Humber Bay Ontarios See Unprecedented Wayfarer Parity!

By pretty much any standard, the 2014 Wayfarer Ontarios, graciously hosted by the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club June 14-15, were a smashing success: Warm sunshine and medium-strength winds were the order of both days; all seven races were completed as scheduled with only two of them being rather flukey; all nine Wayfarers were competitive (although inexperience ended up costing the pick-up team of TSCC Commodore, Bob Stevenson, and George Waller) as the seven races produced six different winners. Underscoring the parity in our fleet, which shared the course with 13 Albacores also enjoying their Ontarios, was the amazing fact that two of our teams, Nick Seraphinoff/Chip Cunningham and Heider Funck/Tom Wharton had race finishes of first and last in this series.

Socially, we had fun sharing the regatta with the Albacore sailors who in turn were impressed with the club and Humber Bay. A fine BBQ (steak or chicken) highlighted our Saturday evening and fine breakfasts were also available both Saturday and Sunday. All in all a fabulous weekend of fun both afloat and ashore, one that your Uncle Al, still suspended by ISAF til 23 Aug 2014 for disrespect to Canadian Appeals Committees, enjoyed aboard the RC boat where he could finally put his CWA camera to its intended use while helping out the RC as needed and admiring PRO, Jake Starr, in highly effective and efficient action.

As you might expect, the overall results table reflected the evenly matched racing. The top three teams were separated by a mere two points - one point without the drop race! Sitting 1-2 two were Parry Sound's Sue Pilling/Steph Romaniuk and Oakville's England expatriates, David and Anne Pugh who tied as Ontario champions at Fanshawe in 2013.

Winning the Bronze Sail Trophy and the Ontario Championship was the 2nd-seeded team of Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk who had placed 3rd in the 2013 Worlds in Mississauga last August. They had the perfect weather for their light crew weight - about 250 pounds overall? - but were regularly given a serious run for their money.

  

For the other defending Ontario (and North American) champions, David and Anne Pugh, it became a case of "After you, Alphonse" as they gave away a certain series win, both at the beginning of the series and at its end. Just before the start of the first race, the Pughs discovered to their horror, that neither had brought the wherewithal for their smoke breaks. Aboard the RC boat, only Uncle Al agreed with their decision to sail back to shore to remedy that disaster. Above left, David and Anne are spinnakering towards the start line, only about two minutes late for race 1. To their credit, they made it back up to 5th place by the race 1 finish.


Even after that unpromising start, the Pughs were poised to win a series tie-breaker over Sue and Steph as they neared the finish of the final race in first place. Coming in on the starboard gybe (diagram above right), David and Anne had only to gybe around Mark 2B (photo above) to win the race and the series. Instead, they pulled an Uncle Al and sailed to the far mark, letting Mike and Mark Duncan (yellow spi above) move into the lead.

The above photo also nicely groups our Most Improved teams of the 2014 Ontarios. The Pughs and the Duncans of what is now the hottest Wayfarer Fleet in North America, the Mississauga SC, placed 2-3 in the series and had been seeded 6-7. The Pughs have improved so much since getting out of their old boat that they have been getting a free ride to Most Improved. But that ends today as I have made an executive decision to count only their new boat results, which moves them from 117th on our overall list to 17th (tops among our regularly active racers: see http://www.wayfarer-canada.org/seeds.html)

Our latest fabulous addition to Wayfarers are Mike Duncan and his wife, Marg, who took series third, as mentioned above. After decades in a CL16, the Duncans moved to Mark 1 Wayfarer before capturing one of the new Hartleys made available after last year's Worlds. In their sleek, new GaelForce, Mike and Marg have been nothing short of impressive! It's great to have you with us, Mike and Marg!!

Top-seeded Heider Funck and Tom Wharton of the host club were one of two of our top boats that placed both first and last on the same day - and not through capsize or breakdown, either!! It was simply a tough fleet! Heider and Tom were actually leading a number of races but were unable to hold their leads. An unrepaired leak without enough wind to activate bailers was no help in this department!

A second TSCC team hit the top five as 3rd-seeded John Cawthorne and Robert McDonald ended up series 5th just a single point behind Heider. Only 3 points further back were our only American visitors, Michiganders Nick Seraphinoff and Chip Cunningham.


Nick and Chip actually went Heider one better as they came dead last in Sunday's first race and then turned around and won the very next race, #6.

Series 7th went to Leo Van Kampen and his wife, Joanne, from the Conestoga SC, home of another growing Wayfarer fleet. Leo and Joanne had a major high point when they won race 2 but still need more time on the water to make those high-end finishes a more regular occurrence.


TSCC's Alastair Ryder-Turner and son, Andrew, did some serious pre-race polishing on their Abbott Mark III but still ended up with 3-8-5-6 finishes before packing it in. This 4th-seeded pair ended up in 8th overall, ahead of club mates, Bob Stevenson and George Waller, who made this series a learning experience.