| the 2015
Wayfarer
North Americans Cobourg YC * July 25-26 Regatta report by Uncle Al (last updated: 7 Aug 2015 @ 2248 hrs) |
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Exciting
North Americans
attract 14 Wayfarers to fine new venue in Cobourg
 Very close
competition marked a
thrilling Wayfarer North Americans hosted July 25-26 for the first time
by the excellent Cobourg YC. Sail Parry Sound's Sue Pilling and Steph
Romaniuk (above
right) consistently sailed just that little bit faster and smarter
to capture their first ever North American title by a wide points
margin in light to medium airs.
 Windward mark action in the race 1 drifter  By race 3 the winds had increased to a nice sailable 5 knots. Here Colin and Heather Junkin, our hosts, are about to round the windward mark just ahead of Rob Wierdsma and Donna Gallant.  In the final two Saturday races, we even
had to hike out at times.
Above, AnnMarie Covington with Tom Goldsmith (276) duke it out with Jan d'Ailly and Scott Ramsay. Saturday began warm and sunny but windless and a fairly lengthy postponement gave the six of us who had risen early to make the two-hour drive from the Rally at the Thousand Islans' Wellesley Island State Park a chance to prepare in a nice relaxed way. In the early afternoon, a SW breeze finally settled in, rising to about 8 knots by the time six relatively short races had been completed. The first of these (won by the Pughs?) was subsequently scrubbed due to an Uncle Al request for redress. The protest committee agreed with Al's contention that a course designation of "2" (two legs, one windward-leeward sausage) had not been described as an option in either the SI's or the oral instructions at the skippers' meeting. They also agreed with Al's contention that, while the RC had changed the course board from "4" to "2" well before the Warning Signal, Al (and half the rest of the fleet) were justified in not seeing this change since a long start line that was extremely pin-end favoured in a virtual drifter made a re-check of the course board a risky proposition because it would have taken well over five minutes to get back to the pin end. There were some very notable performances in that Saturday afternoon's racing. These included a natural hat trick of wins by Sue and Steph who took races 3, 4 and 5. Race 2 went to Mike and Marg while race 6 went to the Pughs. No wins but excellent results for Conestoga's Leo and Joanne Van Kampen as well as the Daves - Hansman and Richardson - from North Bay. So fine in fact that it is worth remembering that time with pictures of the first awards ceremony on Sunday that was inadvertently based on the Saturady evening standings:  (l to r) David Richardson, Dave Hansman,
Colin and Heather Junkin. Dave and David (bad hip, limp, cane and all!)
were sitting series 3rd. They ultimately ended up in a points tie for
second but lost the tie-breaker to both Mike Duncan and Al Schonborn to
place an official 4th.
 After a fabulous day of racing, Leo and
Joanne Van Kampen were sitting a solid second and looking at the silver
medals. Sunday's very light winds saw the Van Kampens drop to 12-8
placings in this veteran fleet, and they ended up series 6th, two
points out of second.
 Sunday was a
similar weather story, but with a 2 PM cut-off time, our fine RC had to
jump at the first sign of wind. Just as well, too, because after two
very light-air races - won by Uncle Al with son, David, and the
ubiquitous Sue and Steph (above) - the wind decided it had had
enough and quit for the day.
 Our 2015 North American Wayfarer
champions: Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk.
The trophy is being retrieved from the Clark Lake YC and will be awarded at the Ontarios in Parry Sound.  An amazing five teams ended up within two points in the fight for the runner-up spot which wound up in a three-way points tie that was broken in the following order: Mike and Marg Duncan of Mississauga SC (above) > Al and David Schonborn of TS&CC > Dave Hansman and David Richardson of North Bay YC (most firsts, most 2nds, etc.)  Kit displays his
7th-place white pennant. George had gone home.
One point back of
this trio were David and Anne Pugh of MSC who
in turn edged out Conestoga's Leo and Joanne Van Kampen by only one
point. Counting 3-7-6-7-4-6 were TS&CC's Kit Wallace (above)
and George Waller who finished an extremely respectable 7th
overall. Kit and George were followed by the Mississauga SC team of Rob
Wierdsma and Donna Gallant, their series highlighted by a fine 5th in
race 2.
 (l to r) Scott Ramsay, Jan d'Ailly, (Colin), Bob Stevenson Completing the top ten were the 2015 North Americans' Most Improved teams, Jan d'Ailly with Scott Ramsay (13th seed) and Bob Stevenson with Andrew McCaughey (Sat.) and Cam Christie (Sun.), the 14th seed. By placing 9th and 10th overall respectively, Jan and Bob each beat their predicted finish by an impressive four places. Well done, gang!! Losing to Bob by a
mere one point were our hosts, Colin Junkin and his
wife, Heather, who acquitted themselves very well on the race course
while at the same time being in charge of regatta success. They ended
up falling just that little bit short in most of the races.
 Jim used the Wellesley Island Rally to
introduce Sean and Nathan to the spinnaker. Their best efforts
on the race course were however, not enough to overcome the weight handicap imposed by sailing three up. And one point further back came Jim Heffernan with Texan grandsons, Nathan and Sean, the first of our three world-traveller entries, a couple of North Carolina boats from the Lake Townsend YC and even one from Mount Dora, Florida. Also representing the LTYC was AnnMarie Covington (W276) who borrowed Tom Goldsmith's Mark III Lovely Day which came complete with Tom as crew. An all-Eustis (Florida) team, John Cadman and Pat Kuntz set a reachable goal of beating at least one boat in the series with their cruise-rigged Wayfarer and did accomplish that feat as they placed 11th of 14 in Sunday first race. Sincere thank you's to the following Cobourg YC volunteers:
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