Glorious Sailing Weather Highlights North Bay's Wayfarer Weekend

Although temperatures were on the cool side, sailing winds were excellent on all three major days of the 2009 North Bay Wayfarer Weekend. With Canada Day and its annual race at the North Bay YC falling on Wednesday, July 1st, Dave Hansman and his organizing committee cleverly put our fun-race day, the Trout Lake Poker Race, on the Friday, to be followed by the Long Distance Race on Saturday, and the 5-race Don Rumble Memorial Series on Sunday, the 7th. This allowed those interested to add the Canada Day Race to their agenda by adding a mere two days to their North Bay trip in 2009.

The North Bay YC's Canada Day Race attracted 30 entries, only three of which were dinghies: two Wayfarers and a Byte. In very variable conditions that included dead calms and rain showers, the dinghies acquitted themselves very well, finishing well in the top half of finishers on straight time. The Wayfarer duel saw Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk christen their freshly refurbished wooden Wayfarer Chich (W397) with a victory over Dave and Carol Hansman in Banshee (W282).

Most of the rest of our fleet arrived on Thursday afternoon or evening at the North Bay YC where we had a lovely time joining the campers (above) on their beautifully scenic lookout behind the club for a few drinks while a lovely little breeze kept most of the bugs away.


The Friday date for the Poker Race turned out to work very well, attracting 10 entries, a far larger group than ever before to our 5th such event. The staggered start cooked up by Race Chairman, Dave Hansman, was this year supplemented by an actual starting line off our usual launch site at Bob Brown's float plane base, and the whole set-up worked very well with the entire fleet being competitively bunched at the first three of our five way points. Temperatures were fairly cool but pleasant, about 20°C, for early July, and the skies provided a little of everything: from sunshine to a couple of mini-rainsqualls. Winds were fairly light for the first half of the race but picked up to solid hiking strength as we approached our finish line which this year was once again at the McNutts' cottage. The usual delicious barbecue was duly followed by Dave Hansman's revelation and explanation of the Poker Race results, where it turned out that Sue and Steph had done it again with Chich plus a couple of high-ranking poker hands which enabled them to easily beat out runners-up, Roger Shepherd with Raewyn Perry in Invasion, as well as race winners, Al and Julia Schonborn in SHADES who fell to 3rd after scoring the absolute worst poker hand of the 20 that were submitted. Lady luck continued to smile on us as the skies cleared and we got to sail the five miles or so back to base on the largely port-tack beat - standard for Trout Lake - but in a lovely hiking breeze.


Another cool - but sunny - day and plenty of northwesterly breeze greeted 11 teams entered in Saturday morning's National Long Distance Race (see course chart above). After leading the fleet to the first windward mark (#6), Ottawa's Frank Goulay and Kim Bergevin slowly but surely extended their lead and seemed poised to win this event in a "horizon job" as they rounded J5 out in Lake Nipissing and started the lengthy run back to the east end of Callander Bay well ahead of second-place Roger Shepherd and Raewyn Perry. The latter had worries of their own as Uncle Al and his wife, Julia, had gradually erased much of a huge early deficit which Al had piled up with two rarely ill-advised tacks off the start line. In a sobering glimpse of how the other half sometimes lives, Al had only John de Boer for company half-way up the first beat when the rest of the rather closely bunched fleet began to round #6. But, without trying anything dramatic or risky, Al and Julia had closed in to within a couple of lengths of Roger and Rae as spinnakers were popped to begin the run and pursuit of the long-gone Frank and Kim who were once again sailing "white sail" (no spi).

Who would have thought it? Al and Julia lost the race on this hoist attempt as the somewhat rusty Julia had so much trouble untwisting the chute that, after a near death roll, Al decided to douse the spinny. And by the time Al had regained his nerve and hoisted successfully, Roger and Raewyn had spinnakered and at times planed off to a substantial lead over SHADES. Unlike several big times last year, the lack of spinnaker cost Frank and Kim significantly - perhaps because the spinnaker allowed better surfing and longer periods of planing. Be that as it may, as Frank finally reached the Main Channel into Callander Bay, he had lost not only Roger but also Al. A fine spinnaker job by rookie crew, Raewyn, ensured that Al was kept in second place to the finish. Worth mentioning was the increasing breeze (below) as we sailed the mini-triangle leading up to the finish where the lovely close reach from #1 to #3 gave us one the best planes we have enjoyed in years!


On the short run from #3 to the finish line, Roger and Raewyn (above) were ready to pop the chute one more time if Uncle Al did so behind them. But Al was happy to concede victory to Roger and Raewyn, their first ever in the Long Distance Race! Congratulations, Raewyn and Roger!! Complete results here.


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 races prior to the cut-off, and 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. Both teams won two of the four races but Al added two 2nds while Sue had to count a pair of 3rds.

In typically well organized North Bay fashion, we had a relaxed lunch and awards ceremony and still had everyone ready to drive home by mid-afternoon. Thanks again to all who made this great weekend possible!!!

Heartfelt Thanks Department: Once again the North Bay Wayfarer Weekend was sailing and enjoyment value second to none. Many, many thanks to the following for making it all possible:

• Dave and Carol Hansman plus their organizing committee: for putting it all together flawlessly as always
• the North Bay YC and Commodore, Dave Britton: for graciously hosting us once again
• Cathy Jessup: registration, scoring, photos, ginger beer forage
  
• Lynda O'Shea: great kitchen and bar work that went above the call of duty when Lynda twice spent hours scouring the North Bay area for ginger beer so that we could enjoy Dark and Stormies
• Lynn and Vicki from The McCoys, our Saturday evening caterers who again provided great food
• also helping in the kitchen were Anne Oswald, Doreen Christensen, Karen Koziak, Sandra Waque, Jeanette Wilmot as well as our sausage cookers, Dale and Dave Britton
• manning the Poker Race way points were Ken Holloway, John and Sarah Richardson, the Brown family, Joel Truckenbrodt and Terry Alderson
• Fred and Anne McNutt were once again our Saturday and Sunday Race Committee
• Mogens and Doreen Christensen once more provided their lovely yacht as Sunday's RC boat
  
• Isabelle, Grant and Alex Churcher: Cruise Race safety boat and photography
• Ross and Lori Jamieson: Sunday mark/safety boat plus photography
• Nathaniel Houle and Krista Pedersen: Sunday mark/safety boat