Detroit's Nick Damaskinos in the beautiful wooden kit boat (above) - the last of its kind - completed by her late father, Frank. In the more excitement than we need department, Sarah and Nick capsized early on the Friday and ended up sailing only the four races on the Saturday. Let's
hear
it for our hard-working volunteers!
Regatta Organization  Wayfarer PRO, Ray Laguna with Midwinters Regatta Co-Chair, Nick Seraphinoff  Our Regatta Chairs, Nick and Mary, tended to avoid the limelight. Apologies for not getting a better pic.  Linda Heffernan (and husband, Jim) were a great help in a variety of ways.  Becky was a big help, as was Jane Hepting whose picture we did not get. Sorry but thanks a million anyway, Jane. The Race Committees  Our two PROs, Ray Laguna (l) and David Leather confer.  the Wayfarer course RC  In addition to mark-boat duties, Gus Chennels took pictures while Pirate Dave prodded Al to do better and ...  ... ran the ferry service out to the moorings.  On the MCs' course ....  ... things were also well ...  ... organized.  the scorer's table Sustenance  Monte Stamper started preparations days early using this fine mobile smoker.  Orchestrated by Monte Stamper, the super chefs prepare to feed Saturday's multitudes as the Wayfarers were the guests of the MCs.  Too many cooks?  Dinner is served! The Photographers  Hobie sailor and Disney photographer, John Cole, not only gave us unlimited access to hundreds of his professional shots but also ran slide shows of his creations.   Randall Moring again was out taking his fine photos as well as spending a bit of time with his ...  ... lovely grand-daughter, Ava.  Another photography boat was dedicated to the MCs and featured ...  ... Mari Johnson who contributed hundreds of fine pictures and even brought her ...  ... uniform.  Both Uncle Al (l) and Jeff Gamey (r) made good use of the Wayfarer cameras throughout the event. |