Optimistic sailors rewarded at most exciting North Americans in years!

All week the forecast had assured us that Sept. 13-14, the weekend of our North Americans at Toronto's Mississauga SC would be cool and rain-filled. By Friday night, that prognostication had been spiced up with the prediction that Sunday would see the arrival of the remains of Hurricane Ike would drench us with nearly an inch of rain plus winds of 25+ knots. No, it did not look promising.

Nonetheless, 13 Wayfarers and 3 CL16's turned out to see it through. In Wayfarers, we were one of the strongest fleets assembled in recent memory with no fewer than 10 of us being seeded in the top quarter of North American racing W's. The revival of the CL16 North Americans after a hiatus of perhaps 20 years attracted only three boats but they enjoyed racing with us in one 16-boat fleet.

We ended up getting a five-race series. Only one of these was completed the first day which was nice and warm (mid-20's Celsius) but began with windless fog  (photo above) and a postponement until after lunch. In winds of about 3-5 knots, we finally got underway just after noon.

With a course of windward-leeward with an offset mark, twice around, we were soon sent off into a light easterly (above). It was indeed a high-powered fleet. The top two boats from the US Nationals were there: Uncle Al in 3854 and Jim Heffernan in 2458 (above left), our "resident" W sailmaking guru, Heider Funck in 600 (above right) who has won several Canadian and North American W titles, not to mention Frank Goulay who tied with Uncle Al for the 2008 Ontario Wayfarer championship. But the favourites had to be Mark Taylor and his brother, Paul, who had won so convincingly in our 2007 and 2008 Canadian Nationals, and who  would now have the advantage of sailing on their home course.

And they began the series convincingly enough, holding a comfortable lead near the end of the first lap (above) when Mark and Paul got the first indication that this would perhaps not be "their" weekend. The RC, for no apparent reason, signalled abandonment of the race. It turned out that the windward and the offset mark had come adrift - a most unfortunate turn of events for the Taylors. In the re-sail, they placed 3rd behind Heider and Al, at which point the RC sent us back in, what with rain and dying winds seeming imminent.

With a forecast of heavy winds and torrential rains for Sunday, the racing end of things did not look bright. But the good news was that we got in some serious socializing and fine food provided by our hosts. We were extremely well looked after and all had a fine time. It was an early night for most of us and I imagine we went to sleep hoping as never before that the forecast would be wrong.

What a difference eight hours make!! It had poured all night but by 9 AM the warm sun was occasionally breaking through the clouds and there were a nice 8 to 12 knots of SW breeze out on Lake Ontario (above). A brief skippers' meeting confirmed the intention to complete four more races in winds that were expected to peak at 15 knots (which they did). At about an hour per race, there was every hope that we could be done with the sailing before the Hurricane Ike remnants came through from the south.

In these conditions, most of the fleet was very evenly matched for speed and we had four of our most exciting races in years (above). After two races, Frank Goulay (no spinnaker!!) and Uncle Al were tied for the lead at 5 pts. The latter's come-back win in race 3 left him alone in the lead. In the 4th race, Al had the lead going onto the final run to the finish but Heider cleverly rode a puff and passed Al to windward when the latter fell asleep at the wheel. In the end, Heider beat Al by about one foot in a nerve-wracking finish for both. Amazingly, the rest of the fleet which had been pretty close starting the run, dropped well back while the two leaders were pushing each other to the limit.

So now, only Heider or Al could still win the Henry Croce Trophy with only one race to go: Al (2-3-1-2 for 8 pts) had a one-point edge over Heider (1-5-2-1 for 9 pts). With a 5th race completed, there would be a drop race, so that Al would end up with 8 points at worst, Heider with 9. So for them, race 5 was all about trying to beat each other and improving on their current "drop" race. Alastair Ryder-Turner, meanwhile, had quietly put together a fine 2-3-3 after his less than spectacular first-race 8th, and could still tie Heider for series 2nd by winning the finale while Heider did no better than 5th.

For Dave Hansman and me, the task in the finale was two-fold: beat Heider and improve on our drop race, i.e. finish better than 3rd. After a pair of general recalls, we again got off to a clear air start, to leeward and ahead of Heider where we could try to pinch him off. After a duel of several hundred yards, we forced Heider to tack away to the right. By not tacking immediately, we seemed to sail into a slight knock and by tacking on this, we had soon extended our lead to a comfortable margin over Heider. But the boats who had banged the left corner were looking disturbingly good, and after some soul searching, we decided to leave Heider unattended. It was already a bit late, however, as Dwight Aplevich, Mark Taylor and Rob Wierdsma came in on the port lay line to round 1-2-3 not too far ahead of us. We passed Rob who was sailing white sails only but made very little inroads on Dwight and Mark. So it all came down, I thought, to this next beat. Dave and I really got the best out of SHADES on this leg and were euphoric when we passed Mark near the windward mark to move into 2nd place. If we could hold this, we would win the series!

That final run was a tough challenge for my crew, Dave, who does not normally crew. The winds were gusty and there were frequent waves to surf which caused repeated changes in the apparent wind requiring constant spinnaker adjustment. In retrospect, I should have left Dave to it and done my job. Instead, I let Mark get beside us to windward as Heider had done in the previous race, and we then stayed bow to bow to the finish. We took turns surfing into small leads and Mark laughed last as he surfed and got the 2nd-place beep just as we began the surf that put our bow ahead seconds after Mark beat us by inches. Congratulations to Mark on a good race, and even more to Dwight Aplevich and Al Nichols who calmly held their 50-yard edge to win the race. In fact congratulations to all of us - the whole fleet sailed to a very high standard and we can all be proud.

With Heider placing 4th in the finale, he did just enough for him and crew, Tom Wharton, to end up in a tie with Uncle Al and Dave Hansman for the Henry Croce Trophy and the North American Wayfarer Championship - see photo above (l to r) Al, Dave, Tom and Heider.

For the veteran, Heider Funck, this was an amazing 4th North Americans title tie: He and Tom Wharton (above left) previously tied with Al in 1998 and in 2003, while Heider was also part of the only other North Americans tie when he tied with the late Dick Rothery (W1320) of USWA Fleet 2 in the 1972 North Americans sailed on Lake St. Clair out of Windsor's South Port SC. I mostly remember that regatta because on the Saturday night, somebody brought a TV to the club and we all watched the long-awaited first game of the historic Canada-Russia hockey series. I remember winning a race the next morning and not really caring much because Canada's crushing 8-2 defeat was still depressing me too much. Not to be forgotten in all this nostalgia is the fact that Heider, in this star-studded fleet, was seeded only 5th and his first-place finish left him and Tom as one of two Most Improved teams.  The other Most Improved team was Colin Junkin with Martin Boeykens who also beat Colin's seed by four places with their series 8th.

For Uncle Al, this series was a pleasure in many ways, most especially the fun of sailing with Dave Hansman (above) who did a magnificent job in his unfamiliar job as crew, while his wife, Carol, was our wonderful support team, in charge of boat polishing, beer delivery, etc. And the tie was good enough to let Uncle Al stretch his amazing North Americans winning streak to 12 years as he continues to demolish the Jeff Jones record of five straight set in the 70's.

And what can we say that will do justice to the terrific performance turned in by Frank "Wayfarer Man" Goulay and Kim Bergevin of Ottawa's Lac Deschênes SC? Heaven help us if they ever finish rigging KGB for a spinnaker. Even without one, Kim and Frank won one race (above) - without banging any corners!!! - and added three 4ths to take series 3rd despite having to miss the final race to get set for their long drive home.

Starting with series 3rd, there were in fact, four boats that were separated from each other by only one point. One point behind Frank, in 4th place overall, was Alastair Ryder-Turner with son, David (above). The Ryder-Turners have recently joined the Mississauga SC where they have been giving the National Champion Taylor brothers all they can handle and more in the club series. With the pressure of an 8th place in race 1 on them, Alastair and David responded with an excellent 2-3-3 on Sunday morning, and still had a shot at series 2nd until a 6th in the finale dashed those hopes.

Comments about escaping home-related duties such as lawn mowing accompanied "boys' weekend away" team of Dwight Aplevich and Al Nichols (above) from the Conestoga SC near Kitchener, ON. Team Eclairelle (W4606) was impressively consistent with 5-4-5-6 finishes in the first four races before being inconsistent in the nicest possible way by winning the finale. When the points were all added up, Dwight and Al were series 5th, one point behind Alastair and Dave and one point ahead of ...

...  the Canadian champions, Mark Taylor and brother, Paul. The photo above - taken after committee error robbed them of their first-race win - probably sums up very nicely how the lads felt about their performance in this series. On Sunday, the Taylors were just a little bit off their usually superb boat speed, but in this fleet it was enough to be fatal to their championship aspirations as they scored 6-7-5 in the first three Sunday. Their 2nd in the finale was too little, too late - though, for Uncle Al, it was too much too soon as he lost to the Taylor by a few crucial inches inches and thus he and Dave had to share the 2008 title with "the sailmaker and the leprechaun".

TSCC's 9th-seeded Kit Wallace and David Weatherston (above) completed a fine, consistent series in 7th place as they piloted their black, wooden beauty Ab faB to very respectable 6-7-6-5 finishes (and one OCS which they of course dropped).

In his first Wayfarer regatta since placing a great 3rd at the 2008 Midwinters, Coburg's Colin Junkin teamed up with local pick-up crew, Martin Boeykens, since his partner and usual crew, Heather Wood, was unavailable due to impending motherhood. Heather and Colin's first child - a daughter, if the tests are to be believed - this coming Saturday 20 September.

Seeded 12th, Colin and Martin, tied for Most Improved honours by piloting Colin's souped-up CL Frumious Bandersnatch to a fine series 8th while outdistancing the other two CL's by a significant margin. Congratulations to Colin and Martin, the new CL16 North American champions!

A mere one point further back were Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale (r) who were once again sailing George Blanchard's Redtop out of the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club. and who improved on their 10th seed by one position. Kirk and Mike sail Kirk's CL at Kirk's cottage from time to time - that same lovable CL that Uncle Al and Marc Bennett sailed in the 2005 CanAm Regatta at Hilton Beach.

The Hansmans were not the only team representing North Bay: Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk (Boy Wayfarer!) came down and got to sail Alan Hallwood's (relatively) pristine W8745 (above). Steph and Sue sailed a solid series, beating their seed by one place as they ended up 10th overall, but are no doubt looking forward to sailing Fanshawe's Pumpkin Regatta in early October where they can use their shift-playing skills to supplement their speed.

Coming far and away the farthest to sail with us were North Carolina's Jim Heffernan and his wife, Linda (above), who in addition to their enjoyable company and good competition, provided us with the latest scoop on the new USWA Committee that we hope is about to be voted into office. The Heffernans were the only US-based entry and placed 11th overall, a position they'll be looking to improve on in the upcoming Midwinters, no doubt!

First place in the white sail fleet (no spi) went to Rob Wierdsma of the host club. Rob did get his crew rotation backwards - his older son, (Big) Ben (17) crewed in Saturday's light air racing (above) while ...

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... Daniel (the youngest competitor in the event at age 12) got to sail Sunday's windier stuff. Even without the spinnaker, the Wierdsmas beat their seed by two places when they ended up 12th overall. Well done, guys! Rob, Ben and Daniel are also the only boat that improved their finish positions in each successive race: 14-12-11-10-9.

The two CL's in the event other than Colin - both from MSC - ended up needing a tie-break which saw Gary McIlroy and the lovely, young Emily Borgundvaag (15) get the nod. How lovely was she? Suffice it to say that when Gord Leachman was taking race pics, he made sure he got lots of shots of Team Vamoose VI, instead of getting to the finish line where some exciting finishes were available for recording. Of course, this may have been to due the photogenic skipper, but I continue to have my doubts. (Don't mind me. I'm just disappointed that neither of SHADES narrow losses made it into pixels!) Anyway, Gary and Emily ended up 2nd in the CL16 North Americans, ahead of ...

... clubmates, Ed Dragosits and Bob Brown (above left) who did grab two trophies each: 3rd in the CL16 NA's and 2nd in White Sail. The other two entries were able to sail only Saturday's one race, and not surprisingly placed 15-16.

Pickering's Marc Bennett (former Uncle Al ace crew) and his freshly acquired wife, Julie Seraphinoff of East Lansing, Michigan, placed a solid 7th in Saturday's only race. But with very nasty Hurricane Ike weather expected to cross Julie's path on her way back to Michigan with the boat, team Pub Crawl decided it would be prudent to get Julie home before the worst stuff hit.

Also calling it quits in anticipation of a nasty Sunday were MSC's veteran team of Roderick Anderson and Rod McIver (above). Their one series finish was a 13th which indeed matched their seed.

a big thank you to MSC's great bunch of volunteers

At the moment, we only have photos of our race committees, but are hoping to get a group shot of the many MSC members who gave up their weekend to give us a great time. We do have a list of these special people that you will see after the following RC pics:

Saturday's RC: (l to r)  John Hayward, Stewart Rauch, Michael Clayton, Scott Hansen



our mark layers: Bjug Borgundvaag (in the hat) with  Eric Schaefer, and ...


... John Hemingway (driving) with Dave McDougall


Sunday's RC: (l to r) Scott and Iza Hansen, Michael Clayton


Sunday's chase boat/photography: Gord Leachman with Juan Pablo,
an exchange student being hosted by Martin Boeykens