2010 Ontario Wayfarer Championships - MSC - July 10-11th

Mississauga Sailing Club hosted this year's Ontario championships. Rob Wierdsma and crew did an excellent job running six clean races, they didn't even waste any time changing the course when the wind swung 180° after the first race.  Nine boats were present for the regatta (count them below), with a notable absence of Uncle Al and Julia Schonborn.

The first race was interesting, to say the least, with some drifter conditions as the northwesterly land breeze battled against the southerly sea breeze. The Taylors W7673 won the first race in style after a brilliant port flier. They, along with the Ryder-Turner boat W10137, found the breeze first after a bout of drifter conditions, the latter got by the Pilling/Romaniuk boat W397 who chose the wrong direction in the drifter.

After the 180° wind shift, the race committee held three more great races. This seemed unlikely due to the low wind conditions - seen below as we came in for the day - but they got it done.

The Mississauga SC hosted a fabulous dinner of filet mignon, baked potatoes, grilled peppers, exotic berry salads, and all the trimmings on their roof veranda (below). It was great to have the roof open again after last year`s repairs.

The Sunday races were delayed about an hour due to lack of wind. It was fun tacking out of the harbour and chatting with the other boats. Shockingly for Sue and me, a J24 went by and it was a boat from our very own yacht club in North Bay! Sunday's winds never exceeded 10 knots, which more often than not was less than that, and at times it was a drifter. One of those days you continuously curse motor boats.

There was a nice 8-10 knot breeze as the first windward leg of race 5 on Sunday began. Heider Funck and Tom Wharton W600 were off to their by now familiar lead with W7673 and W397 in tow. These 3 boats were still in the same positions as the second windward began. Suddenly the Taylors turned 180° and popped the chute to return toward the leeward mark. Sue and I thought they were having to fix a breakdown or do a penalty turn, but they turned because the three lead boats had missed the sound signal and the shortened course flag. We followed suit and finished second-last ahead of Heider. Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale were the boat to finish first as they were first to attempt passing the leeward mark to starboard in case the leaders were wrong. This upset the scorings considerably as now the leaders were unable to drop their first race 6th finish. They would now have to win the 6th and final race for the regatta win.

Heider and Tom did just that. The sixth race also determined series second and third, as W7673 and W397 were tied going into it. They went opposite sides of the first beat and met up near the windward mark, where Sue fouled Mark and had to perform a penalty turns. On the second beat, Sue managed to regain second place and was able to hold it for the runner-up spot on the proverbial podium.

(l to r) Sue Pilling, Heider Funck, Mark Taylor

After to their win in the 5th race, Mike and Kirk ended up in 4th place just ahead of Alastair and son David W10137, just like they did in the last race battle (below).

All boats placed within their seed, except for the Codd-Iredale team W4600, which placed two places above their seed making them Most Improved for the regatta.

Kit Wallace in AbFab finished 6th, followed by Anne Armstrong in our fellow blue woody Sawdust W861. Series 8th went to Bob Brown in W8261. Jason Handerson in W661 got wet in style as he crossed the finish line in race 6. Being a keelboat sailor, he is used to standing on the front deck and saluting the race committee. Unfortunately he was dumped by an ill-timed gust, even worse was the fact that he actually hadn`t quite crossed the line. He finished last in the regatta, but all his completed races were single-handed!