New North Americans venue gets rave reviews from 14 pleased W teams!!

Three cheers for Nick Seraphinoff and his Flying Dutchman friends, Jonathan and Anna Gorbold who arranged for Wayfarers to get their first delicious taste of the joys of sailing a regatta on Canandaigua Lake, one of the world-famous Finger Lakes, south of the eastern half of Lake Ontario (maps below).

But even when high pressure kills the weather system winds, Canandaigua gets a few hours of its early morning "drainage" winds from the mountains to the south - see Sunday morning 0830 hrs photo above.

We have been invited back to sail out of the lovely Canandaigua YC again, so if you missed this chance, be ready to grab it next time around. It is hard to imagine a nicer sailing spot: challenging and beautiful (above).


Having set up SHADES, Julia and I headed up the hill to register, have supper and enjoy a few drinks in the gorgeous Canandaigua YC. By this time, my crew, Nick Seraphinoff and his wife, Mary, had finished giving the crash course in Wayfarer rig and sailing (see photo above where Nick (l) explains to Jonathan) to two fine local racers who would be borrowing two of the Seraphinoff family's Wayfarers for this regatta: Jonathan and Anna Gorbold, Flying Dutchman friends of Nick's, would sail Nick's own wooden W864, while Stephen Smeulders, reigning US Force 5 champion and former Sunfish World champion would crew for his wife, Posy Seifert, in another wooden W from Nick's stable, W560.


A most pleasant evening of conviviality followed highlighted by the arrival of our oldest Wayfarer team ever: Michigan's Bob Frick (84) with crew, Peter Every (86) (above right). The evening's lowlight was the fact that John and Dolores de Boer arrived, discovered impossibility of electrical hook-up, and left again. We missed them both on land and water, but are happy to hear they enjoyed a lovely Canandaigua weekend at a campground that did provide electricity. John's record-settingly brief stay would be matched the next morning by Frank Goulay who popped in without a boat, discovered nothing borrowable and went back home to Ottawa.

The next morning we awoke at 7 a.m. to more glorious sunshine in our condo near the south end of the lake. And as Stephen Smeulders had predicted, the drainage wind was already blowing a lovely 12 or so knots from the south. Knowing his home waters and the wind, Jonathan Gorbold had scheduled our skippers' meeting for 0830 and the first race for a surprisingly early - by our usual standards - 1000 hrs. Unfortunately, even this did not prove to be early enough.


Race 1: We and a few minutes later, the Vanguards 15s with whom we shared Saturday's racing, got off to lovely starts in about 5 to 8 knots of more or less southerly breeze (above) from a start line that PRO, Suzy Bennett, had very kindly put about 1/3 up a windward-leeward leg. The course for all of the series' races would be windward-leeward -windward-leeward plus the remaining 1/3 of a beat to the finish.


It was a great start to the series for Kit Wallace and Alyssa Johnson (l) who led all of us to the windward mark and above, Kit was defending his wind from several close pursuers. This turn of events was a godsend for Uncle Al and Nick Seraphinoff (r) comfortably sailed the rhumb line (straight towards the leeward mark) in winds that were expected to die between 10 and 11.


By the time we neared the start/finish line (above) the drainage wind had indeed turned patchy and was feeling SOB (hospital acronym for shortness of breath). In this closely bunched fleet, Al (2nd from right) was already defending the right side (inside at mark) against Alastair and Andrew Ryder-Turner (5th from r).


Not unexpectedly, there was about to be a bit of a traffic jam at the leeward mark as can be seen in the photo above which also gives a glimpse of the Sunfish sailing on a course of their own. In the end, Al (3854) got around just astern of Jim and Linda Heffernan (2458) and inside Alastair (10137) and Jonathan Gorbold (864). But none of that really mattered as the wind continued to gasp its last. Al and Nick decided to more or less hold port tack along the west shore where there seemed to be a few ripples on the water, besides which this was the tack you could sail directionally closest to the windward mark.

As the early leader, Kit recalls: "... to my amazement, W1037 was first to the windward mark in the first race. I had visions of glory holding off the fleet down the run, until the drainage stopped exactly as predicted at 10:30 and we were swept up before reaching the leeward mark, in a disastrous boat crunching rounding unable to keep any forward momentum and ended up at the back of the fleet by the time the race finished!"

The problem was that the main known threats - Heffernan, Ryder-Turner, Johnson - were heading way out into the middle of the lake, so that after a while, Al did the prudent thing and tacked to avoid getting further away from the guys in the middle. A few minutes later, a big starboard knock virtually forced us to tack away from the seemingly stationary mid-lake group, onto a port tack that would let us virtually lay the windward mark where we could by now realistically expect a shortened course, given the terminally ill wind.


And that move was just in time as we looked up to see that inshore, Tony Krauss sailing with Dick Harrington in the latter's cruising Hall of Famer, Blue Mist (above), and Andy Douma with Emily Johnson had made huge gains by holding port tack around the leeward mark, and were now to leeward and ahead of us as the RC signalled a shortened course with a finish at the windward mark. Meanwhile, Richard Johnson and Michele were coming up the middle in a little breeze of their own.

So instead of going right until Tony tacked for the finish line, we split the difference and tacked to make sure we stayed between Richard and the finish line, a strategy that worked well as we drifted across the line perhaps 50 yards ahead of Richard and Michele who in turn just edged out Tony and Dick. Andy and Emily appeared to have a lock on 4th place until they lost their momentum near the pin end of the line and watched helplessly as Anne and Gary Armstrong gurgled across the line just ahead of them.

Apart from Al, the leeward mark leaders (two pics up) did not fare well on this final leg: Jim Heffernan fell from 1st to 9th, Alastair fell to 8th and Jonathan fell to 10th.


Race 2 (abandoned): Oddly enough the wind teased us a bit by blowing perhaps 5 knots just long enough to make Suzy, our PRO (above), feel guilty about not making the effort, so she initiated our sequence for race 2. The breeze lasted until perhaps 30 seconds from our start after which we got the occasional patchy gasp here and there, but it was pretty clear that this was it for the foreseeable future.


When the RC gave us the eagerly awaited three beeps of abandonment, even Alastair and Andrew (above) who had sailed a wind streak into a large lead but were now becalmed like the rest of us, did not grumble excessively when the abandonment was signalled.


Several hours of lounging, socializing and not-really-hopeful waiting for wind was finally punctuated in the late afternoon by three horns from our moored RC boat (above) and the co-operative haul-out of most of our boats.


Soon it would be time to head up to the club dining room for dinner (above) but not before Stephen Smeulders made the weekend's most valuable suggestion: Given the forecast of more hot, sunny, high pressure weather and hence the almost 100% likelihood of a drainage wind that would die between 1000 and 1100 hrs, why not start the first race at 0630 hrs?  Why not, indeed!! In all my 50+ years of racing, I had never heard of such a thing. And yet, given our Friday and Saturday weather experiences, Stephen's idea made eminent sense. After due discussion with sailors and committee, the thought of rising before 0500 hrs to make it to an 0630 hrs first gun was deemed too great a culture shock to us Wayfarers, but with the agreement of our most helpful RC, it was announced that the first gun would be at 0800. Was it any wonder that most of us headed off for bed early after our delicious dinner??!!


Sunday morning had duly arrived sunny and full of drainage winds by the time I got up at about 0600 hrs. In addition to joining Julia Schonborn in helping on the RC boat, Mary Seraphinoff also had part of the breakfast duty which was carried out flawlessly such that sleepy-eyed sailors were able to help themselves to wake up pleasantly with breakfast goodies in the gazebo before heading out for (the real) race 2. Suzy got us off right at 0800 hrs for the first of as many 30- to 40-minute races as she could get in - at least four, she hoped, so that we would have a drop race. And even Suzy's brother, the BIMBO (photo above), was poised for action in the markset boat as he had been the day before. I must warn you that even right after our Sunday races, I had trouble remembering what had happened when and in what race, and as I write this, it is the 1st of November! Still, we'll see what memories the pictures taken from the RC boat will conjure up.


Race 2: Having used The Mud Yelper and Other Turkey Calls to check the wind direction (above), our RC soon had our line set and we got off (below) without a hitch into a 5- to 8-knot breeze that appeared to be oscillating somewhat


To the best of my recollection, a backed oscillation about a minute before the start favoured the pin end where Nick and I not only started on time but were also able to immediately tack onto a port tack that was now letting us (4th from r, above) nearly lay the windward mark.


Al and Nick led the way off the beat ahead of Jonathan and Anna Gorbold (pink spi) and Jim and Linda Heffernan (r). By now, the wind had oscillated back to give us a dead run and I don't recall the Bimbo's services being needed.


Our boat borrowers, Jonathan and Anna (above) and Posy and Stephen (below) made themselves right at home in their Wayfarers, looking great and placing very well.


Looking beautiful in the early morning sun (above), three of the four leading boats - Al, Jim and Jonathan - went up the right side of the second beat with only Alastair trying the left side.


Having a healthy fear - born of experience - of Alastair's abilities, Al tacked towards the middle for a while shortly after this to hedge his bets, and it nearly cost him. The Gorbolds (864 above) did very well in the right-hand corner, having not only knocked off Jim Heffernan but also moved into a position where port-tack Al (3854) could no longer cross starboard Jonathan. Al and Nick were however, smart and good enough to tack into a nice lee-bow (above)  and lucky enough to subsequently lay the mark. Not to ignore W1037 above, Kit Wallace with Alyssa Johnson who sailed an excellent second beat and were still well in the hunt for the first-place "gun".


I love the above picture - (l to r) Alastair, Jonathan, Jim H, Uncle Al. Not only does it show how close the top four of us were as we began the second run but also one can easily understand the nervousness I was feeling about being blanketed.


Ah yes, now the pictures bring back memories. I remember looking left and seeing what I thought was stronger breeze. Nick agreed (see photo above). The gybe was instant and gave a great sense of relief, taking us as it did, away from three threatening wind shadows.


By the time we gybed back after passing the start/finish line, we (l) had fine clear air and the inside for the rounding on both Jonathan (864) and Alastair (r). The ability to sail higher ended up giving us a nice little lead and we finished 1-2-3 the way you see us here: Al, Jonathan, Alastair. Jim and Linda Heffernan took 4th place ahead of Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, who in turn edged out yet another husband/wife team, Posy Seifert and Stephen Smeulders.


Race 3: It's not even 0900 hrs yet and we're about to start the day's second race already - backlit by the early morning sun (above). Nick and I have taken the few minutes between races to ponder strategy. Being the only boat with two good finishes (1-1), and the Johnsons being closest at 2-5, we have decided that there is no one in particular to cover. Instead, our main aim will be to avoid a really poor finish; anything in the top three will be just fine for example.