| the 2009 North American
Wayfarer Rally Steph Romaniuk/Sue Pilling photos & report - 1 ... |
| North American Wayfarer Rally Wellesley Island State Park, NY – Thousand Islands July 18-25th, 2009 The 14
boats, including one CL16, in attendance experienced
fair weather and light to heavy winds for most of
the week long rally. Rain did not fall during the
day until Thursday and Friday, the last two days of
the rally. David, Lisa, and family (Kristal, and
Josh) from New Hampshire hosted the first of several
evening campfires to socialize. As first time
attendees, we had a lot to learn about cruising,
especially sleeping aboard and boom tents, reefing
systems, oars and where to store them, motors, storm
jibs, hatches/storage, and other modifications.
Dennis had a VHF radio, antenna, and a switch panel
for other electrical devices. Dick Harrington told
us a lot about wooden boat repairs and wear
prevention techniques.
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| Our campsite was right next to the
boat launch so we dry-sailed all week. We were teased: “Don’t think of it as a piece of furniture, put a good scratch on it and get over it!” ... |
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| The other boats rented slips beside the
boat launch for $10/night. ... |
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Sunday, July 19th At the first 9am skippers meeting, we
went around for introductions and found that we had
sailors from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland,
Ontario, Michigan and several from Ohio, including
Dick Harrington. Gary Hirsch handed out the memento
cup holders he had made for rally participants – there
were plenty to go around – when not holding a beer,
they seconded nicely for padding the end of a boom for
travelling – just one though, Gary. Most boats headed
out in the 15-20+ knot winds for Canoe Point, a 4.5NM
beat to the west. Due to arriving late, we set out
over an hour later with the Goulay/Bergevin family
from Ottawa. While they patiently waited for our
launch, the police came by and started questioning
Frank Goulay about boat registration, reporting entry
into Canadian waters, etc. Several boats were hassled
in the first couple days – but it was ridiculous about
Canadian waters because they lie only 100m from
Wellesley Island. Note: you do not have to pay at
picnic spots and other state parks if you are staying
at any NY State Park. We headed out without a reef and
were quite overpowered, but arrived in just over an
hour at the lunch spot on the NE corner of Grindstone
Island. It was quite a downwind ride back in the
afternoon and we were all glad that the boat launch
and the lunch stop were sheltered from the high winds.
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| That evening’s social was on a picturesque
point hosted by Bill & Margie. We were dazzled by a beautiful sunset, which unfortunately was also the starting gun for the mosquitoes. ... |
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Monday, July 20th We had figured out a reefing system that
would work for our 1961 original mainsail and left it
in as we headed out in a light 5-8 knot southwesterly
for Clayton, NY – a 14NM round trip to the small
mainland town. We shook it out shortly thereafter. We
were “trying” not to have racing tendencies, but is
that possible?
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| It was a beautiful sail, skirting the shallow Eel Bay past a ... |
| next photos page return to 2009 Rally index page |