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The 2009 North American Rally at Wellesley
Island State Park
A
Report from Kit Wallace
It seems that Patsy and I now
arrange our summer holidays around the Wayfarer Rally, and this year's
in the Thousand Islands was another wonderful opportunity to catch up
with all our sailing friends. The group of regulars was enlivened this
year by several new faces - an indication that the Rally is appealing
to an ever larger constituency. This year we were joined by Steve Roney
from Belleville, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk from North Bay, Frank
Goulay, Kim Bergevin and kids from Ottawa, Sean Ring and family from
Cincinnati, Ohio and Don Palac, also from Ohio.
What is really great about these events is that they appeal to a broad cross-section of Wayfarer owners - not just racers or cruisers, but people who collectively have a tremendous range of experience sailing dinghies in all types of situations and weather conditions. Our "leader" Dick Harrington, probably has the most heavy weather experience of anyone in the group, but I was impressed to see Steve Roney sailing in fairly stiff breezes quite comfortably single-handed in his CL 16. Likewise, Dennis Figley's Wayfarer is equipped unlike any other I've seen to handle difficult conditions while sailing solo. Over the years I have picked up a tremendous amount of knowledge about cruising in the Wayfarer and have modified Ab faB accordingly, so that now I have a whole other set of equipment just for the Rally, and hopefully for longer distance cruising some day. I like the idea of the Danish Wayfarers that this single design can used for many purposes - cruising, racing and just pottering about in - the "ideal" boat. Patsy and I had checked out the Wellesley Island site last October and thought it would be perfect - certainly from the point of view of launching and mooring 15 or so boats, and the dockage facilities turned out to be excellent - probably the best of any of our venues. The unknown quantity was what the camping experience would be like. I can say in retrospect that the campsites were not as nice as at Hermit Island or Kilbear, tending to be quite densely spaced inland, though the waterfront sites at Wellesley were certainly lovely. However, I would gladly have banished from the scene the ever-present raucous seadoos (often two per family) typically piloted by testosterone-fuelled young males. We arrived at Wellesley Island
late Friday afternoon in advance of most of the other participants,
dogged by showers and blustery weather all the way from Toronto.
After setting up camp we decided to wait until Saturday to launch the
boat. The next day the wind was gusting from the west at a good clip
with whitecaps out in the main channel. A "B" Class catamaran was
screaming around out there. We thought we'd put our cruising sail with
newly installed deep reefing points to the test. This turned out to be
an exhilarating sail, even planing downwind in the gusts, but never
overpowered with our reefed main.
By Sunday most of the group had arrived, and at the skipper's meeting Tom Graefe proposed a moderate sail upstream to Canoe Point for lunch. The conditions were still much the same as the day before, gusting to 15-20 knots in the Canadian shipping channel, and as we were heading upwind, most people threw in a reef. The wind was strong enough that I don't think anyone had a free hand to spare for a VHF radio check, however we were all in close visual contact on the beat. Patsy and I were first to arrive at Canoe Point, another American state park, with fine protected mooring slips for 40 to 50 boats. Sure enough the NY State Police had observed the arrival of the dozen or so small sailboats and pulled in with their launch as we docked. I wondered what was going to happen - Patsy has had a series of unfortunate encounters with US Customs, so I was a bit paranoid. The trooper questioned me at length about where we were from, boat registration, etc. - all the usual stuff - but then stated that we were obliged to report in to US Customs if we had so much as ventured into Canadian waters. This was completely contradictory to my understanding that it was only necessary to report if you put down anchor or landed on Canadian soil. I'm sure his information was incorrect - it would be virtually impossible for any boater to leave Wellesley Island without crossing the Canadian border - it's so close. Nevertheless the guy humoured me as I had no ID with me and he couldn't check me out anyway! He did make a good suggestion
that we all get Nexus cards which involve a pre-authorized security
clearance. This would allow us to touch down in either US or Canadian
territory, and only require a cell phone check-in with Customs. Patsy
and I will certainly do this the next time we visit the Thousand
Islands, because there are many interesting islands to explore (notably
Mulcaster Island, part of the National Parks system) and waterfront
drinking holes on the Canadian side that we were unable to stop at this
year.
The Sunday evening get-together was hosted by Bill Harkins and Margie McKelvey who had a rather spectacular campsite out at the end of a peninsula, making for a terrific party location. Patsy had committed to a very important meeting on Monday, so that evening drove in to Kingston to catch the train back to Toronto for a day. Monday was looking perfect for a long sail though the wind had calmed down considerably from the day before, but the weather was gorgeous. The proposition was to get off early, to see whether we could make it to the town of Clayton about 7 miles away as the crow flies. I teamed up with Tom Graefe as crew while Nel took the day off. Tom was keen to act as rear commodore of the fleet so we circled around for what seemed like ages waiting for the stragglers to set off (actually Sean Ring and his son, who had arrived only the night before and were still rigging up their boat). We made sure that Sean was safely afloat, then headed upstream on a long beat, probably 20-30 minutes behind the leaders. As our paths crossed, Bill
Harkins told us that he was tacking up the Canadian side to keep out of
the current in the main channel. We took his advice on avoiding the
current, but crossed over to the Wellesley Island shore and took a
shortcut between some small islands to emerge southwest of Canoe Point
about in the middle of the fleet and gaining on the others! The long
sail across the mouth of Eel Bay and south between Murray Island and
Picton Island was a treat as the wind started to pick up a bit. By
staying closehauled upwind, we were able to avoid having to tack across
the American shipping channel, and picking a clean line managed to
arrive ahead of the rest of the fleet at the Clayton public dock, much
to our delight.
We chose what seemed to be the most obvious landing spot, which turned out to be a private dock reserved for tour boats, and had to re-locate the boat, as the other Wayfarers arrived to claim any unused dock space. In the process of doing this, I missed Sean's spectacular gybe at the dock, while Tom and others looked on in amazement. A relaxed lunch at Bella's restaurant was followed by a quicker downwind return to the campgrounds with Tom at the helm. Tom should have some great photos of two Canada Steamship sister ships crossing in the American channel. So many bottles of wine were consumed that evening at Bill and Margie's wonderful pot-luck dinner with Tom and Nel, later joined by Patsy just returned from Toronto, that I lost count. Tom and Nel were to leave early the next day in preparation for their trip to Brittany for the International Rally to which Bill and Margie were also going in a week's time. By Tuesday the wind had backed to the east and at the morning skippers' meeting we discussed a trip downstream towards the Ivy Lea Bridge through the narrow Fiddler's Elbow channel. This episode was one of the highlights of Rally for me. Fiddler's Elbow is not the main Canadian shipping channel, but is a more scenic secondary route and thus heavily travelled by tour boats. Signs request powerboats to travel dead slow to avoid excessive wash on the shoreline. When we arrived at the upstream end, the amount of current was apparent in the swirling waters, so despite having to tack across the narrow passage, we always made progress travelling downstream. The curious thing is that as we tacked back and forth across the channel, the large cabin cruiser behind us tacked with us each time we tacked. There's no doubt he could have passed us if he had wanted to, but I presumed he was curious about us - perhaps an ex-dinghy sailor himself? Looking back we saw the entire Wayfarer fleet tacking through the channel with a huge Gananoque Boat Lines tour boat and another paddle-wheeler bearing down on them! I hope someone grabbed some shots of this great scene. (Al's note: Someone did, below: Steph Romaniuk)  It is recommended not to sail
under the Ivy Lea Bridge as there is a 50' underwater cliff in the
vicinity that creates a lot of turbulence at the surface of the river.
We circled back, hugging the islands near the Canadian shore beside the
picturesque village of Ivy Lea and crossed back to the American side
for a picnic lunch at Watterson State Park. Once again, after docking
the boats we were closely inspected by a patrol boat - this time from
the Department of Homeland Security - yet another reminder of border
concerns.
On Wednesday there was general agreement that a day off would be a good thing. In fact it would have been a better day to sail than the next, which turned out to be overcast and threatening rain. Many of the group took a trip to Boldt Castle, but Patsy and I spent a delightful time wandering around the town of Thousand Islands Park near Fineview on Wellesley Island. This place is like a throwback to the 19th century with dozens of beautifully preserved Victorian summer houses. Many are available for rent at extraordinary prices - like $1500 to $5000 a week. Most residents drive around in electric golf carts. In a curious way the place reminded me of Jim Carrey's movie The Truman Show for its artificiality so far removed from our present day urban experience, but in another respect the place was quite charming. On axis with the main cross road was a white gable-fronted building called the Tabernacle with a sign out front advertising times for movie showings, Catholic mass and Protestant service - apparently a truly universal civic building! This grandiose building as it turned out was only about 20 feet in depth - on going around to the back to examine it, the "nave" turned out to be a modern steel shed roofed structure containing bleacher seating. Perhaps only a façade after all. That evening we all congregated
at the Riverview Café in
Clayton for our group dinner. As always, this was a chance to carouse
with our friends. At the conclusion, I presented Dick Harrington with
the Don Davis Memorial Trophy
on behalf of the Canadian Wayfarer Association which awards this
beautiful trophy for "exceptional service to the class over the years".
The Don Davis Trophy is
normally handed out at our CWA AGM, but because of winter weather Dick
had not been able to get to Toronto last January. I believe this was
the first time the trophy was awarded to an American Wayfarer.
The weather reports for Thursday and Friday were not promising - heavy rain was forecast. After a taste of camping in the rain on Tuesday night, Patsy and I decided to pack it in a day early, but not without going for a good sail with Tony Krauss out to Mulcaster Island and back. We had packed up and said our goodbyes by late afternoon, and it was probably just as well that we left when we did. The rain on the way back to Toronto was torrential - but typical for the summer of 2009. Thanks to all the Rally participants for another memorable week, and we hope to see you (and those who couldn't make it this time) next year in Parry Sound at Killbear Park. Kit & Patsy Wallace
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