Well matched 14-boat fleet enjoys close racing, great parties but only one day of wind!

Despite a day of no wind, the 27th Wayfarer Ontario championships, hosted July 28-29 by the Lac Deschênes SC, were once again greatly enjoyed by all. 14 crews took part, coming from as far afield as Thunder Bay, North Bay, London (ON), Oakville and North East, Maryland. The 14 entries, several of whom came straight here from a lovely week of camping and sailing at Parry Sound's Killbear Park, was an increase of over 50% from 2006. And this year, history was made as Colin Junkin and Heather Wood of Coburg became the first CL to sail with us in a Wayfarer event, and we were very happy to have them with us.

Festivities began with a Friday evening party (above) as the early arrivals made themselves right at home, and a few of us were even registered early by Bill Fyfe.

Saturday morning arrived rainy but warm (above) and racing was postponed until early afternoon when the rain stopped and a light breeze appeared. Stuart Pursey and his RC quickly got us out onto the water and very efficiently set up our modified Olympic triangle (start and finish half-way up the beat).

Without further ado, four very well run and contested races (above) were completed in winds that eventually reached hiking breeze levels. Despite the occasional shower and lots of gusts and lulls, these were ideal sailing conditions that provided lots of fun for us all.

And we still made it back to shore with time and energy to spare for the fine steak BBQ dinner that was included in the price of admission. After lots of chatting and exchanging of tales of the day's racing, we all made it an early night after a day that had given us lots of exercise - both physical and mental.

By Sunday morning, the rain clouds had departed, and we were greeted by a picture-postcard morning (above) - except for the nearly complete absence of wind. When nothing had changed by noon, the rest of our races were cancelled and lunch was served.

As a prelude to the subsequent awards ceremony, the much awaited unveiling of Lori Beehler's 2007 outfit made from regatta pennants was to take place. We had been given a few tantalizing hints about this year's ensemble which Lori's mom, Heather, and dad, John, had helped to create, and which, in some mysterious way involved Marc and Uncle Al.

 

When the big moment arrived, Lori was revealed as the Goddess of the Wind whom Marc and Al - as the owners of one of the two spinnakers represented by Lori's custom-designed bikini top - were invited to unwrap from her genoa (see photo above). Perhaps we should have unwrapped our goddess a bit sooner and let her bring us some Sunday wind?!


Our sincere thanks to Regatta Chairman, Robin Allardyce (above), and his many volunteers from the host club who made this weekend a special one that we will long recall with great pleasure. Special for great RC work to Stuart Pursey and his assistants, to Kim Bergevin who fed us at breakfast, to Doug Netherton who again took tons of great pictures for us when W1366 was not yet ready to sail, and - from Marc and me - to Frank Goulay (Wayfarer Man) who set up his tent trailer for us to sleep in.

The results: Having lost a tie-breaker to John and Dolores de Boer in the U.S. Nationals, and by one point to Mark and Paul Taylor in the Canadian Nationals, Uncle Al and Marc Bennett were keen to win in Ottawa. After losing the first race to John and Dolores on a big wind shift, Marc and Al made few mistakes, winning the next three Saturday races. When Sunday's racing was cancelled, this left the defending champions counting 1-1-1 for 2.25 points, while John and Dolores took the runner-up spot with a 1-3-3 record.

Falling just short of second overall were the 3rd-seeded duo of Frank Goulay and Kim Bergevin of Lac Deschênes. Despite sailing without a spinnaker, Kim and Frank scored an excellent 2-4-2 which left them only 1.25 pts. behind the de Boers.

Series 4th went to our 7th-seeded team of Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk of North Bay whose three- place improvement made them one of three co-winners of the 2007 Ontarios Most Improved awards. LDSC's Jamie Abbott and son, Ben, also beat their seed by three spots as they ended up 5th overall, and won a share of the Most Improved honours.

Dave and Carol Hansman of North Bay were unable to match last year's great 3rd-place finish. This year, they never did manage to get in synch with the wind shifts and had to settle for series 6th.

Reflecting the well balanced competition was the fact that the next six teams ended up within five points of each other. All the way in from Thunder Bay (via Killbear) was Andrew Haill who sailed to a fine 7th just one point behind the Hansmans, with pick-up crew, Colleen Bigelow. Having been seeded 10th, Andrew and Colleen were thus the third team to tie for Most Improved honours.

Tied for 8th place, only two points back of 7th, were Maryland's Tony Krauss and Mary Abel along with LDSC's Bill Fyfe who teamed up with Deirdre Bowers. And a mere point further back were Lori Beehler and Jason Hassard of the home club who took turns at the helm and who compiled a 10-8-5 record before sitting out the finale with a broken boom vang.

Our CL entry, Colin Junkin and Heather Wood of Coburg, scored 6-12-6 to end up only a point behind Jason and Lori in series 11th. Ending up 12th, but only 6 points from 6th overall, was the local team Andrew Gumley and Steve Grundy, while two more home teams rounded out the scoring with Paul Pinault and his wife, Marilyn, beating out Andy Douma with his son, Tom.