Al and Julia Schonborn edge out Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk in hard-fought 4-race series.

Dressed for the cool, brisk morning, our RC, Fred and Anne McNutt (standing) get set to address the skippers.

The grand finale of the 2009 North Bay Wayfarer Weekend was once again Sunday's Don Rumble Memorial series. The weather remained sunny and fresh but winds were down to about 5 knots out of the west which increased a bit as the day warmed up. Our nine-boat fleet was very evenly matched as was underscored by the fact that the previous day's hands-down winners in the windy long distance race, Roger and Raewyn, could place no better than 7th overall the next day. In the end, consistency was more crucial than usual since Fred McNutt and his RC could only squeeze in four triangle-sausage-windward races prior to the cut-off. This meant that there was no drop race (which would have required all 5 scheduled races to be completed). In the end, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk sparkled in their newly revitalized Chich W397 but could not beat out perennial light-airs aces, Al and Julia Schonborn in SHADES W3854. Each team won two of the four races but Al added two 2nds while Sue had to count a pair of 3rds.


Race 1: As would be the case all day, winds were on the light side - around 5 knots - and oscillating rather randomly. Our PRO, Fred McNutt, wisely angled the line squarely to the median wind direction and then let the chips fall where they may. After dismal starts, Sue Pilling and Dave Richardson (3rd and 4th from right above)  found the best of the winds which backed about 40° early in the first beat and stayed there, making the first reach very close.


Our lightweight marvels, Sue and Steph, rounded onto the first of the two reaches with a nice lead over Dave Richardson and Kim Rainville who in turn were a comfortable 2nd ahead of Al and Julia. As can be seen above, Sue and Steph (pink spi) chose to gybe early and go left on what was no longer a second reach but rather a virtual run. Staying right proved to be progressively more costly for Dave (4782) and Al (3854) as there was less and less wind, the closer you got to the shore.


By the time Dave (2nd from left above) reached the leeward mark, he had lost half the fleet, and Al (red spi above), even though he was sailing the rhumb line, lost both Dave Hansman (r) and Dwight Aplevich (2nd from r).


Meanwhile, Sue and Steph got slightly but consistently better breeze on the left and began the second beat with what appeared to be an insurmountable lead, barring unforeseen incidents, given that the beat was no longer a real beat (above) and the run had become a reach (above). On that one-tack second beat, Al was able to make "something out of nothing" by footing through to leeward of Dave Hansman and Dwight Aplevich into 2nd place. The photo above shows Al (l) approaching the end of his "run" comfortably entrenched in 2nd while Sue (2nd from r) is about to complete a horizon job without ever having to tack for the finish line.

Sue with Steph and Al with Julia proceeded to roll on to easy 1-2 finishes. The next six boats were pretty closely bunched (above). Given the fact that the final leg was a close reach to the finish line, this should have been a "parade", and Dwight and Pat (4606) did indeed place 3rd. But kudos to Frank and Kim (3rd from right above) who somehow managed to do what should have been the impossible: he passed both John de Boer (7351) and Dave Hansman (left) in the short stretch between here and the finish.


Race 2: In the continuing light westerly winds that were now oscillating, the likelihood of a shortened series and the lack of a drop race was increasing. For us, this meant that we could really not afford to lose this race to Sue and Steph. As the seconds ticked away just before the start (above), we got another 40° knock, leaving poor Frank (r) suddenly unable to lay the line. Al (3rd from right) moved from a position where he was nicely controlling Sue (2nd from right)  to being deep in her dirt yet unable to tack without fouling Lori Beehler (white hull).


Sue and Steph meanwhile, were now in a perfect position to tack and were soon in great shape and laying the windward mark after a quick tack right after the start signal. Half a minute later (above) things looks grim indeed for Al and Julia (3854) who were virtually laying the windward mark and limping along in the dirty air of their main rivals, Sue and Steph (397). Tempting as it was for Al to tack away into clear air, he nonetheless refused to do anything risky like tacking away when he was laying the mark, working instead to move into a good attacking position for the upcoming reaches. When a veering oscillation arrived as the leaders neared the windward mark, Al was able to tack into clear air band round only three to four lengths astern of Sue and ahead of Frank.


This time we got two good spinnaker reaches as the RC had intended, and by the time we reached the leeward mark, Sue's advantage had been reduced to having the inside edge for the rounding (above).


Al rounded a close 2nd to Sue and in perfect position to tack away to the left (above). Now some shifts and dead spots came into play where Al's outstanding ability to keep the boat moving soon saw him take the lead over Sue. Al know he could not afford to lose to Sue a second straight time if he was to maintain a reasoable shot at winning the Don Rumble Memorial Trophy. So we put a loose cover on Sue, timing our tacks to avoid sailing the headed tack as much as possible and to completely avoid dead-looking areas.


Here it became a matter of the rich getting richer as Al and Julia (r) seemed to hit each shift and puff just right, while in their eagerness to escape Al's "cover", Sue and Steph (3rd from r) ended up losing Dwight and Pat (2nd from r). By the end of the run (above), the tables had been turned and Al and Julia were on their way to a horizon job victory.


As Sue rounded onto the final beat to the finish (RC boat 3rd from r, above), Al (r) had placed himself nicely to be between 2nd-place Dwight and 3rd-place Sue and the finish. Al tacked right about at this time to stay between Sue and the finish line since she and Steph were the one boat Al and Julia could not afford to lose to in this race.

In the end, it was Al and Julia winning handily with Dwight and Pat taking a fairly close 2nd ahead of Sue and Steph. 4th place went to Dave and Carol Hansman who edged out Frank Goulay with Kim Bergevin who were really feeling their lack of spinnaker this year.

Race 3: By now it was getting near noon and warmer in the glorious sun. Meantime the wind was increasing to around 8 to 10 knots, a perfect hiking breeze for one and all. On our boat, we had assessed our series situation and decided on our strategy: Sitting on 2-1 finishes, we would try to sail above all to beat Sue and Steph (1-3), not to forget Dwight and Pat (3-2).



A good start with no last-second major shifts saw us (3854 above) get a gift from Sue (r) who arrived at the boat end late. Meanwhile, Dwight (4406) was getting more "gas" from Roger ahead of him than we were from Dwight so that we were soon able to climb into clear air. I don't recall much of this beat except that we arrived at the windward mark with a nice edge. We must have apparently used shifts and puffs to better advantage than the rest since boat speed in these conditions was pretty much hull speed (equal) for all.


Above, Al can be seen moving into a position directly between his nearest pursuers (Dave Hansman 2nd, Sue Pilling 3rd) and the windward mark. With Dwight doing so poorly (orange & white spi, right), Al got a rare chance to concentrate solely on staying ahead of Sue. This beat proved to be a disaster for Dave Hansman who fell from 2nd to 6th or so. The very opposite was true for Frank (4th from left).


By the time the run neared completion, Frank and Kim, even without their spinnaker, had ridden shifts and gusts from the bottom half of the fleet into 2nd place behind Al and Julia (above) and ahead of Sue and Steph (below).

In the end, it was Al winning handily while Frank just held on to keep 2nd ahead of Sue. John and Dolores de Boer (4th) and Dave Richardson with Kim Rainville (5th) rounded out the top half of the fleet, each with what would be their best finish of this series.

Race 4: With the 1 p.m. deadline fast approaching, we knew this would be the last race of the series, and that there would thus be no drops! Bad news for Dwight who would now be stuck with counting a 9th from race 3.

Knowing that they needed only a 2nd or a 3rd to win the series, Al and Julia obediently followed Sue and Steph around the course in the now much steadier breeze. Following Sue and Al across the line in 3rd were Dave and Carol Hansman. Crossing 4th were Dwight and Pat Aplevich while our big Long Distance Race winners from the previous day, Roger Shepherd and Raewyn Perry finally made it into the Don Rumble top 5 in the, the last race.

When Cathy Jessup had computerized our results, Al and Julia were confirmed as 2009 Don Rumble Memorial champs, two points ahead of the ever improving Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk, as these two teams ended up superior in this fleet in this series. Being seeded 6th but placing 2nd, Sue and Steph were also our Most Improved team of this series for 2009. Dwight and Pat Aplevich,Dave and Carol Hansman and Frank Goulay with Kim Bergevin ended in a three-way tie at 18 points, which unlike the usual Wayfarer tradition, was broken so that final placings were: 3rd - Dwight, 4th - Dave, 5th - Frank.

Another tie followed as John and Dolores de Boer scored 26 points, as did Roger Shepherd and Raewyn Perry, with the de Boers winning the tie-breaker. In series 8th we had Dave Richardson with Kim Rainville, two points ahead of our Ottawa-Thunder Bay combo: Lori Beehler and Andrew Haill.