02 NAC report

Famous racer, Dave Curtis, once stated: "If we're first to the windward mark, then we've done something wrong!" Dave went on to explain that he favours sailing his first beat so conservatively that he is almost bound to be chasing someone who took more chances and got lucky, but that he is also almost sure to be still in the hunt after the beat. Well, Mr. Curtis would doubtless have approved of Uncle Al's and Wayfarer Man's very conservative strategy for their first beats which left Al and Frank with varying amounts of catching up to do in all but the final race of this year's 6-race North American Wayfarer championship.

In the end, it was the SHADES team of Al Schönborn and Frank Goulay that made the fewest mistakes, and adjusted well for an early lack of speed and pointing to win the 2002 title in a fleet of 14 Wayfarers who enjoyed nearly perfect sailing conditions off the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club August 17-18. Frank and Al's record of 2-1-1-1-2 over the first 5 races makes their series look deceptively easy since in fact, each of those races was quite close among the top 4 or 5 boats.

It was only in the finale, where SHADES had clinched the series, that Al and Frank felt they had earned the right to go a bit wild in the strategy department. Sailing their own race with little regard to the competition, they found their own winds and shifts as they capped a series they were very proud of with an old-fashioned "horizon job".

SHADES' sailmaker, Heider Funk, again teamed up with Tom Wharton - a combination that had defeated Al in the past three years' Canadian Nationals. Heider and Tom also sailed a very consistent series of 1-2-3-3-2 to convincingly nail down the runner-up spot.

Similarly sailing fine series in which they were challenging for the lead in almost every race were Roger Shepherd with Joanne Kumpf, and John Cawthorne with David Weatherston. The fight between John and Roger over series 3rd came down to the final race in which John and David completed a series-long comeback after their first-race 7th, and beat out Roger and Joanne by just one point. The 5th-seeded Cawthorne/Weatherstone team also took a share of Most Improved honours with their 3rd-place finish.

TSCC's Hans Gottschling also beat his seed by two positions and generally looked good with a new crew, Brian Hickman of Brantford in grabbing series 5th as well as Most Improved honours.

Keyed by a fine victory in race 5, Ottawa's Bill Fyfe combined with TSCC's Mike Codd to place 6th overall, just a couple of points ahead of our Mississauga SC entry, the Taylor brothers, Paul and Mark.

Pickering's father/son team of Ivan and Chris Pedersen used a beautifully sailed 4th in the finale to move into a tie for 8th overall with TSCC's Kit Wallace and also to win the tie-breaker. Kit, our hard-working CWA Membership Secretary, sailed with Jean Holden on Saturday and his regular crew, Marcel Plug, on the Sunday on his way to being the third helm to share in the Most Improved flags.

It was a pleasure to finally have our award-winning film makers, John and Joan Goldi, out for their first regatta of 2002 now that their boat's leak has at last been fixed and W1320 pronounced fit for use by the crew. Also making his 2002 debut was Peter Ayres who sailed with Lou Scaglione and placed 11th overall, just behind Team Goldi.

Only one point behind Peter in 12th was Fred Black who even used the spinnaker while single-handing on the Saturday before getting some help from Anna Wharton for the windier Sunday.

Even the battle to avoid last place was an exciting one as Ed Tait with Chris Walroth, and TSCC newcomer, Tim Bider, with Hazel Hewitt each beat the other three times with Tim and Hazel finally coming out ahead by two points.

It was a promising sign of more evenly matched competition that all 14 crews managed to place in the top 10 at least once during this series.