Schönborn/Goulay outduel Jeffs/Bamford to retain 2004 North American title

In the usual superb conditions and setting of Tawas Bay, Uncle Al and Wayfarer Man (Al Schönborn of Oakville and Frank Goulay of Ottawa) captured the Henry Croce Trophy September 11-12 in a hard-fought five-race duel with London's ace Wayfarer team, Brian Jeffs and Scott Bamford. This North Americans win was an 8th straight for Uncle Al (although two titles - 1998 and 2003 - were shared with Heider Funck and Tom Wharton) and set a new Wayfarer record, breaking Uncle Al's old mark of seven straight wins between 1987 and 1994 (which is eight years but 1992 NAC was wiped out due to Hurricane Andrew).

The weather was very much like what we were blessed at last year's fine sailing Tawas Bay event: Saturday's warm sunshine and resulting healthy lake breezes of 12 to 20+ knots enabled our Race Committee (Bill Coberly, his wife Margaret, the Princings (Matt, Chris and Jennifer), and Don Thwing - plus our guest from the Rebel fleet at Clark Lake, Tim Dowling) to easily get in three windward-leeward races with plenty of time left over to socialize the late afternoon away. The day's racing had left Uncle Al (2-1-1) and Brian Jeffs (1-2-2) in control of the battle for first. The expected challenge from the up-and-coming Taylor brothers team, Mark and Paul of Mississauga SC, did not materialize as they had spinnaker pole problems and were in a three-way dogfight over third with our North Americans host, Nick Seraphinoff, and Dutton's Roger Shepherd (Dutton is about an hour west of London for the few who might not know the location of this Canadian metropolis!) So, there was lots to discuss and a few things to repair as the evening concluded with a fine dinner at the Tawas Bay YC followed by most of the participants bunking down early at Nick's beautiful Tawas Bay cottage right on Lake Huron. Thanks, Nick!! The only Wayfarer live-wires on Saturday night were Paul and Mark Taylor who dropped by Nick's cottage after experiencing the Tawas Bar, headquarters of the women's softball tournament players. Get them to tell you some of their stories if you like being grossed out! Word is that Brian and Scott made sure the TBYC bar did not lose money and stayed open late on Saturday night, but they were wincing only a teeny bit as the Sunday morning sun pierced their bleary eyes near the launch ramp.

Also like last year, Sunday got next to nothing as we headed out for a 10 a.m. start. Expecting light airs, the bane of his existence, Nick Seraphinoff had traded place with Jennifer Princing who got to helm a Wayfarer for the first time while Nick took over Jennifer's rescue boat/photography duty. Race 4 got underway at the first sign of a breeze off the lake around 10:30 a.m. In this one, Uncle Al and Frank enjoyed their forte of moving SHADES through a minefield of dead spots and shifts to a healthy lead around the windward mark. They still had a hundred yards of this lead left (over Mark and Paul Taylor with no one else even close) after the wind veered and changed the "run" into a close reach as the leaders approached the "leeward" mark. At this point the RC abandoned the race - doubtless a wise decision although the cheering was not clearly audible from W3854 and W7673 at the time.

A patient wait of another half-hour paid off for all as a nice little NE breeze sprang up which increased to beyond hiking strength by the middle of race 5 (to the point where a port-tacker, having seen Uncle Al approaching on starboard on the second beat, tried to bear away in plenty of time but - in a gust - only succeeded in taking off six inches of SHADES' port rubrail just aft of the shroud.

By this time, Uncle Al had clinched the title with a decisive race 4 win in light to medium air and Brian had clinched series second with a 3rd-place finish. Al then managed a first in his 50-year racing career: He lost control while sitting near the RC boat and began to go backwards. He was twice too eager to start normal steering before gaining forward momentum: he tried to bear away while still going backwards which only succeeded in putting him head to wind two more times with the attendant backwards progress. By the time we finally started, we had pulled away from the fleet in an entirely unwanted direction and were a good hundred yards in last place. Observers were gracious, indicating that they thought we had deliberately backed off, having already won the series.

But no, we were still seriously racing and were not last around the windward mark. Roger Shepherd and Joanne Kumpf meanwhile found the increasing breeze to their liking and came out of the right corner with a full head of steam and a lead that would never be threatened. By the leeward mark, Frank and our new Mike McNamara spinnaker had done their thing and we rounded in a five-boat mess that was fighting for second place with only the Taylors inside us. Our battle with the brothers Taylor ended abruptly halfway up the beat when they hit us and had to do a 720 and we were left to our (futile) pursuit of Roger and Joanne who had Invasion in a lovely groove.

That final-race win gave Roger Shepherd and Joanne Kumpf the third-place trophies while both Mark Taylor and Jennifer Princing sailed to drop-race finishes in the finale to remain tied in series 4th, a tie which was broken in favour of Mark and Paul. But Jennifer and crew, Joe Blackmore (and Nick Seraphinoff) were still winners, gaining a half-share of Most Improved honours as they beat their 7th seed by two positions.

London's John and Dolores de Boer decided to forego the windy last two races on Saturday - a wise precaution in the light of John's replaced knees and the 6th-seeded London pair ended up matching their seed with sound 6-6-4 finishes in the three races they did sail.

Our enthusiastic young Wayfarer sailor from Cincinnati, Sean Ring, again teamed up with USWA Commodore, Mike Anspach, to good effect - as they did in the Cottonwood. On Saturday they had a great time, just enjoying the breeze without straining their nerves by flying a spinnaker, and in the end they took 7th place in our ten-boat fleet, and shared Most Improved honours with Nick Seraphinoff's team.

Another long-distance traveller was Dave Hansman who came in all the way from North Bay, Ontario with his lovely wife, Carol. Like last year, Dave crewed for Geoff Edwards and they ended up 8th, just beating the veteran team of Bob Frick with Peter Every (both over 80!!) by a single point.

At the other extreme was a relative rookie, Paul McVey who had begun his Wayfarer regatta-racing career at Tawas in 2003 with his wife, Lorrie (USWA Treasurer) as crew. This year, Paul and Lorrie even sampled Saturday's windier stuff before Lorrie stepped aside to let John Smith who had come up from Cincinnati with Sean, get a much appreciated taste of Wayfarer sailing on the Sunday. Perhaps we are seeing the start of a Cincinnati Wayfarer fleet??!!

Our thanks go to Nick Seraphinoff and the various committees who did a super job. Tawas is a long drive for most of us but we invariably return home feeling that the long drive was most definitely worthwhile!!