2018 Tawas Wayfarer Regatta
Tawas Bay YC * September 8-9
updated 11 November 2020 at 2042 hrs

Wayfarers Blown Out at Tawas


(180910)  Too much wind for us at Tawas on the weekend of Sept 8-9. No races sailed although Bill Coberly and his committee were more than willing. Marc and Julie were checking the line in the countdown to race 1 start but it soon became apparent that they would be sailing solo - so to speak. In a spirit of good sportsmanship, Marc and Julie asked the RC to blow the race off. And that, my friends, was as close as we got to racing.

But we all got onto the water for some exciting sailing and had lots of time to compare notes and share time with our lovable hosts and fellow Wayfarers. Saturday's weather made it a tough call whether or not to race. The 15 knots of breeze were doable but the far stronger gusts and suddenly cool weather ultimately swung the needle to abandonment. It was a tough decision, especially since the forecast was calling for even cooler and windier weather Sunday.


Injured Al and Frank Goulay won last year's event.

Ever the optimist, Uncle Al left SHADES a.k.a. Days in the same slip that did in his heel (above) and resulted in a hospital trip last year and with crew, Shannon Donkin, was the only boat to sail in Sunday's cooler, stronger winds (below) once further racing had been cancelled.





As well as Uncle Al, we had Canadian Wayfarer Association Chair, Rob Wierdsma and daughter, Samantha (above)  and David and Anne Pugh (below) making the long but oh so worthwhile journey in from Oakville, just west of Toronto, Ontario.





The Pughs' buddies from East Lansing, MI, Marc Bennett and wife, Julie Seraphinoff (above) were of course also on hand, and as USWA Racing Captain, Marc, had hard decisions to make: to race or not to race, that was the question. And the right choice was definitely made, as I see it.

A trio of Wayfarers from Fonda Lake, Michigan
got excellent adventure and learning opportunities. Mentor, Dave McCreedy, and Peggy Menzies (below)  encouraged the owners of his two pre-Mark 4 Wayfarers to attend the Easterns.





Above we see Matt Dailey and Nick Burtka taking Gliondar (W1389) out onto the big water for the first time. They were doing fine until their rudder head fell apart and they slowly drifted into the soft, sandy arms of Tawas Point to await rescue. A passing kayaker paddled over to let us know (below) so that we could get the base station at TBYC to alert the safety boats to the W1389 problem.





Sailing their recently acquired W8911, were Eric Zachmann and son, Peter (11), along with Angela Brazil (above). In this case, we can say that everything went swimmingly as one careless moment by Eric led to a mast-down capsize from which Team 8911 recovered like real pros (photo at top of page). Well done, guys!



The top-seeded team of Doug Scheibner and Andrew Lockhart of Detroit (above) had been undefeated in Wayfarers at Tawas but even they could not defeat the wind and weather. They did however spinnaker out to the start area on Saturday morning on a glorious plane. Their enjoyment of that pleasure of simply sailing was reflected by the rest of us to a greater or lesser degree, and I believe I speak for all of us when I say, "Thanks, Tawas. We had a great weekend."