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Pumpkin Regatta Fanshawe YC, London, ON * Oct. 3-4, 2009 Regatta Report by Uncle Al |
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Fanshawe's legendary Pumpkin closes 2009 with mixed weather,
fine sailing and great hospitality!
 Race hut-based starts (above) were the order of the day for the six races of this year's Pumpkin Regatta hosted in the finest possible manner by the Fanshawe YC Oct. 3-4 on Fanshawe Lake in the NE corner of London, ON. Temperatures were seasonally cool ranging from the mid- to high teens Celsius. In the photo above, Sue Pilling (397) and Mike Codd (4600) are in the act of burying Uncle Al (3854 just after the race 1 start, but in the end, Uncle Al's 40 years of sailing Fanshawe's tricky conditions proved too much for the challengers as Al and his wife, Julia, repeated as George Blanchard Red Top Award winners.   Work commitments (long-haul trucking) kept Roger Shepherd (l) and his Kiwi sweetie, Raewyn Perry, from being able to race but their presence at the party was an excellent consolation prize for us, and for them as well.   The Wayfarers' Pumpkin weekend began with the by now traditional Friday night dinner and party at the home of John and Dolores de Boer and of their cocker spaniels, Cassie and Callie. The food and the company were great as always, even if the forecast interminably repeated on the TV was pretty unprepossessing: cool with rain and winds of 5 to 10 knots. Julia and I, as well as Sue and Steph were the luckiest of the guests, having been invited to stay with John and Dolores and not having to go back out into the rain to drive home. And Steph even got a nice wake-up lick from Callie the next morning.   Saturday did indeed arrive with the
forecast rain and seasonal temperatures in the low teens Celsius, but
the latest forecast predicted some clearing. The
Skippers' Meeting went off more or less at its scheduled 10AM start
time.
PRO, Doug Carey (above, standing) announced
that he and his committee would try to get in as many races for us as
possible. Luckily for the RC, shore-based starts had been chosen as the
order of the weekend, perhaps to avoid clashes with US and Canadian
gunboats who were again re-enacting one of the battles of the war of
1812.
 The RC sent us off for race 1 just after
1100 hrs into SSW winds of 8 to 12 knots that gusted to 15+ at times
under clearing skies (see photos
below). A
course of 2-1-Pumpkin (see orange
dot NW of start/finish line A-B above) twice around saw us meet
with a
few rain squalls and found us happy to break for lunch after that,
having had no proper beats with this unfortunate wind direction.
Despite having chickened out on use of their spi , Al and Julia were
able to just fight off challenges from several boats on the short run from #2 to #1 and
rounded onto an occasionally close reach to the Pumpkin mark just ahead
of Mike with Kirk and Sue with Steph. This leg saw no spis used and a
short final "beat" from the Pumpkin mark to the A-B finish line was
really a close reach on starboard tack. So, Al was the lucky guy who
led the "parade" home, with the Mike Codd/Kirk Iredale team edging out
the Sue Pilling/ Steph Romaniuk tandem for 2nd place. A pair of local
couples rounded out the top five as John and Dolores de Boer took 4th
ahead of Jeff and Vera Eames who were making their annual one-time
appearance on our circuit.
  The
Lasers were well into race 2 and the Wayfarers nicely into their start
sequence when the sound of thunder convinced the RC to abandon the
race (see photos below).
This
extended lunch break was used by some to quench thirst with
beer, etc. before we were off for attempt #2 at a 2nd race about an
hour later. Things in fact settled down so nicely that we were able to
get a third race in as well as wind and weather settled down to
moderate conditions all around. Looking great in these races were Teams
Schonborn and Pilling who placed 1-2 in both heats while outdistancing
the rest of the fleet.
  After scoring their three bullets, Al
and Julia (3854 above) were in a pretty relaxing lead in the Wayfarer
series with only Sue and Steph (3-2-2) still having a reasonable
hope of overtaking the defending George
Blanchard Red Top Award champions. After trading 3-4s with John
and Dolores de Boer, Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale (2-3-4) still had a
good shot at taking series second with a good Sunday effort. Having run
a string of 5ths, Jeff and Vera Eames appeared to have a lock on series
5th while our Conestoga entry - Scott Ramsay making his rookie regatta
appearance with fellow-helm, Leo Van Kampen, as crew got off to a
respectable start with a series of three 6ths. One of our
longest-standing North American Wayfarer teams, Len Macdougall and Andy
Turnbull of the Fanshawe YC were the "perfect hosts" on this day
racking up two 7ths before packing it in for the day.
 Mississauga SC's Rob Wierdsma
and son, Daniel, capsized in race 1 and used this smart method of
cleaning the horribly slimy Fanshawe mud off their new sails before
deciding to spectate for the remaining Saturday races.
 Not all that long after the completion
of race 3, the "dinner bell" called us upstairs to the chalet where we
enjoyed
a superb supper (above) prepared
by FYC club members, ???. This was again a lovely, sociable way to cap
a great day's racing and fellowship. Later, some of us Wayfarers sat
around John and Dolores' living room but did not have much energy left (below).
  Sunday morning arrived overcast
with nice little breezes of 6 to 8 knots and temps of not much more
than 10°C. The winds had veered towards the NW so that the RC sent
us off towards mark #4 and moved the Pumpkin mark about 200 yards SE to
the start/finish line A-B.
 Al and Julia (above) were brought back to earth
after their firsts-filled Saturday when North Bay's Sue Pilling and
Steph Romaniuk kept their slim title hopes alive by edging out the SHADES team to win race 4. This
turn of events pretty much assured Al and Sue of the top two places for
the series. Meanwhile, a nice 3rd by the de Boers, John and Dolores,
moved then to within one point of series 3rd which was being tenuously
held by Mike and Kirk, Ho-hum! It was yet another 5th for Jeff and Vera
Eames.
 A cool, calm and collected race
5 victory for Al and Julia over
Sue and Steph in race 5 (above) quickly ended any doubts as ...  ... Al and Julia (above) again won the Red Top Award, this time with a
race to spare, while ...
 ... Team Chich,
Sue and Steph, similarly nailed down series 2nd. Rob and Daniel
Wierdsma
(green and white spi above) scored
an excellent 3rd in this race while John kept his 3rd-place hope
alive and flourishing by edging out Mike Codd for 4th. It was a
relatively small Y-Flyer fleet at the Pumpkin this year - much of which
can be seen in the photo above.
Although some threatening clouds were gathering, conditions remained benign and moderate for our 6th race, the 2009 season finale. Not surprisingly, Al and Sue once more placed 1-2, and the only question left was whether John and Dolores would be able to wrest series 3rd from Mike and Kirk. John did manage to beat Mike in the finale, but his 3rd to Mike's 4th was only enough to create a points tie which was resolved in Mike's favour on the "Most firsts, most 2nds, ..." provision of the tie-breaking rule: Mike's 2nd way back in race 1 ended up making the difference there.  The miserable weekend forecast
even took its numerical toll on the Lasers some of whom can be seen
above, rounding Sunday's Pumpkin mark in their typically
closely-matched action.
 The RC had a couple of
post-race scoring questions to resolve and it all working out well
since the results were just being recorded on the public score sheets (above) as we arrived at the chalet
after packing up the boats for the winter, alas!
 Some winners get to bask in
their glory by not Uncle Al (above)
who is busy copying down the results which will appear on line before
the end of the day not long after he and Julia complete their 90-minute
drive home.
 The awards ceremony has been
announced and we are an attentive and eager lot that awaits the
festivities.
 Wayfarer 3rd (on the aforementioned tie-breaker) as well as Most Improved (the only team to beat their seed!): Mike Codd (r) and Kirk Iredale.  PRO, Doug Carey (r), presents the snazzy new Pumpkin prize pennant to series runners-up, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk.  Julia and Uncle Al once more kept the George Blanchard Red Top Award in their clutches in 2009.  As Julia and I followed our hosts, John and Dolores de Boer out of Fanshawe Park, the skies once again opened up, presenting this appropriately sad scene as another lovely sailing season came to an end. |
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