Wayfarer North Americans 2000
Pictorial Report on Race #5 - part one
Photos by Annemarie Pedersen
Text by Uncle Al
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Only a few seconds to go before the start of race #5: (left to right) Roger (7700), Dwight, Stefan, Heider, Peter Ayres (1191), Peter Rahn, Ryan (7380, nearest the pin), Fred and Keith. So where is Uncle Al who should really be right near Heider since the series is now pretty well down to the two of them?
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And they're off! A pretty nice looking start, especially for Keith and Sam in 49. Others from left to right are: Randy (3613), Roger (7700), Stefan (16), Heider (6), Peter Rahn, Ryan and Fred (7379).
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Just seconds after the start: Starboard tack seems to have lifted a bit, and Hans Gottschling (938) and Randy (3613) look excellent off the RC boat end. Other from left to right are: Ivan (7350 and a bit late, tsk! tsk!), Kit Wallace (1037), John deBoer (7351), Roger, Stefan and Heider. Still no sign of Uncle Al...
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Ah! There I am, working my way out over Peter Ayres' bow at the extreme right. Others from left to right are: Dwight (4606), Fred, Ryan, and Peter Rahn.
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Those who got off at the windward end of the line are doing well: Randy (middle, 3613), Hans (938) and George (CAN80) as well as Hazel (4107 which could do with more vang tension) are all crossing the first of the port tackers, John deBoer (7351) and Peter Rahn (5631) who in turn are crossing 7227 which is being sailed in a pretty relaxed fashion by Reg and Frances.
In the end, it paid a bit to favour the left side and at the windward mark it was Keith Haill around first by 2-3 lengths over Heider who had a similar lead over Al. This leg, a broad spinnaker reach, was a critical point in the series. Heider, perhaps remembering race 1 where he tried to pass the leaders to windward and got sailed overly high, chose to attack Keith by going through to leeward. This left Al the opportunity of sitting on Heider's wind while still far enough to leeward of Keith to avoid the effects of his wind shadow. About 100 metres from the mark, Al managed to surf past Heider and into an inside overlap on Keith. This status changed a few times as each of the leaders got their turn to surf, but at the critical two-length distance, Al had the inside overlap on Keith and a boatlength of water between his transom and Heider's bow.
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Al and Frank (3854) made no mistakes coming out of their gybe (above) onto a fairly close spi reach to the leeward mark, while Heider and Tom (6) overcame a spi pole end fitting that came off the pole during their gybe to still end up in a controlling position over Keith (grey & white spi). For more pictures from this reach, click here!
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With his young crew, Carl, Roger (7700) wisely decided to forego the spi on this close and gusty reach. John and Dolores deBoer (blue & green spi) are showing the perfect technique for dealing with an overpowering gust on a close spi reach: Dolores is hiked out as far as possible while John has immediately eased the main (and vang?) which not only takes much of the power/heeling force from the main but also closes the slot between the spi leech and the main to further depower the sail plan. Their end result is a nicely falt, emminetly controllable boat!! Also showing good spi reach form behind John are: Ivan and Chris Pedersen and Hans Gottschling with Scott Moddle.
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 A bit further down the same reach, these same four boats (plus Dwight Aplevich with the orange and white spi) come upon a Man Overboard situation with a safety boat standing by. It appears that Stefan Larson has missed the boat so to speak, a boat which has just been re-righted with the blue, yellow and white spi still hoisted. Note that spinnaker-less Roger has lost little if anything to the deBoers!
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Beat #2:(left to right) Uncle Al  is assiduously covering Keith, Peter Ayres, Heider, and Peter Rahn, as Kit Wallace appears to be sailing a boat-less rig under spinnaker behind the Ayres with Sid Atkinson (3618) behind him.
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As they pass the RC boat half way up the beat, it's Frank and Al with an increasing lead over Heider and Peter Rahn. Not in the picture but definitely in contention and a further source of worry to Uncle Al were Keith, Ryan and Peter Ayres.
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A short time later, Al (3854) is still sticking to Heider (left) like glue, and keeping Keith (49) under control at the same time.
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race #5 continues
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