Annapolis, Maryland was well represented by ex-patriate Brits, John Driver and wife, Mary (above), who scored  7-(8)-2-4-2-7 to take fourth place ahead of the oldest competitor at age 83, North Carolina's Jim Heffernan of Lake Townsend YC and son, Paul, who sailed the last ever wooden kit boat W8705 (below) that was beautifully completed in Brooklin, Maine by the late Frank Pedersen. The Heffernans scored 5-5-8-6-3-(14) for 27 points and 5th overall.

A wonderful surprise for us Wayfarer veterans was the re-appearance of Bryan Sims (above), one of Uncle Al's Junior Grubbies in the 1970's at the Bronte Harbour YC in Oakville, Ontario and last seen with Sandy Clifford (below) in W786 Confusion at the 1989 Worlds in Vallensbaek, Denmark. In his reincarnation at Eustis, Bryan dazzled us with son/crew, Eric, and wife, Hannah, not to mention W11443 Hannah in all her glory (above).



It was a sub-par series for 3rd-seeded Marc Bennett and wife, Julie (above), of East Lansing, Michigan as their 9-2-5-8-6-(15) finishes left them in series 7th. Their Midwinters high point may well have been a visit from Julie's son, Spencer and his charming family (below).

Making their farewell Wayfarer appearance before they move on from Oakville, just west of Toronto, Ontario, to head out to further explore the world were 9th-seeded David and Anne Pugh. The expatriate Englishmen scored 4-6-9-7-(10)-8 for 34 points and 8th overall despite helm, David, losing his prescription sunglasses at the dock on Thursday (above). W11222 Soundcheck has been bought by Leo Van Kampen of the Conestoga Fleet in Ontario.

The battle for the last two spots in the top ten saw a mere two points separate North Carolinians, Richard Johnson and Uwe Heine. Teaming upin W11336 Fetch with David de Miranda, when his wife, Michele, drew house defense duties, was Oriental's 7th-seeded Richard Johnson (above) who placed a very promising 4-3 at the end of Friday, but could not reach single-digit finishes again. As Bryan Sims noted to Al after his first race against the new generation of W's: "These guys are good!"  Uwe Heine (below) and wife, Nancy Collins, passed on race 3 because " it was a long day and we were wanting to get on shore and check on our dog.  This was the first time we've brought her to a regatta." Team Anansi of the #1 fleet in North America on Lake Townsend near Greensboro, then spent all Saturday's three races eating into Fetch's lead but fell two points short and placed series 10th.

Continuing her fine learning curve was Lake Townsend's 15th-seeded Marie-Lyne Lavoie who teamed up  with Lynn Marie Abrams (above) to finish up 13th overall, a series highlighted by a fine 8th-place finish in race 5. Well done, ladies.


Even Minder Mike's best efforts were not enough to lift W3854 SHADES a.k.a. Glory Days above series 14th. In race 1 neither Al nor Mike (above) were alert enough to escape the terminally disadvantaged right side of the beat until their 18th place had been set in stone. We sailed well enough off the wind but our crew weight of well over 450 pounds reminded me sadly of a dictum I created for Wayfarer racing long ago: Crew weight of over 400 pounds is too much handicap to carry. Still, when the winds picked up some for race 2, we were looking decent (5th?) when the jib came down. Did I mention that we had lost the main halyard ball and the main had come down at the dock before race 1. With no time to fish the halyard back up the mast, we had slid the sail up the mast with the boat tipped on the ramp and used the good old shoe-lace method to tie the main to the masthead at or near the black band.


Now it seemed like a sign from God that we were straight upwind of the club and a nice easy ride back seemed a fair exchange for the upcoming DNF and DNC. Of course there was the matter of the mainsail tied to the mast head. Al cleverly suggested that we take the main off the boom to reduce the odds of disaster at the docks in the increasing winds. That should have been easy but our jury-rigged, broken sail-tack fitting was securely tied on and hard to get at (above). Still, our sail area was reduced and we ended up sailing to the ramp. Many thanks to Mike who took charge of repairs, starting with retrieval of the jib halyard which, it turned out, was still threaded through the mast as needed. This in turn finally led us to the conclusion that the stopper overhand knot we had put into our 3-mil diameter dyneema halyards was sliding through the stopper ball. In due course, Mike got us a fish tape and re-threaded the main halyard while Al provided two SS washers to improve halyard stoppage and took over Dark 'n' Stormy coverage.


As a Saturday morning lack-of-wind postponement wore on, my enthusiasm to escape our 18-DNF-DNC mire slowly evaporated until I suggested that Mike find a replacement crew (preferably appreciably lighter) which Mike did in Eustis Sailing Foundation Junior, Jack Henry Haukoos (above),
and this much lighter team scored 9-9-6 in fine fashion, moving SHADES up to series 14th by the time racing ended.

As mentioned earlier, Jim Burns and Bill Zeuli of Eustis took Non-Spinnaker Gold (15th overall) with the one solo sailor in the fleet, LESC's Dave Hepting, taking Non-Spin Silver (16th overall). Bronze (20th overall) to repeat, went to Florida's south-west in the persons of Lloyd Weed of Venice and his daughter, Shannon, just ahead of John Cadman/Jim Ward in Snowdrop W3487 (below), the oldest boat in the fleet after John loaned his lovely Mark 4 to Sue and Steph. Non-Spinnaker results sheet here.


Two more stalwarts from Lake Townsend followed Dave Hepting in series  17th and 18th overall: Andy Forman and Ron Washburn (above) beating out clubmate, Phil Leonard with Jeannie Allamby (below). The latter were - after a promising 10th in Saturday's first race - forced to miss the final two races "due to spinnaker issues. Not being able to fully lower the spinnaker after downwind legs. Could only get it half way down the last time we tried to lower it."

One man's trip to a funeral is another's opportunity: Mike and I arrived in Eustis, much anticipating "catching up" with Nick Seraphinoff and seeing his brand new W11444 Impulse IV only to discover that he and Mary had gone the funeral of their Monsignor in Detroit and leaving his new baby in the capable hands Youth Sailing Foundation instructors, Sam Pearl and his sister, Selah (above) on the Friday but instructing duties forced Selah out of the Saturday racing and their dad, John (below) was called up.