| Wayfarer Midwinters Lake Eustis SC * February 3-5, 2023 Uncle Al's Report updated: 19 Feb 2023 at 1143 hrs |
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Clean Sweep for Catawba's Jim Cook and
Mike Taylor
 The way it was throughout the 2023
Midwinters: We
were blessed
with fine
winds in all
six races as
Charlotte,
NC's Jim Cook
and Mike
Taylor
sailing out of the Catawba YC in Black Skimmer (W10873) outdistanced everyone in the 21-boat fleet with relative ease. (John Cole photo) (2023.02.13) The 2023
Wayfarer Midwinters attracted a very nicely
matched fleet of 21 Wayfarers to Florida's Lake
Eustis SC February 3-5. Two races were
completed on each of the three days which were
largely sunny and nicely warm after cool mornings.
Congratulations to our 2023 Midwinter
champions, North Carolinians Jim Cook and
Mike Taylor who emphatically defended the
title they won at the last Midwinters in 2021. The
top-seeded Cook-Taylor team indeed managed the
first unbeaten Midwinters series since Irishman,
Trevor Fisher, borrowed Richard Watterson and his
W10862 Bubbles in the 2012 Midwinters. In
those days, the Mids were a no-drop series, so Jim
and Mike (left and right below) this year became the
first Midwinters team to "shamelessly" discard a
first-place finish. In the seven boat
Non-Spinnaker Fleet, locals Jim Burns and Jim the
Elder McIntyre, were victorious in a closely
contested series.
  A fine team of Lake Eustis SC
volunteers again helped Regatta Chair, Pat
Kuntz, and PRO, David Leather, give us a most
enjoyable event - from Thursday's coaching and
practice session (below) to the Sunday
afternoon awards. This was a worthy successor to
last year's Wayfarer Worlds, one that left us
eagerly awaiting 2024 and the 25th Wayfarer
Midwinters event hosted by this fine
organization.
   Friday, as forecast, began with lots of off-shore wind and warm rain as a cold front and strengthening winds began to roll through. Friday was definitely one day on which the early birds did not get the worm: Both of our all-female teams were among the first to go out to test the day's winds, only to capsize in vicious gusts in the weedy waters near the club's shore. Both teams needed rescuing when their masts stuck in the weeds. LESC Youth Foundation sailors, Bea Newland and Grace Moring, were quickly brought back to the warmth of the clubhouse as was W10864, but LESC Commodore, Pat Kuntz, W11342 (above) and June Howell had issues when June began to get hypothermic. Fortunately, Dr. Michele Parish was available to take charge until June could be taken to the local hospital by the EMS providers and firemen (below).   June (above
centre) was kept in the hospital for
observation for the day before returning safe
and recovered to warm applause and a loving
hug from her helm, Pat. Two races were
completed before the lunch break, as our
committee awaited meteorological developments.
These ended up being as nasty as forecast, and
no one was disappointed when further Friday
racing was called off.
 The Friday
evening of the Midwinters was deemed the ideal
time to award three CWA annual trophies that
were won this year by USWA sailors. The CWA's
annual Red Herring Award for best
exemplifying the Wayfarer spirit in 2022 went to the Wayfarers who gave up
their Mark 4's to overseas competitors whose
chartered boats could not be delivered in time
for the 2022 Worlds. Since we were unable to
locate the Red Herring, we used the
CWA's Most Improved Wayfarer racer
trophy as a stand-in for the Red Herring,
and inserted the latter into its photo (above).
 Ali Kishbaugh who holds the stand-in trophy here, was in fact the Most Improved Wayfarer of 2022 along with her crew, Mike Sigmund. But Uncle Al overlooked this little matter, despite having gone to some effort getting Ali's name onto the trophy as the 2022 winner in time for the Mids. The due ceremony has been tentatively postponed until Al's next North Carolina visit in spring.  The Ted
Davis Memorial Trophy - the year's best
cruise log - was won by Paul Miller (and wife,
Dawn?) for the Millers' account of their 2022
Chesapeake Cruise.
  Saturday
arrived lovely but chilly with the lake
looking deceptively calm from our
location on the windward shore (above).
Al and Mike had been on the water
for about half and hour when Al's
get-up-and-go got up and went. Al begged
off sailing race 3 in cold, gusty winds
and Mike agreed without even a glimmer
of complaint. As we neared the dock I
suddenly burst out to Mike, "Of course you
could sail, Mike."
 And as if pre-ordained, Pat Kuntz was awaiting us on the dock, having been left crewless and eager to sail (aboveI. Congratulations to Mike and Pat who arrived on the course in time for race 4 in which they placed a fine 4th before the lunch break. Again, the winds continued to pick up, and ultimately further Saturday racing was abandoned, leaving us with nothing to do but relax and await the delicious BBQ preparations for which were already well underway to the strains of country music - note the flag reflecting the breezy conditions.   Sunday
(above) arrived cool and misty
with promises of more relaxing winds.
Freshly enthused, Al and Mike did a
half-hour of pre-race tacking practice
which helped a lot. Better tacks
however, could not overcome Al's poor
strategic choices. Still as can be seen
below, conditions were enjoyable.
   As a lead-in to the 2023 Midwinters awards, Phil Leonard presented lovely jewelry boxes created by AnnMarie Covington to the top three finishers in the Lake Townsend YC Wayfarer fleet (#15) 2022 Regatta Series. 3rd went to Uwe Heine and Nancy Collins.  Phil Leonard presents the runner-up award to Catawba YC's Jim Cook.  And the 2022 series winner was AnnMarie Covington.  2023 Midwinters Non-Spinnaker 3rd overall: Frans van Zeeland (with Mark Grinder)  Non-Spinnaker runners-up: Lloyd Weed with his ever-cheerful daughter, Shannon Campbell  Non-Spinnaker winners: Jim Burns (with Jim McIntyre)  Spin Fleet 3rd overall: Paul and Dawn Miller  2nd
overall: Peggy Menzies with Chris McGrane
 Midwinter
Wayfarer champions again in 2023: Jim Cook and
Mike
Taylor
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