Looking back at their series win, Al and Marc could point to a pair of turning points in this closely fought championship series sailed on double-sausage windward-leeward courses with a leeward gate and dead run finishes: In race 1, Al completed the first sausage lying a close 5th (above) (behind Heider Funck [600], Mark Taylor [7673], Alastair Ryder-Turner [10137], and John Cawthorne [just behind Alastair]) after failing to heed crew, Marc's advice to not only play the oscillating shifts inherent in any off-shore wind but to also work as far to the left side of the beat as possible to benefit from the Humber River (under the bridge arch above) shift.

Engrossed with each other, the top four all rounded the left-hand gate mark. This left Al and Marc (above left) alone at the left-hand mark to not only round into clear air, but to also get a head start to the favoured left side of the beat. In gradually lessening winds, Al and Marc sailed into their element, and when the first significant starboard knock came along, Al and Marc tacked across the other four and then held on to win their first of three straight Saturday races.

On Sunday morning, the SHADES team got their other key break. After getting buried in the race 4 start Al had to tack to clear his air and ended up crossing behind most of the fleet on port. A hundred yards later, Marc and Al tacked back to starboard and suddenly, by pure BS luck found themselves in better wind and with a lead that they held to the finish to pretty much clinch the series.

Turnabout was in fact, fair play, in race 5 where the top 5 reached the gate very close together. John Cawthorne, Mark Taylor and John de Boer rounded the left-hand mark to port and headed out into the lake, while Heider Funck and Uncle Al rounded the other mark and went towards Toronto Island. Al and Heider sailed into a good breeze, and tacked in it, only to find that John, John and Mark had done even better - far better - by going the other way, establishing a lead that would not be seriously threatened. Congratulations to John Cawthorne and Thomas Vendely who did a great job in winning this race in a very cool manner despite fine challenges from Mark Taylor and John de Boer.

In race 6, Al and Marc took an early lead and protected it flawlessly throughout the two-lap windward-leeward race, a task made far easier by the fact that, realistically, Mark and Heider were now pretty much fighting over the runner-up spot. With this first, Marc and Al clinched the 2007 North American title, and in light of fading winds, decided to sit out the finale, something they rarely do.


This left current Canadian champion, Mark (3-2-2-2-3: 12 pts.), to battle it out with Heider (4-2-2-2-4: 14 pts.) in the 7th race. In the fading winds, Mark and Paul showed off their ever improving light-air skills as they won decisively (7673 above) and nailed down series 2nd ahead of Heider and Tom.


Series 4th went right down to the wire as John Cawthorne and Thomas Vendely edged out U.S. National champions, John and Dolores de Boer to move into a 4th-place tie with the latter, a move which also made John and Thomas one of two Most Improved teams (photo above) for the 2007 North Americans - the other team being Andrew Haill and Lori Beehler. Both John (seeded 7th) and Andrew (seeded 11th) beat their seed by three places. Well done, (l to r) Thomas, John, Lori and Andrew!!!

TSCC's Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale just held on to maintain series 6th after Richard Johnson and Michele Parish who came all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina and borrowed Hans Gottschling's beautiful wooden W, finished the series with an outstanding 4th-place finish that left them only a single point behind Kirk and Mike in the final standings.

Next were the well travelled team of Andrew Haill (Thunder Bay) and Lori Beehler (Ottawa) who took series 8th as previously indicated. Detroit's Nick Seraphinoff, a former Wayfarer North American champion himself, sailed with his daughter, Julie, in what was meant to be a tune-up for Nick and Marc's sailing CORK the following weekend in Nick's Flying Dutchman. Nick, too, decided to take the final race off, and ended in a 9th-place tie with Geoff Edwards who sailed with his daughter, Barbara, on the Sunday after teaming up with Dave Platt on the first day of racing. Geoff saved his best for last as he and Barb nailed down a very fine 3rd in the finale, and thus ended up sharing series 9th with Nick and Julie.

The final race made all the difference as TSCC's Fred Black with Leo Sawitsky beat out his much improved clubmate, Ted Lacelle, with up-and-coming young crewing star, Colin Schwarz, by two places, thus breaking in his favour, an 11th-place tie that had existed going into the finale. Ted and Colin just missed out on a share of the Most Improved honours as they beat their seed by two places. Well done, guys.

Word is that Alastair Ryder-Turner, sailing with his son, Andrew, found the puzzling shifts too frustrating during the third race, and packed it in after beginning his North Americans with a very promising 3-5. Alastair and Andrew thus ended up in 13th for the series.

It was great to see Mississauga SC's Alan Hallwood back with us after a long absence. After giving up on the restoration of wooden W442, Alan and his daughter, Jillian Joanisse, sailed in a lovely-looking glass boat in their return to the Wayfarer racing circuit. Welcome back, Alan and Jillian!

Big thank you's to

• this year's main organizers, George Blanchard and Tom Wharton, and their various volunteers
  
• PRO, Jake Starr, and his very capable Race Committee
• club manager, Derek Griffiths, who organized our refreshments (and to BBQ chef, Marc Bennett)
• Rob Logan who multi-tasked by taking pictures aboard the RC boat
• Ken Devlin who kindly lent his lovely Wayfarer Grey Matter to be sailed by Andrew and Lori