Select few Wayfarers enjoy spectacular Rock Hall weekend as Uncle Al
defends his US Wayfarer title with rookie crew, Richard Watterson

Early June continued to take its toll on Wayfarers wanting to take part in the Rock Hall weekend held June 11-13, as several teams were prevented from participating by conflicting family engagements or other concerns. Still, we ended up with a 5-boat Wayfarer fleet that added its talents to a very well attended Down the Chester River Race on the Friday, and the annual Rock Hall YC One-Design Regatta.

Amazingly enough, the top three Wayfarers completed the 12-mile River Race within about 100 feet of each other as Jim Heffernan and son, Mark, edged out Tony Krauss and wife, Mary, who in turn squeaked in ahead of Al Schonborn and Richard Watterson who had held a sizeable lead for much of the race.

It was a different matter in the weekend's regatta which doubled as the Wayfarers' U.S. Nationals again this year. Although we got great sailing winds in completing a 7-race series over the two days, the excitement level was nothing to raise the heart rate excessively: Apart from Tony and Mary "stealing" one 2nd from Jim and Mark, the series saw each seed finish in their expected position in every race. Thank goodness for the seven Rebels who shared the course with us and added some spice to our racing as our boat speeds were eminently compatible.

Richard Watterson (l) and Uncle Al (r) accept their series prizes from USWA Commodore, Jim Heffernan.


Top US finishers, Jim Heffernan and son, Mark, proudly display the Designer's Trophy.

Among the Wayfarers, Uncle Al of Oakville, Ontario got ever smoother work from rookie crew, Richard Watterson, who usually sails W10423 out of Hummelstown, PA, as these two cruised to victory ahead of the North Carolina team of Jim and Mark Heffernan. Now representing Walled Lake, Michigan, Tony and Mary Krauss took the bronze ahead of Rock Hall's 77-year-old Frank Pedersen who was sailing his lovely, just completed wooden Wayfarer in her maiden series with Tom Fulton. That loveable Frisian, Andy Douma, came down from Ottawa's Lac Deschênes SC and teamed up with Linda Heffernan who had sacrificed her usual spot on Jim's boat so that her son could sail. With all helms placing as seeded, there was no Most Improved team in this event. The Most Improved pennants were instead presented to our always gracious and fun hosts, the Rock Hall YC, and to Frank Pedersen to help him commemorate his inaugural regatta in his beautiful W8705 (a.k.a 4270 below).

One if by land and two if by sea?  A couple of the entries get a Thursday afternoon tow to the CRYCC while ...


... Al and Richard wetsand the shiny paint job given SHADES this winter by Tom Wharton and Hans Gottschling.

As usual, we arrived early on a very warm and sunny Thursday afternoon at the River Race starting point, the Chester River Yacht & Country Club (see photos above). After dropping off our boats in anticipation of the next morning's race, we headed down to the Rock Hall YC where the bar was providing refreshments to complement  pot-luck food brought by the sailors. It turned out to be a very peaceful, relaxing evening and a lovely day on which to welcome seven teams of Rebel-sailing friends of Al's who were experiencing Rock Hall for a much appreciated first time.

Friday morning saw the Wayfarers gather (above) at Ellen's Coffee Shoppe, a great, inexpensive breakfast spot that is favoured by the locals. Soon, we had deliciously stocked up on sustenance, and were ready for the Race.

Typical starting weather for the River Race: sunny, warm, light airs


Wow! An A Scow!!!

The weather continued sunny and warm with light winds to test the usual eclectic fleet which this year numbered 38 and ranged from Lasers and A Cats through Wayfarers and Rebels all the way to a huge A Scow that was rumoured to have been bought on eBay. The 1100 hrs start was in the middle of an outgoing tide which helped us towards the finish line at the Chester River mouth but made it tricky to avoid being swept over the start line early. We actually all responded nobly and only one boat out of the 38 ended up OCS.

the view from SHADES about a quarter of the way through the race

In the early going, Frank Pedersen and Tom Fulton got off to an auspicious start in Frank's just completed W8705, the last of the wooden kit Wayfarers, as they sailed to a healthy lead and just missed getting into a wind that pulled the top ten boats or so over the forward horizon from the rest of us. Meanwhile, Uncle Al with Richard Watterson, Jim Heffernan with son, Mark, and Tony Krauss with his wife, Mary, took turns in second place until Al made his move about half-way into the race.

As always seems to happen, the wind increased to a hiking-strength beat near the river mouth in which Al and Richard slowly left the other four Wayfarers behind, helped in no small way by his desire to catch his Rebel friend, Neil Robb, who was demonstrating what Al thought he recalled from his Wayfarer sailing at Clark Lake, Michigan: that the Rebels are perhaps slightly faster on flat water upwind than the Wayfarers, despite what the Portsmouth handicaps say.

As we reached the mouth of the Chester River, Al managed to sneak past Neil by playing the south shore where he thought shallower water would give him less adverse effect from the rising tide. Having reached the lay line for the finish, Al tacked in hoped of dashing across the tide. Instead, the wind died for both Neil and Al who watched helplessly and at length as a group of Wayfarers and Rebels gurgled along the windward shore to the north. An RC boat moseyed on by at 1509 hrs and pointed out to us that the first boat had finished at 1415 hrs and that out time limit - as stated in the SI's - was that we had to finish withing 90 minutes of the winner's finish time. Actually, the RC took elapsed times of all who made it to the finish, something I was very happy to see, given the effort we all put in to finish this long and difficult race.

By the time, Al and Neil reached the wind, Jim Heffernan and Tony Krauss had moved into a slight lead. Rookie crew, Richard Watterson, got a crash course in tricky spi flying and had actually nursed SHADES into a slight lead over the spinnaker-less Jim and Tony about 200 yards from the finish on a very close spi reach. But then a stronger wind reached Jim and Tony first and they ended up a close 1-2 among Wayfarers with Al not far back in 3rd.

Wayfarers ready to eat at Waterman's

Post-race snacks at the RHYC went down very well as always, thank you. Then the Wayfarers headed off to their usual crab dinner at Waterman's in Rock Hall where Al once again was amazed how possible it was not to be able to find a place in this very small town. Ladies take note: three times we asked locals how to reach Waterman's, and with unfailing friendly courtesy we were given directions that had only their last line in common: "You can't miss it." They obviously underestimated Richard's and my "missing" capabilities! The last lady grinned at me, pointed, and said: "That's it right there!" Anyway, the food and ambience was lovely once more.

And for Richard and me, a day of less than perfect judgment ended appropriately when we drove back to our hosts' lovely home only to find Lee and Karin Cowperthwait absent. They, of course, had gone to the RHYC and found us gone. Still, it was relatively early and while Richard rested from a tough introduction to crewing and spinnakering, I was treated some lovely, interersting conversation for an hour or so, not to mention a couple of Lee's Dark 'n' Stormies which remain the Holy Grail of Dark 'n' Stormies for me.

Saturday brought the annual RHYC One-Design Regatta, tons more boats, and very likely the best sailing winds and weather that we will have all year!! There was even another Wayfarer who rolled in, albeit with his Hampton: Tom Ballantine purchased W9661 during the past year and told us he's really enjoying sailing the boat around Cape Cod! Welcome to Wayfarers, Tom!! What with the Lightnings making this their Dixie District Championship (above) and the Albacores having their Mid-Atlantic Championship, the lovely and spacious yacht club grounds began to look almost crowded (further above) as we got ready to enjoy very warm sunshine and flawless SW sailing breezes of about 12 to 18 knots.


Using the tried and true, delay-free Rock Hall system of starting whatever class was ready to go when they were ready, we spent most of our afternoon racing in these delicious winds. The Wayfarer/Rebel group got in four windward-leeward races Saturday and still got back to shore in plenty of time to clean up before the fine catered dinner at the club. Food and drink were delicious, and the socializing was lots of fun - a fitting conclusion to a day that had the best of everything that sailing with friends has to offer!


Sunday arrived with more warm sun but less wind (above). Fears of drifters proved groundless, however, and our ever efficient RC put us through our paces for three more windward-leeward races. In fact, the Rebels found the relatively lighter airs to their liking after having worked hard all Saturday to keep wave water out of their bilges. Being off the water not much after 1300 hrs, we could take our time to rinse the boats after their salt water experiences and ourselves to cool off in the by now very hot sun.

All in all, it was another classic Rock Hall experience: great hospitality and socializing, exciting and very well organized racing and this year, even the perfect weather! The only thing that would have made it bjust that little bit better, would have been more Wayfarers in attendance!! Why not do yourself and us a favour by joining us for the fun in 2011.