(190219) Local stars, Dave Moring and Arial Harrington (above), teamed up to win decisively in our 2019 Wayfarer Midwinters at the Lake Eustis SC February 1-3. In a calm-shortened seven-race series sailed Friday and Saturday in medium-strength winds, Dave and Arial impressed totally, netting 8 points from 1-(2)-1-1-2-2-1 finishes while dropping a 2nd that anyone in the the rest of the 20-boat fleet would have been thrilled to be able to keep.


After a sizeable gap, the battle for silver was hotly contested with only two points separating series 2nd from series 4th. A pair of Oakville, Ontario-based boats ended up taking silver and bronze as David Pugh and wife, Anne (above) with 2-6-3-5-3-1-(8) finishes and 20 points edged out Al Schonborn and Shannon Donkin (Grand Rapids, Michigan) (below) who ended up with 21 points from DNS-4-5-2-1-4-5 placings. When one considers that Shannon and Al sailed race 1 after a desperate boom vang search delayed them 15 minutes past the "within 5 minutes of the start signal" issue raised by the SI's (but delayed no one by not crossing the finish line last), we were only technically an alphabet finish, having sailed the entire race. Kudos to the fleet and our RC as this is first time in my memory that everyone started and completed every race in a fleet of such a substantial size.

Two beautifully impressive teams of Wayfarer rookies were next in line. Only a single point back of Shannon and Al in 4th overall (5-1-[8]-7-4-3-2: 22 pts) were Peggy Menzies (above) and her ever-so-capable daughter/crew, Maggie (16) sailing North America's newest Mk 4, W11158 out of South Lyon, near Detroit, Michigan.


Taking series 5th on a tie-breaker was another treasured new addition to our Wayfarer family: Paul Miller and wife, Dawn, of Mystic, Connecticut, sailing their refurbished wooden Wayfarer 971 that dates back to the mid-1960's. Among the six finishes that the Millers counted for 32 points were a sparkling 2nd (that gave them the tie-breaker win) and two fine 3rds but inconsistency kept them from placing higher overall.

Topping this year's numerically strong (seven and a half teams) North Carolina contingent were Charlotte's Jim Cook and Mike Taylor who equalled the Millers' 32 points from 3-7-4-5-6-7 finishes but fell to series 6th after losing the tie-breaker.


Ending up only one point back of Team Miller and Team Cook in series 7th with 4-5-8-7-5-4 finishes, was Lake Townsend's Jim Heffernan who teamed up with son, Mark, in this practice-run for the 2019 Worlds in Ireland. Jim's lovely wooden W1066 Dawn Treader was the fourth Mark 1 in the top seven and speaks well for the ability of our older boats to keep up.


Fine consistency (8-7-6-6-6-8-[10]) but a disappointing and uncharacteristic lack of top-five finishes for 8th-place Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele Parish, from Oriental, NC (above). It was a similar tale for Uwe Heine and wife, Nancy Collins (below) of Lake Townsend who ended up 9th overall despite starting and finishing their series with a strong 3rd and 6th respectively. Both couples appeared not to lack for speed but did perhaps lack for breaks.


A second Lake Eustis SC team made the top ten when John Cadman and Charles Child (above) took series 10th, highlighted by their 6th in race 1 and 4th in race 3. Seeded 14th for this regatta, John and Charles were clearly the Most Improved team among the Spinnaker boats. Very nicely done, fellows!!



Michigan's Dave McCreedy and Angela Brazil (above) took series 11th with a sound and improving performance. In Angela, Dave appears to have found a capable crew to consistently team up with and their future looks bright.


Sailing to series 12th overall and top spot among the Non-Spinnaker boats were LESC's Junior Sailing head man, Craig Yates and Rob Krental (above) in an ancient glass Wayfarer (above) acquired from Karlheinz Krueger. Their currently rather decrepit W3991 that had been Jim Lingeman's first venture into Wayfarers was campaigned for this event with a borrowed John Cadman cruising main complete with reef points that disguised it as W3487. Well done, guys!


Only two points back of Craig and Rob and runners-up among Non-Spinnakers were LESC's Jim Burns who sailed with Ron Plank (above) when he could or solo when Ron was unavailable. By placing two places better than his 15th seed, Jim and Ron tied for Non-Spinnaker Most Improved honours at +2 with Lake Townsend's Ken Butler and Gail Walters (below) who ended up just two points behind Jim and Ron to capture Bronze in the Non-Spinnaker fleet as well as their share of Most Improved glory.


Continuing her steady improvement through time on the water was our LESC Regatta Co-Chair, Patty Kuntz, who teamed up with Buffy Moring, sister of Dave, for Saturday and Sunday, but had to press Linda Heffernan into service on the Friday when maternal duty made it impossible for Buffy to sail. Patty and company ended up finishing a very respectable series 15th.


The 17th-seeded local team of Izak Kielmovitch and Ron Normark (below) managed a 16th overall and became one of the few entries to improve on their seed what with a pair of new, as yet unseeded teams being "parachuted" into the top end of our fleet. Having just finished Saturday with two eminently respectable mid-fleet finishes, Ron and Izak were no doubt among the competitors who were most disappointed by Sunday's total absence of wind.