the
2004
Wayfarer
North Americans Regatta Report by Uncle Al |
Schönborn/Goulay
outduel
Jeffs/Bamford to retain 2004
North American title In the
usual
superb conditions and setting of The weather
was
very much like what we were blessed at last
year's fine sailing Tawas Bay event: Saturday's warm
sunshine and
resulting
healthy lake breezes of 12 to 20+ knots enabled our
Race Committee
(Bill
Coberly, his wife Margaret, the Princings (Matt, Chris
and Jennifer),
and Don
Thwing - plus our guest from the Rebel fleet at Clark
Lake, Tim
Dowling) to
easily get in three windward-leeward races with plenty
of time left
over to
socialize the late afternoon away. The day's racing
had left Uncle Al ( Also like
last
year, Sunday got next to nothing as we headed
out for a A patient
wait of
another half-hour paid off for all as a
nice little NE breeze sprang up which increased to
beyond hiking
strength by
the middle of race 5 (to the point where a
port-tacker, having seen
Uncle Al
approaching on starboard on the second beat, tried to
bear away in
plenty of time
but - in a gust - only succeeded in taking off six
inches of SHADES' port rubrail just
aft of the
shroud. By this
time,
Uncle Al had clinched the title with a
decisive race 4 win in light to medium air and Brian
had clinched
series second
with a 3rd-place finish. Al then managed a first in
his 50-year racing
career:
He lost control while sitting near the RC boat and
began to go
backwards. He
was twice too eager to start normal steering before
gaining forward
momentum:
he tried to bear away while still going backwards
which only succeeded
in
putting him head to wind two more times with the
attendant backwards
progress.
By the time we finally started, we had pulled away
from the fleet in an
entirely unwanted direction and were a good hundred
yards in last
place.
Observers were gracious, indicating that they thought
we had
deliberately
backed off, having already won the series. But no, we
were
still seriously racing and were not last
around the windward mark. Roger Shepherd and Joanne
Kumpf meanwhile
found the
increasing breeze to their liking and came out of the
right corner with
a full
head of steam and a lead that would never be
threatened. By the leeward
mark,
Frank and our new Mike McNamara spinnaker had done
their thing and we
rounded
in a five-boat mess that was fighting for second place
with only the That
final-race
win gave Roger Shepherd and Joanne Kumpf the
third-place trophies while both Mark Taylor and
Jennifer Princing
sailed to
drop-race finishes in the finale to remain tied in
series 4th, a tie
which was
broken in favour of Mark and Paul. But Jennifer and
crew, Joe Blackmore
(and
Nick Seraphinoff) were still winners, gaining a
half-share of Most Improved honours
as they beat their
7th seed by two positions. London's
John and
Dolores de Boer decided to forego the
windy last two races on Saturday - a wise precaution
in the light of
John's
replaced knees and the 6th-seeded London pair ended up
matching their
seed with
sound 6-6-4 finishes in the three races they did sail. Our
enthusiastic
young Wayfarer sailor from Another
long-distance traveller was Dave Hansman who came in
all the way from At the
other
extreme was a relative rookie, Paul McVey who
had begun his Wayfarer regatta-racing career at Tawas
in 2003 with his
wife,
Lorrie (USWA Treasurer) as crew. This year, Paul and
Lorrie even
sampled
Saturday's windier stuff before Lorrie stepped aside
to let John Smith
who had
come up from Our thanks
go to
Nick Seraphinoff and the various committees
who did a super job. Tawas is a long drive for most of
us but we
invariably
return home feeling that the long drive was most
definitely worthwhile!! |
first photos
page 2004 index NAC nostalgia index |