Both the human and the fibreglass Hartleys made a fine North American Wayfarer debut Sept. 10-11 at the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club. Richard and his son, Mark, (above) from Darby, England nailed down a solid victory in the regatta and are our 2011 Wayfarer North American champions (results here). And the five new Hartley MK IVs performed beautifully for their new owners: very sleek and fast but by no means unbeatable.


With very few shifts and very steady easterly breezes from 5 to 15 knots, the seven-race event was very much a boat speed contest. The new Hartley Mk IVs impressed us all with their sleek, modern lines, meticulously thought out rigging set-up and on-the-water performance. It does appear that designer, Phil Morrison, has fulfilled his mandate to make the new Wayfarer MK IV "as fast as the fastest existing Wayfarer but no faster." The reported better planing capability of the new boats has yet to be demonstrated since we cleverly opted for windward-leeward courses which made such abilities a relatively moot point.

We had received word that the tall and lanky - not to mention very fit - Hartleys excel in the breezier going, and the scouting report proved depressingly accurate as Richard and Mark began their series with a horizon job in the series' strongest breezes of about 15 knots on Saturday morning on Humber Bay. After that, the winds gradually abated to about 10 knots by the end of the day, and the 19 North American teams did a better job of challenging our esteemed guests, but the end result remained the same: Mark and Richard ended Saturday with four bullets.

A mark-room incident protest saw one of those four firsts evaporate and with lighter winds forecast for the Sunday,  the North American title was theoretically still up for grabs. Our overly modest visitors deprecated their lighter-air capabilities but in fact rolled to three second-place finishes in lighter 5 to 12-knot Sunday winds to nail down a most convincing victory as they counted 1-1-1-2-2-2 for 9 points. Congratulations, Richard and Mark!

After Saturday's racing which saw the Hartleys make an eloquent case for tacking downwind on the runs, Richard revealed a strategy that was new to Uncle Al (a great rarity!), namely that he and Mark sail just high enough to make the genoa "fly" (fill) so that they are using all three sails. Certainly a strategy that seems to have worked well for them and one worth checking out in 2012, although I noticed that Richard worked the mainsail harder than any of the rest of us [within the parameters allowed under rule 42.3(c)!]  Al's note: Richard Watterson and I tried this the following week at Mississauga, and it certainly didn't hurt any and may in fact have helped. More research needed at the upcoming Midwinters!!!)

Defending champions, Heider Funck and Tom Wharton of TS&CC were also most impressive, especially in Saturday's lumpier conditions where they scored 2-2-1-2. In Sunday's lighter conditions, Heider found the going a bit tougher, but the reigning champions were still in the hunt until the finale when a 5th-place finish confirmed their series runners-up status for 2011.

Despite having won the North Americans enough times to be the stuff of legends, Uncle Al of Oakville, Ontario was just slightly overmatched this year. He and crew, Tony Krauss of Whitmore Lake, Michigan, used Tony's W864 Mike Mac sails but as Al should have expected, the "new" sails took some getting used to. In the end, Tony and Al barely scraped into series 3rd by a single point.

Victims of Al's mini-comeback were the Mississauga SC brother act of Mark and Paul Taylor who sailed a nicely consistent series highlighted by a number of decent comebacks but who, like the rest of us, were simply outclassed by teams Hartley and Funck in this one.


After sailing to a tie for the Canadian title with Heider in July, Parry Sound's Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk found Saturday's windier going to be more than they could win in and ended up having to settle for series 5th. Their one real highlight was the first Sunday race where they were their usual dazzling selves with a first in the lightest winds of the series.

Top finisher among the new North American Mark IVs was Detroit's Nick Seraphinoff who got his favourite conditions on Saturday and looked good in them despite a number of spinnaker retrieval misadventures that all our new Mark IV owners seemed to encounter until they were subsequently re-educated by Mark Hartley before Sunday's racing. The 12th-seeded Nick dipped into the Flying Dutchman talent pool for his crew and was very pleased with Paul Hemker's capable presence in his boat. The upshot of it all was a 6th overall finish and Most Improved honours for Nick and Paul who beat their seed by a whopping 6 places!! Well done, Nick and Paul!


USWA Commodore, Jim Heffernan, and his SKIMMER-editing wife, Linda, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina were next in line at 7th overall in their beautifully re-done old woodie, W1066. Having been seeded 10th, the Heffernans were worthy of Most Improved consideration. Had it not been for Nick's amazing improvement in his new Mark IV, Jim and Linda would have won the green flags and most deservedly so! Actually, a luck would have it, Trevor Owen Ltd. accidentally sent us two sets of NAs Most Improved pennants so that in this instance, we were able to also reward Jim and Linda's accomplishments (above).

Instead of just admiring the Hartleys' fine technique as they piloted his boat-to-be, Beowulf, to victory, Dave Hansman of North Bay crewed for Kit Wallace out of TSCC and got a somewhat closer look at his new Mark IV. As seeded, Kit and Dave placed 8th and looked very competent in this high-quality fleet.

Despite winning the last race in fine style in "his" winds of 10 to 12 knots, John Cawthorne of this host club, and his crew, Robert MacDonald, could manage no better than series 9th in their new MK IV, a finish not helped by the fact that they scored DNF and DNC in the last two Saturday races when they had to head in for repairs.

Rounding out the top ten were Richard Johnson, his wife, Michele, and the Free Range Chick'n who came up all the way from Charlotte, North Carolina. As intended, Richard and Michele got a close-up view of the sleek new MK IVs and could well be among the second set of North American MK IV owners by next summer.

Pickering's Ivan and Chris Pedersen was drawn out of semi-retirement by the MK IVs' debut and acquitted themselves quite well after their years away from the fray by placing 11th overall, just ahead of East Lansing's Marc Bennett and Julie Seraphinoff who were also sailing a new MK IV, possibly to be named Soon Come after that famous Jamaican approach to life.


Youngest crew honours (nine years old?) went to Lilly Codd. She and her dad, CWA Commodore, Mike Codd, sailed to series 13th, representing the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club, and beat out Conestoga SC's Leo and Joanne Van Kampen, by only a single point.

The fourth of the new North American Mark IV owners, Richard Watterson of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, teamed up with Hans Gottschling of the host club and of boat cover fame. Taking turns at the tiller, team Bubbles got off to a dreadful start of DNS, DSQ but recovered nicely to take series 15th.

Next in line was TSCC Commodore, Bob Stevenson. He and Jeff Hocking started fairly well with 12-12-13 but as the winds dropped, so did they. Still, they did manage to beat out 5th-seeded John and Dolores de Boer of London, ON by a single point in the series. It speaks volumes as to how well people were sailing that the 5th seed could place no better than 17th overall!

Despite being able to sail Saturday's four races only, TSCC's Ed Tait and Paul Rogers edged out the Conestoga SC team of Scott Ramsay and Jan D'Ailly for series 18th. Last but not least, the (non-existent) Gracious Host Award went to TSCC's Ted Lacelle who teamed up with Robert Mosher of East Lansing, Michigan. How keen is Robert (who also helped Uncle Al win the 2011 Pumpkin three weeks later)? A supper-time Friday phone call reached Robert at home and he was off to Toronto like a shot, arriving with the dawn on Saturday.

Thanks go to Jake Starr and his excellent Race Committee and to Tom Wharton, our usual Regatta Chair. Not to forget Ruth ... who took great pics for us all day Saturday.