2013 Pumpkin Regatta report by PRO, John Kabel

The weather forecast for this year's Pumpkin alluded to 70-90 percent chance of thunderstorms both days, high humidity and rain, rain, rain. Well, as said so often at the Josie Scarlett Race Hut, wait five minutes, then go racing. Not a bolt of lightning was seen all weekend though a huge Low and storm-laden cold front loomed to the west on the Internet radar sites. So, in future, ignore forecasts until you are standing on the dock, painter in hand, watching the RC barge head out to its appointed spot on the lake. I finally got a call after supper on Sunday from Mary Watson, when I was safely at home starting the post-regatta reports, asking if I heard the thunder. The docks were seriously flooded by Monday evening. Neptune really cut us a break. We were also warned of a mini-onslaught of racers, and were quite gratified when six outside Wayfarers joined the new Hurst boat 5346 (aka "Bazinga") and the Eames "Bloody Thing" to make a sizeable fleet for their own start in the Canadian Wayfarers Association Ontario Provincial Championship, sailed as part of the Pumpkin. We also had inkling of a renewed invasion of Y-Flyers, as they planned to hold their Ontario Championship under our umbrella. Ten boats including our own Jack Blocker on Y-1796 (aided by Lance Warren), and Richard and Colin King on the spiffy Y-2794 turned up at Registration. I had been fielding calls from the Sudbury, Ottawa and Quebec crews in both fleets as they tried to find us (our location is also accurately described on the FYC web site, for future GPS and Google Map reference). I expected some numbers, but not 40 boats. Surprise!!! We ended up with seven fleets in four starts, sailing a total of 23 races. Pre-race preparations included Kevin Biskaborn and Sue Goldt handling our internal publicity, with Jim Mackenzie and myself liaising with the outside organizations, while Mike Morris fielded external press and photo calls. Heavy lifting was asked of Bob Magill to place the hut frame on the barge. Bob also kept our gas stores topped up on short notice. Jim, quiet as he is, went above the call of duty when asked to remount a motor on the school RIB and get it into the water with Amanda and Bob Somek. Our stalwart "Moneybags" John Bryant almost collapsed under the drift of $20 bills at Registration, but his accounting worked as usual. We again outsourced the manning of Safety Boats to the St. John Ambulance, and they were greeted with loud applause at the Skippers Meeting. Their crew consisted of past FYC member Henry Klausnitzer, Randy K., Dale M., Jean C. and Andrew K. on Saturday, with Henry, Randy, Paul W. And Alec M. on board for Sunday. Hans Schaffner and Nicholas Callender put their knowledge of the lake to great use in placing of race marks on the two days. Winds were a touch iffy under the loom of the cliffs and the lowering clouds, as the racers pointed out. We tried to respond, adjusting locations of barge and buoys several times. Fog obscured parts of the course after the first start. The RC flag ended up upside down, probably because we couldn't see it! Drizzle and some rain did not appear to slow anybody down. The Race Committee on the barge consisted of R/C John as Race Officer, assisted by Paul Sobeiraj, Patricia Johnstone, and Mark Cole, who also provided Saturday photography. Mary Watson and Nathalie Hurst came on as AROs for Sunday, which needed some very sharp eyes on the barge for close finishes. Mary assisted with scoring as well. A warm but wet Saturday opened with steady light SE winds much like in the Club Championship, forcing starts toward the southeast cliffs. A decent first race blew the fog off the lake, and we adjusted to a more southerly breeze. Winds held and we felt comfortable taking lunch after two complete starting rotations. A regatta runs on its stomach, so Colleen Ellison-Wareing poured in lots of her hot chocolate and Mike Wareing's chili, and had to restock to have something to accompany turkey leftovers on Sunday. She was helped by Carlene Hone and Jim Mackenzie, Bob and Amanda Somek from the Y-Flyers, Manon (one of the Y-Flyer moms) and Carlene's nieces. Thanks also to Ross Green for the paper flowers. At this point in the proceedings there was a four-way tie for first in the Wayfarer fleet, so we had to get back out there. We ended up with a slowly falling S wind in the third race sequence. Sweaty but well exercised, the RC and sailors retired mid-afternoon to clean up for dinner. Most of the fleets had started to surface clear winners, with some serious challengers to Al Schönborn's perennial supremacy at the Pumpkin Wayfarer's Ontarios lurking just off his transom. Al calmed down by sharing vast volumes of his Dark ‘n Stormy recipe (different rum than the Goslings version, and using PC Ginger Beer). And we all talked weather, or should we say, lack of it. We needed things to hold in the morning so that the wins would be decisive. Natalie and the Hursts, Mary Watson and many others gave us the turkey dinner of the summer. As Mike Codd of the Wayfarers Association noted, where else could we have gone for a meal of that calibre at a price like that. Next year's price was doubled on the spot. Sunday morning developed light breezes, to keep the smell off a mess the racoons made outside the clubhouse. Bob and I cleaned up, refueled the boats, and after a short postponement for fleets to get to the line, the RC set up a dead N to S course starting off the Club north cliffs. Two long start sequences and slow hull speeds took us past 1200. The Y-Flyers have a class limit of not starting after that, so they retired en masse with a paper extract of the RC records to calculate their winners. One more sequence brought everybody in off the lake under breaking clouds. Some computer work, a hefty lunch of leftovers and a posting of results closed out the work for the Race Committee, and we turned to awards and the thanking of the many volunteers who made this huge regatta a success. New and notable among the top echelons of the Pumpkin winners are Elayna Hurst (1st in Laser Radials) and the "Never Better" team of Mike Morris and Ross Green in the Open Keelboat Class. Mark Anderson was closely beaten by Chris Fogelman, a Learn to Race newcomer to our CS-22 fleet. Brad Biskaborn took Lasers, and Calum Mackellar of Belwood Lake Sailing Club repeated his June Bug win in the Open Dinghies. A drift of FYC burgees went out to the winners, and then Bob Somek of the Y-Flyers passed out their trophies, with Richard and Colin King of BLSC taking their title. I handed over proceedings to Mike Codd, Chairman of the Canadian Wayfarer Association to distribute that fleet's awards. They have a class rule in Ontario that ties at the top are not broken, so two versions of the lineup emerged. Neither included Uncle Al at the top for the first time in many years. According to RRS Appendix A, Sue Pilling and Stephan Romaniuk will occupy top spot on the FYC Pumpkin trophy, but David and Anne Pugh in second place on our trophy will share first place in the Wayfarer annals for 2013, where the Appendix is not used. They also took "Most Improved" in the Wayfarer seeding system. Our 2013 Pumpkin was just a hint of the past glories of Fanshawe Lake, when hundreds of boats swelled our regattas. Thanks to all who sailed and helped, and we hope to see many of you at the November Club Banquet to inspect our trophies again, then at the June Bug in 2014, dates to be announced shortly. A couple of work parties to come, some plywood on the race hut windows, and we will close out a very successful regatta year at FYC.