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the Annual Wayfarer
Long Distance Race
...North Bay YC, Callander Bay * Fri 27 June 2008 report by Uncle Al |
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Al
and Julia Schonborn Glide to Victory in Peaceful,
Idyllic 2008 Long
Distance Race
Rarely has our Cruise Race, recently re-christened the Long Distance Race, been more cruise-like than it was Friday 27 June 2008. We got a lovely, warm, sunny day with steady westerly breezes of about 3 to 6 knots - sun screen weather.  By shortly after 1100 hrs, our eight-boat fleet was assembled at our start (and) finish line which stretched across the mouth of the North Bay YC's yacht basin (above) and our shore-based RC of Fred and Anne McNutt (below left) were ready to send us on our way. As usual, the first leg was a diagonal crossing of Callander Bay in a generally NW direction to the NBYC's course marker #6 (see Long Distance Race course chart above). After rounding #6 to port, the fleet was to exit Callander Bay via the Main Channel, and proceed about three miles along the south shore of Lake Nipissing to buoy J5. After leaving J5 to port, it was back into Callander Bay where our course director, Dave Hansman, had decided we should sail a token triangle (NBYC marks 2-1-3) within view of the club and possible spectators before finishing where we had started. Given the wind direction, the start line was barely crossable on starboard. More importantly, #6 looked to be a possible fetch on port tack, so that - other things being equal - it was crucial to our strategy on SHADES to get onto port tack as early as possible. We thus got our boat up to full speed near the favoured leeward end during the final ten seconds of the countdown and tacked crisply as that start horn went. Dave Richardson and Dave Hansman had had the same idea and we had a fine boat speed contest with these two for the better part of half a mile before we finally converted our windward advantage into slightly better speed and sailed over Dave Hansman and a bit later, Dave Richardson. The former then chose to sail about 20° high of #6 while Al and Dave R. held the straight-line course towards #6 which they rounded comfortably 1-2. Now that we were near the windward western shore of Callander Bay, the winds became patchy and shifty as we began a beat towards the Main Channel. Al's conservative course up the middle turned out to have limited success as John de Boer banged the right corner near the windward but flat shore and got a great breeze and a starboard lift which allowed him and Dolores to cruise into the lead. Dave Richardson and Kim saw the light sooner than Uncle Al and sailed into the new wind before the latter and in time to give John a good run for his lead. Al, meanwhile, sailed for the wrong gap yet again and ended up in a fine breeze but so far to windward of the rhumb line that he and Julia were able to spinnaker reach to good advantage and make it a fine three-boat race among John, Dave R and Al as we neared the entrance to the Main Channel in a breeze that had veered from the SW to WNW. Flying the spinnaker on this reach to the Channel not only helped Al move past Dave R. into 2nd place behind John, but also forced him to stay well clear of the rather higher windward shore at the Channel entrance. Al's justifiable phobia of possible calms near a windward shore paid off as usual as he and Julia ghosted past John and Dolores just in time to reach the better Channel breeze first.  By this time, Dave and Carol Hansman, who had gone centre-left and suffered for a while, came in with an even better breeze still further from the windward shore, and moved into 2nd place (see photo above which also shows the flat, calm area in the lee of the shore at left). Pacing each other nicely through the Channel and on towards J5, Dave H., Dave R. (2nd from right above) and Al slowly moved away from the rest of the fleet.  As we neared J5, Al converted a couple of shifts into a slightly more comfortable lead (above) but the main pursuers went high on starboard tack and got into a slightly better breeze funnelling along the south shore of Lake Nipissing and proceeded to give Al and Julia a good run for their money.  As seen from W3854: (l to r Dave Richardson, Ross Jamieson, Dave Hansman  Julia Schonborn nurses the SHADES spinnaker by holding the sheet "short" (from where it passes the leeward shroud to save sheet weight on the spi) In the end, the shorter direct course sailed by Al more or less balanced out the better pressure gained by those who went nearer the shore. And unlike previous years, Al did not hit any dead spots in the Channel.  Others must have hit some, however, as Julia and Al pulled away to an insurmountable lead while crossing the Bay towards #2. John and Dolores (above left) made big gains by sailing the rhumb line from J5 to the Channel and ultimately moved into 3rd behind Dave and Carol (above right).  The leg from #2 north to
#1
turned out to be a one-tack beat on port for most of us,
which meant
that the southerly leg from #1 to #3 off the club should
have been a
broad spinnaker reach, but somehow it ended up almost
too close to fly
the chute (see photo
above)
especially Dave Richardson's huge grandfathered old
North
American-sized spinnaker (2nd from
right above).
... Cathy Jessup captured Julia and Al as they crossed in first place. A gybe at #3 let us do a 90° turn to port and sail a nice, easy port spi reach for about 200 yards to finish where we had started, off the NBYC. Finishing a fine race in 2nd place were our hosts, Dave and Carol Hansman, who comfortably limited John and Dolores de Boer's fine comeback to a 3rd-place finish. Also making huge inroads on the long spinnaker legs home were Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk. After being totally buried in the early going, Steph and Sue came all the way back to snatch 4th away from Ross Jamieson and Dave Richardson. The 5th scored by Ross and his crew, John Simmonds, was a fine performance nonetheless and good enough to earn them Most Improved honours for this year's event. Discovery of the old oversize spi's inability to reach on the second-last leg left Dave Richardson and Kim Rainville in 6th place - no doubt a disappointment after they had done so well for much of the race. Cruising along as the final finishers - well back of everyone else on this day, perhaps simply content with each other's company - were Lori Beehler and Andrew Haill. Our young lads, Taylor Marsh and Ryan Willick, it turned out, let themselves be scuppered by a broken mainsheet block, and retired early before they even started. Which prompted several Wayfarer veterans to wonder aloud, "What has happened to young people's abilities to invent a jury rig these days?" What a contrast this year's race was to last year's: peaceful, warm, lazy cruising all the way as opposed to last year's two separate squalls with thunder, lightning, hail and lots of cool wind. |
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