| the 2007 Rock Hall Weekend: the U.S.
Nationals June 16-17, Rock Hall YC a report from Uncle Al ... |
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John and
Dolores de Boer win exciting
U.S. Nationals at Rock Hall!
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 It was a long time coming, but John de Boer (r) and his wife/ace crew, Dolores, have finally won a major Wayfarer championship, taking the 2007 U.S. Nationals held June 16-17 at Rock Hall in Maryland. Exciting racing was the order of the weekend among 12 Wayfarers who enjoyed the Rock Hall experience immensely. After the de Boers and defending champion, Al Schonborn with Marc Bennett, finished their series counting identical 1-1-2-3 records, the tie was broken in favour of John and Dolores who beat Al and Marc in the last race. Above, USWA Commodore, Mike Anspach, presents Dolores and John with their very well earned first-place trophy. Our Most Improved competition also ended in a tie, with Rock Hall's Frank Pedersen and daughter, Sarah, as well as Ottawa's Lori Beehler with Jason Hassard sharing the green flags after beating their seeds by two places. Rock Hall once again put on a great programme for everyone. For Wayfarers, the weekend began with an evening party at the Rock Hall YC now that our numbers have swelled so much that Frank Pedersen and his wife, Sue, can no longer fit us all into their home. After dropping our boats off for the next day's River Race at the Chester River Yacht & Country Club on a very unseasonably cool (60's F), overcast afternoon, we proceeded to the RHYC where we very much enjoyed the evening's warm-up as people rolled in from as far afield as Florida, Ontario and Michigan. Friday was River Race day. After dawning cloudy, the day cleared and warmed up into the 80's as 12 Wayfarers thoroughly enjoyed a light to medium air race that took most of us over four hours to complete. in a record-setting fleet of 43 boats that included everything from a Chesapeake Bay Log Canoe to Bill Harkins' (W2526) sailing canoe. After enjoying delicious munchies and Dark 'n Stormies for a couple of hours, most of the Wayfarers moved on to our by now traditional "crab evening" at Waterman's in Rock Hall. The Nationals began on Saturday morning, with Wayfarers sharing the outer course with the fast guys: A Cats, Miscellaneous Cats, 5-0-5's and the lovely Chesapeake 20's. In winds that were up and down all day and ranged anywhere from about 4 to 12 knots, we completed three races, and got back to shore just in time to enjoy the Rock Hall YC's 70th birthday bash with its Caribbean theme and live reggae band. After the long day on the water, no one lasted much past 11 p.m. before heading off to tents on the grounds or other, more luxurious accommodations. A sunny, hot Sunday brought winds of about 3 to 8 knots and saw us complete two more races before the 1 p.m. time limit. PRO, John Macielag, offered to run another race for us, this being the Nationals, but we declined with thanks. We hauled out and packed up, enjoyed a fine club-provided lunch, and before we knew it, it was awards time. For two crews, there was a surprise ending at the awards. Having relied on word of mouth rather than studied the Sailing Instructions well enough, both John de Boer and Uncle Al had been under the impression that this was to be a "no drop" series which Al and Marc had won by one point over John and Dolores. Thus, it came as a rude shock to Al when he went to add to seeds to our results, to find John and Dolores at the top of the standings. There had indeed been a drop race, which meant that John and Al had tied in the series with identical 1-1-2-3 records, and John and Dolores had won the U.S. Nationals by virtue of finishing ahead of SHADES the the final race. In fact, the look of delighted shock on John and Dolores' faces when they were called up to receive their first-place awards was (almost) more enjoyable than winning for Marc and me. See you all at Rock Hall next year! Uncle Al (W3854) Racing Synopsis: John and Dolores de Boer sailed probably their best series ever. Even for their first-race 4th, they were only a boatlength out of 2nd place, and they made a couple of most impressive comebacks in their two race wins. John and Dolores made their decisive move on the run of the final race: Starting the leg behind Marc and Al whom they needed to beat by two places, John and Dolores went slightly right of the rhumb line on this very long, slow leg against the outgoing tide and with a light 3 to 5-knot breeze. From time to time, they got better breeze than both Marc who was guarding the rhumb line and Jim Heffernan who had gone even further right in an attempt to find shallower water and less adverse current. In the end, John and Dolores moved inexorably into a modest lead which became a horizon job as soon as they rounded onto the final beat where they were the first to get the favourable current and the better apparent wind. Good in all aspects of the "game", John and Dolores very much earned their 2007 U.S. National title. Congratulations, Dolores and John! In this very closely contested series, the SHADES team of Marc and Al alternated at the helm and re-learned a couple of very basic lessons along the line of "the team that makes the fewest mistakes wins". While ignorance (of the scoring rules) certainly turned out to be bliss for John, it was anything but that for us. I like to think that, had we known we needed a 2nd in the last race, we would not so blithely and completely have forgotten about Bob Frick and Peter Every whom we had passed like they were standing still after they had tacked away poorly at the start of the final beat. Marc and I had every reason to concentrate on the very real threat posed by Nick Seraphinoff and Jim Heffernan, but no excuse whatsoever to forget the boat that had rounded onto that last beat just ahead of us in 2nd place. What excitement there could have been, had we realized that we needed to beat Bob to edge out John for the title. As it was, I was as surprised as I have ever been in a race to see Bob's bow appear just ahead of ours as we were passing the RC boat on the starboard layline. I then compounded our error, by urging Marc to luff up around the RC boat instead of letting him hold his course and make Bob do the port-starboard related two-turns penalty. At the time, we rationalized my move by saying, "Why do that to a pair of octogenarians who have just sailed a great race when we don't need to do it?" It was my job as crew to keep an eye on all the threats. Had I done so and seen that it would be close between us and Bob, we would most certainly not have overlaid the finish line just so that we could be to windward and ahead of Nick and Jim as we neared the line. 3rd place went to Detroit's Nick Seraphinoff with his daughter, Julie, who moved W864 and her freshly refinished bottom extremely well despite the relatively light winds which tend to be Nick's undoing. And this year, Nick was only over early in one race, and he came back very well in that one!! Going into that finale, Nick and John were tied on points, so that it could just as easily have been Nick and Julie who won this very closely contested series. Afterwards, Nick commented on how happy he was with his new, Heider Funck-made jib, which he finds better suited to his sailing style than his rather harder to trim Mike Mac jib. As the top U.S.-based finishers, Nick and Julie again won the beautiful Designer's Trophy (click here for page with photo of that trophy). North Carolina's Jim Heffernan teamed up with his son, Mark, for Rock Hall once more this year, and immediately took up where he had left off at the Midwinters by winning the first race. After that, though, Jim was just that tiny bit slower than the three leaders, and ended up in series 4th, counting 1-4-5-5. After a first-race 7th in which Tony Krauss and Mary Abel had the distinction of staying on the doomed right side of the first beat even longer than Al and Marc (we later heard that local wisdom is something to the effect of: "If in any doubt, go left on the beats."), our entry from Elk Neck State Park (North East, Maryland) got it in gear with a fine 4-5-4-6 to take series 5th. The veteran Michigan octogenarian team of Bob Frick and Peter Every saved their best for last, using a 2nd-place finish in the finale to leap-frog past Florida's Mike Murto with Dave Hepting, Ottawa's Lori Beehler with Jason Hassard, and Rock Hall's Frank and Sarah Pedersen into series 6th. A nice comeback after Peter and Bob had been judged OCS in the opener. But the three that Bob passed all took away prizes: By placing 7th, Mike and Dave, who led the opening race until the final beat before settling for a 5th that was only two boatlengths from 2nd, captured the USWA's Top of the Bottom Trophy as the top finishers in the bottom half of this 12-boat fleet. The next two teams tied for this year's Most Improved honours: 10th-seeded Lori Beehler and Jason, like Marc and Al, took turns at the helm race by race, and counted a nicely consistent 8-6-8-7 to place 8th overall and beat their seed by two places. This performance was matched by our hosts, Frank Pedersen and daughter, Sarah, who were seeded 11th but moved up to series 9th. Frank and Sarah only get to sail against other Wayfarers in this event each year, and were far more competitive this year than last (when they finished DFL). After a fine 6th with pick-up crew Kathy Schubert, Jim Lingeman who made the long trip up from Lake Eustis, the site of our Florida Midwinters, fell off to a sub-par 11-8 and did not compete on the Sunday, ending up in series 10th. Jim, who has been authoritatively described as "an icon of the Windmill Class", will switch hats for his next sailing gig, as he will be PRO for the Windmill Nationals to be held in mid-July in North Carolina. Taking 11th overall were USWA Commodore, Mike Anspach, and Paul McVey (USWA Treasurer) from Michigan who placed a consistent 9-10-10-11, and knocked off Ottawa newcomers, Andy Douma and his friend, Joan, who started their Wayfarer careers with the requisite learning experience. Big thank you's to:
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| Regatta/U.S.
Nationals results Down Chester River Race results Down Chester River Race report photo pages Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday return to Rock Hall index |