the Wayfarer Ontarios
July 23-24, 2005
Lac Deschênes Sailing Club
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Wayfarers old and new enjoy fine winds, good racing and great fun at 2005 Ontarios

The location was different but the 2005 summer weather continued to co-operate with us Wayfarers as 10 crews enjoyed warm, sunny weather and nice, sailable, light-to-medium winds July 23-24 for the Wayfarer Ontario Championships at Ottawa's Lac Deschênes SC. Starting with regatta organizers, Doug Netherton and Françoise Brossard, as well as Mike Trant and his fine RC, right on through Kim Bergevin on the barbecue, the host club and its members were again at their hospitable best to ensure that we Wayfarers had a memorably great time.



Even the notoriously strange "voodoo" winds of this Lac
Deschênes section of the Ottawa River were relatively well behaved and we got a good set of conditions for the Wayfarer début of our two new Wayfarer owners, Lori Beehler (W3140 in photo above) and Paul Pinault, not to mention the rest of us.

In the racing, a bunch of oddities conspired to leave the identity of the 2005 Ontario champion in doubt until the last of our seven-race series was completed. And even then, three crews ended up within one point, an exciting ending to a fun series. The oddities began early on Saturday morning when SHADES crew, Marc Bennett, discovered that the W3854 stemhead fitting (which holds up the forestay and the jib) was coming loose and would need more than Uncle Al's usual match sticks and epoxy repair to be safely usable again. Luckily for us, Dr. Fyfe was on hand: Bill brought some mahogany and his plug making tool while a kind LDSC Lightning sailor lent us some regular (as opposed to 5-minute) epoxy, and we only had to miss the first two races while waiting for the glue to set enough.

Meanwhile, Frank Goulay and Mike Codd were making the d
ébut of Frank's newly acquired wooden beauty, KGB, (W648, see photo above) an impressive one, as they scored a pair of runaway wins. So we knew whom we had to beat, once we made it out for race #3 before the fleet came ashore for a brief lunch break. But even a win over Frank in that race still left us far behind with no realistic hope of taking the Bronze Sail Trophy: Frank was now counting 1-1-2 for 4 pts. whereas Marc and I had DNS-DNS-1 for 12 points even after dropping one DNS. A quick calculation showed that even if the weather co-operated and we got all four remaining races in, we would need to not only beat Frank and Mike in each race but also put one boat between them and us every time - a real long shot at best.

But then the odd stuff continued at lunch: the RC had decided to DSQ Frank for not wearing the mandatory PFD while racing. Our fleet unanimously felt that this penalty was too harsh, and LDSC Fleet Captain, Doug Netherton, was to sent to beg the RC to reconsider. They very kindly did, and Frank's DSQ was reduced to a 20% penalty, which left him with a first-race 3rd. But Frank's difficulties were not over: he had a command performance at the boss's birthday party that afternoon, which would cost him two races. Unless ... crew, Mike Codd, could prevail upon his wife, Darlene, and his daughter, Lilly, to crew for him as he took over the W648 helming duties for the rest of Saturday's racing. Word is that they had a good time - see photo below:



The RC was duly prevailed upon to let Mike's races count towards the W648 score as has been traditionally accepted practice in Wayfarers, and by the end of Saturday's five races, the standings had tightened considerably: we had a new leader, Doug Netherton with Françoise Brossard, who had been quietly and consistently piling up the good results and was now sitting with a nice lead at 10 pts. from (4)-3-3-2-2 finishes. Tied at 13 pts. were Frank (3-1-2-[8]-7) and Fred Black with son, David (2-[5]-4-4-3), while Al and Marc had moved back into contention with 14 pts. from (DNS)-DNS-1-1-1 finishes.

Even with five races having been sailed, we had lots of time to sit around and chat on Saturday afternoon, and even to do a little coaching work with our two new Wayfarers, before we all headed off to the Lindenhof restaurant for our usual German food and evening of fun and frivolity plus lots more Wayfarer talk (see photo below).



By Sunday morning, the healthy NW winds had become light airs coming from a generally easterly direction. Despite the rather patchy and shifty winds, Mike Trant wasted no time getting an acceptable course set and we got the two scheduled races completed by shortly after noon. When the dust had settled, Al and Marc had done just enough to win the 2005 Ontarios with 16 pts., one ahead of both Frank and Doug. Series second went to Frank, Mike, Darlene and Lilly as they won the tie-breaker, leaving Doug and Françoise with the blue flags for series 3rd. Team Netherton also scooped up the green flags as the Ontarios' Most Improved crew, when they beat their 6th seed by a fine 3 places.



Series 4th went to Dwight Aplevich, a commendable result considering that Dwight's usual ace crew (his wife, Pat) was unable to sail due to injury.  It took three crews to replace Pat - see photo above (l to r: George Matrahazy, Dwight, Deirdre Bowers, Dave Friberg, Pat Aplevich) - and in the end, Team Eclairelle came back to win 4th place on a tie-breaker over Fred Black who had imported his son, David, all the way from Nova Scotia, with the lure of letting him helm alternate races.

Fresh from a very promising Wayfarer d
ébut at the North Bay Wayfarer Weekend three weeks before, Sue Pilling and Stephan Romaniuk, borrowed another Wayfarer and edged out their clubmates from North Bay, Dave and Carol Hansman, for series 6th. Our two new Wayfarers - both from LDSC - came next.  Jason Hassard helmed with Lori Beehler as crew and this team looked impressive as they scored a series 7th that included a fine 4th in the second race.

The fight for 9th went right to the wire as Paul Pinault and his wife, Marilyn, beat out LDSC clubmate, Alan Asselstine, in the final heat to pull into a points tie with the latter, and then took the tie-breaker. Alan, with son, Mark, on Saturday, and Carolyn Jordon on the Sunday, had a good weekend tune-up for the Maine Cruising Week to be held August 13-20 out of the Hermit Island Campground on Casco Bay.

This was a marvellous weekend for all of us. If you couldn't make it, we're sorry you missed such a fine time. Hope we'll see you at Lac Deschênes in 2006!!
...
Ontarios 2005
results
report
photos
Saturday morning ashore
Saturday afternoon ashore
Saturday dinner at the Lindenhof
Saturday: race 1
Saturday: race 3
Saturday: race 4, 5
Sunday ashore - 1
Sunday ashore - 2
Sunday pre-race
Sunday: race 6.1
Sunday: race 6.2
Sunday: race 6.3
Sunday: race 7.1
Sunday: race 7.2
Sunday: race 7.3
awards
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