2007 Poker Race attracts record 12 entries!

The good word has finally spread! After attracting only a select group of fun-seekers in its first two years - six in 2005 and four in 2006 - Dave Hansman's brainchild, the Trout Lake Poker Race, blossomed to 12 boats this year. And we got a great day again this year: warm summer weather with sunshine and light winds of 3 to 5 knots to start the day.

Once again, we would be picking up a package of two playing cards at each of five checkpoints. Crews would arrange these cards into their best two poker hands, a #1 hand and a #2. The #1 hands would be ranked by poker rules, as would the #2 hands. These rankings for each team would be added to their finish position in the actual race to give the effect of a three-race series - with suitable penalties added to the scores of previous Poker Race winners.


Event organizer, Dave Hansman, set a slightly more ambitious course for this year with the 5th way point set off Kirkwood Island at the east end of Trout Lake, but the point became moot when the winds petered out almost completely east of the 3rd pick-up point off the mouth of Lounsbury Bay. In light of this development, we were allowed to skip way points #4 and 5, and head straight from #3 to finish line and the usual picnic lunch at the McNutts'.


As in previous years, our base of operations was Bob Brown's hangar (above) on Delaney Bay at the west end of Trout Lake where we were invited to meet at 0930 hrs. in preparation for a planned 1030 hrs. start. Last year's Le Mans (mass) start off the beach was not repeated. While it did provide Uncle Al with fine photo opportunities, this start caused too many collisions, and was replaced by staggered starts at 30-second intervals. Start order was mostly by luck of the draw except that the Cruise Race winners automatically got to start last.


The staggered starts seemed to work quite well for most of the boats, and soon we were off on a beat across Delaney Bay to our first way point (between the 3rd and 4th boat from the left above).


Here, Ken Holloway (above) gave us our only racing rule of the day, insisting that we round his canoe to port as we picked up our cards.


And the yellow way point flags with their black W's (above) created and donated by Mary Abel, were an immediate great success, being beautifully visible from a great distance.


A broad reach (above) followed, westward to Pilot Point. Here we had to turn south into Dugas Bay, where Dave's mum, Shirley, and dad, Charlie (below), awaited us with our second set of cards.


This was the trickiest of the pick-up points since we had to beat through shallows and calms into a windward shore until we were close enough to send someone into the water to make an on-shore pick-up.


The prettiest leg of our "race" came next as we wended our way northeast through several islands (above) before re-crossing Trout Lake to way point #3.


As our part of the fleet moved past Poplar Island (above) and onto Trout Lake, the wind was clearly dying.


With the boats more or less just drifting past check point #3, Carol and Dave's daughter, Erinn (above), had time to take some pictures of us as she stood in the shallow water off Lounsbury Bay.


Now heading east, some of us sailed/drifted inside the infamous Garbage Island (above) which Fred McNutt - with limited success - tried to re-christen Sailors' Island in the 1970's. In Julia's and my case, this shortcut inside Garbage Island was a deliberate decision to re-experience the scene of many a sailing heartbreak during the heydays of our Cruise Race when it was sailed on Trout Lake for nearly 30 years from 1961 to 1988.


Some of us resorted to questionable means of propulsion (see the "Chick Boat" above) but a gentle SW breeze was already on its way (above) so that the rest of us didn't have too long to wait to complete our race which had now been shortened to exclude way points 4 and 5. In fact, Dave and Carol got overtaken by John and Dolores who moved into first place as Dave and Carol were busy on the cell phone calling the 4th and 5th waypoints to arrange towing services and to keep Fred and Anne up to date on what was transpiring.


Soon, the McNutts' beach was once more packed with hungry and thirsty Wayfarers ready for another delicious picnic lunch provided by Anne and Fred. In between bites, the participants - having been given their final two sets of cards at the finish - set about creating their best two poker hands with the help of liquid refreshment.


Supervised by grandson, Mitchell, Dave Hansman had the complex task of "scoring" the hands and tabulating final results (above), complete with penalties to previous winners.


It was a close-run thing, but in the end, Dave and Carol Hansman (shown above with support team, Mitchell) scored a popular and well-deserved victory. After losing first place in the sailing event to John and Dolores de Boer right near the finish, Carol and Dave added poker hands that were good enough to beat out Andy Douma with Joan, and Tony Krauss with Jason Hassard who were tied in 2nd place.



Unfortunately, our lunch time was limited, since a sizable trip of three to four miles back to our launch site awaited most of us. Fred McNutt kindly gave a gaggle of Wayfarers a tow (above) back to Delaney Bay in light of uncertain-looking wind conditions.


Still, a few of us chose to sail back, and were rewarded by a lovely SW hiking breeze that at one point allowed us exactly match speed with the passing tow. We were sailing along only a few feet to leeward of Tony Krauss (above) when he turned around with his nose in the air and said in his snootiest tone: "That sailing stuff looks like such hard work!"

In the end, we all made it back to haul-out within an hour, and it was a contented group that packed up - already looking forward to next year's North Bay Wayfarer Weekend.
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