The annual Canada Race from the North Bay marina to Callander Bay hosted by the North Bay Yacht Club was a little bit different this year. First, many of the larger keelboats were marooned on the hard this year due to low lake levels (see photos above), so this year's fleet was down to 9 keelboats, 5 Wayfarers (the most since the Wayfarer Weekend was revived in 2005) and one Laser. Secondly, the weather was fine - ironically, last year the city events at the waterfront were cancelled due to thundershowers, but the sailboat race was still a go.

The course was adjusted the same as last year, i.e. the weather mark was changed from J5 to J9. This made the entire 12-mile course downwind, including the start. The start line was alive as boats were jockeying for prime position at the start boat end. The Wayfarers were pretty gunwaled up as the gun went (above). The pole position went to Dave and Carol Hansman (W282) as they pulled away after raising their spinnaker in clear air. In a few minutes they had a 10-boatlength lead. All 4 other Wayfarers were in close pursuit with their colourful chutes.

Uncle Al blessed the event with his presence, but was not at the helm. That honour was left to a local past Wayfarer sailor Joel Truckenbrodt who hadn't been in a Wayfarer in 30 years. Sue Pilling W397 headed high off the start which had Joel observing that this might gain them stronger lake winds, a trick that Ken Holloway used to do. No such strategy was in their minds as Chich was just looking for clear air and that elusive J9 mark.

Some puffs did come and a planing opportunity presented itself to Sue and Steph which allowed them to overtake the Hansmans and pull away from the fleet. This job is usually left to the J24 team J-Cool, but unfortunately they and others remained on the hard. The other 2 Wayfarers carried two more male-female teams: Dave Richardson and Kim Rainville in W4762 from North Bay and Alastair and Sharon Ryder-Turner in W10137 from Mississauga. Chich had a good lead on the other 4 Wayfarers which all rounded J9 within 10 seconds of each other. A good race was being had, with the Laser not far behind and the rest of the keelboats in tow. The keelboats would've likely been closer if they had been flying their spinnakers.

The other four Wayfarers spread out to try their luck in speeding away, but they were close again as they entered the channel into Callander Bay (above). Team Chich, the reigning Canadian Champions, crossed the finish line exactly two hours after the start. Four and a half minutes later, Joel and Uncle Al were second across the line followed a minute later by the Hansmans.


A close 4th - 5th finish of W4762 over W10137 followed only 40 seconds behind W282. Ross Jamieson, who sailed his Laser before switching to a Wayfarer for the rest of the weekend, rounded off the dinghy group. Ross crossed only 10 minutes behind the leaders and ahead of all the keelboats! Hopefully we can get as many dinghies next year!