14 Wayfarers Participate in North
Bay Weekend Events!
The
four days of events
planned for North Bay,
July 1 to
4, attracted 14 Wayfarers from as far away as Fredericton,
New Brunswick and Thunder
Bay, Ontario. Six
W's from
the local area participated, with organizers hoping that this will be
the start
of a revitalization of the North Bay
area fleet. The “base of operations” for
the first three days was the grounds, club house and harbour of the
North Bay
Yacht Club (NBYC), which proved to be an excellent and hospitable
location for
a Wayfarer event.
30-knot
winds, gusting to 39
knots, led to the cancellation of Wayfarer participation in the annual
Canada Day race from North Bay
to
Callander on Friday. However, warm temperatures
and sunshine provided an ideal situation for the gathering Wayfarers to
renew
old acquaintances, do some technical work on the boats, and generally
sop up
the sunshine, suds and good company.
Saturday
2 July, after a
satisfying hot breakfast hosted by the NBYC, fair westerly winds and
22-degree
temperatures provided a fine setting for the annual National Cruise
Race. This 21.5 km race, benefiting from the
favourable 5 to 10 knot winds, got underway just before 11 am. The eleven
W's participating completed the race by 2
pm,
well under the 5 hour time limit. The
course included a complete encirclement of Callander
Bay,
ducking behind two islands in the Bay before heading out the channel to
the
south shore of Lake
Nipissing. Dancing
their way over the larger seas created by the winds over 120 km of open
water
to the west, the fleet were able to fly their spinnakers for the 9 km
run back
to the NBYC harbour, making use of the winds to do some interesting
surfing on
the fronts of waves that accompanied the fleet back to the channel.
Saturday
night’s social
calendar featured dinner on the deck of Average Joe’s
restaurant overlooking Trout
Lake, which was site
of the original 60s and 70s vintage Wayfarer
Association races that regularly attracted over 30 Wayfarers..
This night,
there were over 35 Wayfarer
enthusiasts enjoying the warm temperatures, excellent food and
libations, and
views of the lake. No doubt, there were
numerous sailing adventure stories being exchanged around the table.
Sunday
3 July, featured 12
Wayfarers (Kevin Pegler with daughter, Stephanie, joined the fleet) and
winds
that had shifted to the south south west, then later to the south
west.
Starting at around 5 knots in the morning,
winds and gusts built over the next few hours to make life interesting
on the race
course. After a 9-year hiatus, the Don
Rumble Memorial Series was run – all five planned races completed
as
hoped. A level of interest was added to
the race series both by alternating between windward/leeward courses
and
triangular courses and by the winds that were building through noon and early afternoon.
A fifteen-minute “on the water” lunch break after the second race
allowed
everyone a chance to rest and power up for the final three races in the
series. The day provided for some unexpected excitement
for a few of the W's, two of which decided an internal washing of their
boat was
necessary during the races and two others which tried to net fish with
their
disobedient spinnakers.
True to
form, Marc and Uncle
Al ran away with both events over the weekend, leaving the rest of us
in their
wake. Their biggest threat on of the
weekend came from the team of Dwight and Pat who were there to defend
their DRM
series title held for the last 9 years.
Enough said here, the results (posted)
speak for themselves!
Monday,
the 4th of
July, was celebrated with a "nostalgia" day on Trout
Lake, site of many
Wayfarer events over the years. Eight Wayfarers participated in
this day’s
“Poker Event”, including two that were not able to attend the other
weekend
events. Light (or absent winds) winds
meant a 45 minute delay to the start, but once underway, all eight Ws
managed
to harvest what they could from the light airs to do a nearly complete
tour of
Trout Lake, making their way to five way points to pick up their cards
and
complete their two poker hands. Great
fun being able to finesse your way up to docks, canoes, boats and
people
standing in the water to pick up the cards!
The
Poker Event ended at the
McNutt cottage where Anne and Fred hosted a fabulous lunch and
barbeque.
The nostalgia flowed as fast as the beer and
wine, with great interest shown by all in the old newspaper clippings,
sailing
magazines and other Wayfarer trivia from the 60's and 70's that had
been
collected by the McNutt family. As for
the Poker Event, the plan had been to use it to even the odds. However,
Uncle
Al, with wife, Julia as crew, proved to be as successful in Poker as in
the rest of
the racing, not only being the first to arrive but also having the best
combination
of Poker hands. Perhaps Ken Holloway
(Waypoint #1) should have held back cards from Al as he had
threatened to do so
as a result of all the protests he claims Al had lodged against him in
years
gone by.
Monday
proved to be a
fitting and fun end to an extra long weekend of Wayfaring. The
high winds of Friday and sunshine of the
first three days finally gave way to light rain and no wind late on
Monday
afternoon. Our shepherd boats were
called out for a tow back to our “hangar” at the head of Trout Lake,
but the
sun shone through again as we were loading our W's on our trailers and
people
headed home to points east, south and west.
Until next year
...
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