Parry
Sound's Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk beat out hot fleet in calm-shortened Ontarios Report by Uncle Al W3854 |
(2021.10.09) The Saturday (Oct. 2nd) of this year's Wayfarer Ontarios hosted on Humber Bay by the Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club, was a classic case of "It was too good to last". Perfect sailing weather prevailed as a well-matched 11-boat fleet battled it out in four light- to medium-air races. At the end of the day, much of the fleet was still in with a realistic hope of victory. Everyone was eagerly anticipating race 5 which would allow the "drop" to kick in. But it was not to be. The forecast was half right: the day of scattered showers did arrive but the 5 knots of wind did not. Sadly, further racing had to be cancelled after due consultation with the competitors by Race Officer, John O'Dwyer. ![]() When the dust had settled, the 2nd-seeded team of Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk out of Parry Sound, Ontario, had won their 6th Ontario title and their first since their streak of five straight wins ended in 2015. Team Chich ended up scoring 2-1-6-5 to beat out Oakville couple, David and Anne Pugh, by three points. The Pughs (below) started their series with a most unwelcome 8th but then picked up their pace with 3-5-1 in the very competitive fleet. ![]() ![]() ![]() The
Codd - Wierdsma tie-breaker then went to Mike and
Kirk (above) - best finish 2nd ahead of Rob
and daughter, Samantha (below) - best
finish 3rd. As it turned out, that turn of events
left both teams tied as the regatta's Most
Improved teams at three places above their
seeds: Mike and Kirk seeded 7th finished 4th
overall, and Rob and Samantha, seeded 8th, placed
series 5th.
![]() ![]() Ottawa's Frank Goulay and pick-up crew, John Koetsier, as they win race 3. Only three points back of the
3rd-place agglomeration at 22 points overall
was another tied trio. Frank Goulay drove in
from Ottawa with Kim (below) who had
a ton of school (teacher) work to do and did
not have time to sail. An emergency pick-up
crew was duly arranged in the form of MSC's
John Koetsier who was eager to get some
Wayfarer experience before his Mark 4 arrives
in February 2022. Frank and John won that
three-way tie breaker by virtue of their
"bullet" in race 3.
![]() ![]() A
sparkling 2nd-place finish in race 4 gave the
local team of Kit Wallace and George Waller (above)
the nod ahead of the Conestoga team of Leo Van
Kampen and his wife, Joanne, whose best finish was
a 4th. A bit of a disappointment for the Van
Kampens who had dominated a 17-boat
2019 North Americans fleet at TS with
nothing but "bullets" and have historically been
at their best on Lake Ontario waters.
![]() ![]() This series was not at all a
fluke festival and it speaks to the high
quality of the sailors that the 3rd seed ended
up finishing 9th overall. The TSCC team of
John Cawthorne and Robert MacDonald (above)
started off with an impressive 3rd but
after that had one of their rare bad days on
Humber Bay. The Conestoga duo of Jan d'Ailly
and Tom Legrady (below) had Class
Coach, Uncle Al, observing them and taking
pictures with a view to finding correctable
flaws in technique and/or sail trim in their
day's sailing which resulted in a 10th-place
finish on the day. Al was able to offer some
suggestions that were to be tried the next
day. But of course, that was not to be.
![]() One of the small
suggestions was not to pull the pole so
far aft that the spi foot was draped over
the forestay.
![]() Despite their string of
11ths - a.k.a. DFL - Wayfarer rookies
Keith Dyke and Craig Nogas (above) maintained
their good humour. They, too, had hopes
for a better day on the Sunday, having
discovered that W938 had developed
appreciable forward mast rake which a
group of Wayfarer surgeons soon corrected
(below).
![]() ![]() ![]() Uncle A has been
scheduled for a sailing re-union
with his Detroit friend of 50+
years, Nick Seraphinoff (above)
in this event but ended up
having to bow out due to health
issues. So Al decided instead to
be the official photographer -
shades of his 2014 ISAF suspension
which he still remembers fondly.
Thanks on behalf of all of us to
PRO, John O'Dwyer, to Rob Logan (below
right) and to Charlotte
Safieh for their fine committee
work - photo below:
![]() ![]() Sincere thanks also to Ed Tait and Emma Dale (above) as well as to Gord Nikkaido with ??? who did safety boat duty for us. |