The Pumpkin Regatta
Fanshawe YC * Sept. 29-30, 2012
report by Uncle Al
.........
The lucky few get rewarded with great weather
at ill-attended Pumpkin!



A number of unfortunate circumstances, not the least of which were a series of very gloomy weather forecasts, contributed to the fact that a record-low three Wayfarers enjoyed a fine Pumpkin Regatta Sept. 29-30. In the event, we got two warm, sunny days (see photo above). Overall attendance was also affected, and we had just 17 boats total: 6 Lasers, 3 entries in Open A and 5 in Open B. The good news for us Wayfarers was that we got to start with the Lasers and were able to pace ourselves against some very fine sailors.

It ended up being a light-air weekend with one Saturday drifter and four Sunday morning races in pleasant winds hovering around 5 knots from the NNE. In Wayfarers, we finished as per our seeds:  1. Al Schonborn/Chip Cunningham   2. John de Boer with neighbour, Murray McPhail, on Saturday and Dolores on Sunday    3. Jeff and Vera Eames
In Lasers, things went as expected as Brad Biskaborn beat out brother, Kevin, while series 3rd went to Rick Goldt who was making his 2012 debut after being incapacitated due to a hernia operation.
In Open A, it was Brooke Wareing in her Laser Radial beating out a historical wooden-masted Y-Flyer sailed by Lawrence Lynch with son, Andy, and daughter????  The 49er team of Andrew Dittmer and Matt Quinn never made it to race 1 and packed it in after that. Not really a 49er kind of weekend, to be fair!!
Roy Elworthy and his Venture 22 took top honours in Open B, edging out Marty Jackson and Chris Fogelman in their McGregor 26. Brian Hurst with daughter, Elayna, and assistant first mate, Robyn Gruninger, sailed Top Gun, a Schock 23 to 3rd overall.
 


No Friday-night party at the de Boers' this year, so that for most of us, proceedings got underway on Saturday morning in relatively warm sunshine but no winds (see photo above). Our wise RC postponed until after lunch when we at last got underway in rather unprepossessing winds.

It was not much of a day to be sailing the 49er in the Open A fleet
which started with Wayfarers and Lasers.

That race began as a drifter but eventually picked up to a rollicking two or three knots. After mercifully shortening course, our RC decided we had had enough and cancelled for the rest of the day.


Not too much later - we were sitting over some drinks outside the de Boers' camper - when a downpour rolled in (above) and made our RC look like genii!!


And so, we were left with not much more to do than enjoy each other's company plus and outrageously cheap ($8!!!) turkey feast whipped up by Fanshawe's great kitchen volunteers. Thanks, one and all!!



Sunday (above) arrived with unseasonably warm sunshine and about 5 knots of breeze. Our RC lost no time in getting things underway on a windward-leeward course similar to Saturday's - see below:




By 1 PM, we had added four races to Saturday's singleton without much ado. Unless, of course, you count Uncle Al and Chip's misadventure. Just before race 1 started, Chip noticed that a flag had been hoisted and Al identified it as the "life jackets" flag for newcomer, Chip. It was at this point that Team SHADES discovered that both of us had neglected to bring our PFDs. The countdown having gotten underway in the meantime, we sailed over to the RC and begged. A dispensation was kindly granted to us for the day's first race.

An opportunity missed ...  
... was what Chip called it, and truly it was. Right after the race, we rushed to the ramp that was less than a quarter-mile away. There, Al would drop off Chip who would run up the ramp to our vehicles and retrieve the sleeping PFDs. We were half-way there when the belated brain wave hit Uncle Al. "Chip," I exclaimed, "we should have started the second race, and banged the left corner to the ramp. Then I could have let you off (never mind rule 47!), finished the beat, and then picked you up on my way past the ramp on the run!!" And indeed it was an opportunity missed, since the RC rushed to give us an out-of-sequence start to the next race before the Open B fleet was even close to done and we started that race a leg behind. To rub salt into the wound, the RC informed us as we began our second sausage, that we had missed the starting cut-off and were being scored DNS. At about the same time, I was tacking and the mainsheet got tangled in my PFD yet again. At this time, I was thoroughly irked at the unjustifiable life jackets flag that was being flown and heartily endorsed Tony Krauss's total refusal to wear a PFD while racing. It does indeed, as Tony points out, create more danger than it avoids on a dinghy race course!!!

Still, all in all this was a superb end to my northern racing season of 2012. My sincere thanks to all the cheerful Fanshawe volunteers!! We promise to bring more W's next year!!!!!