A Detroit team stepped into a Wayfarer borrowed from Nick Seraphinoff (W10974) and beat a hot fleet of Wayfarer regulars in the 2014 U.S. Nationals hosted by the wonderful Tawas Bay YC in perfect weather Sept. 6-7. Doug Scheibner and Andrew Lockhart who more usually sail Etchells out of Detroit's Bayview YC began their series with a spectacular 1-2-2 in very challenging shifts and then hung on to edge out Canadian champions, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk, in a 6-race series. Doug and Andrew thus became the first American team to take top spot in a U.S. Wayfarer Nationals since Joe and Janis Schnur won in 1986 at Higgins Lake, MI. Click here for complete results.

A four-race Saturday provided refreshing winds and temperatures after a cold front and deluge passed through on Friday night. Cool more or less westerly breezes started the day at 10 to 15 knots and brought the typical oscillating shifts off the shore. As the day wore on, race 3 and 4 saw decreasing wind strength and ever increasing shifts. Our 15-boat fleet was strong and for the most part evenly matched, a fact that was reflected by the top of the standings after four Saturday races:

Sunday's two races were sailed in easterlies of perhaps 6 to 8 knots and brought a different set of sailors to the forefront in what were more boat-speed contests as the winds were quite steady. Canadian champs, Sue Pilling and Steph Romaniuk, made full use of their (lack of) weight advantage to score a pair of firsts - a horizon job followed by a squeaker over Uncle Al with his son, David Schonborn. The latter had been edged out by a "bow" in placing 3rd and losing to David and Anne Pugh in Sunday's early race. At 2-5, the defending North American champions, the Pughs, had Sunday's third-best record. The team of Scheibner and Lockhart scored 4-4 which turned out to be just nicely enough to hang on to the series win.


In winning, the Detroit pair of Doug (above left) and Andrew sailed amazingly well, far better than anyone else in North America who was sailing his first Wayfarer event has ever done. Congratulations, guys! I hope we'll see you more often.

The top-seeded Parry Sound, Ontario crew of Sue and Steph, rescued a series 2nd with the pair of Sunday wins which also gave them the needed tie-breaker between them and East Lansing's Marc Bennett and wife, Julie. Out all season while recovering from a shoulder injury caused by a fall down their basement stairs, Marc showed no ill effects at all in his return to action. They might well have won the title but for an unfortunate OCS to which they reacted too late in race 5.

Chapel Hill's Jim and Linda Heffernan came back to earth on Sunday after staying right in the fight for the title through four Saturday races in their cruising Wayfarer which they had, one assumes, brought directly to Michigan from the Rally in Hermit Island, Maine. Still, they held on to finish 4th overall quite comfortably.


Another team that could not duplicate their Saturday brilliance were Jennifer Princing, the Tawas Bay YC Commodore, and Bill Coberly, who were sailing Nick Seraphinoff's lovely new Hartley Mark IV. After several borrowed boat experiences in relative dogs, Jennifer was seeded 12th in our 15-boat fleet, a seed that she and Bill beat by a whopping 7 places as they were quite obviously our Most Improved team of the  2014 Wayfarer U.S. Nationals. Congratulations, Bill and Jennifer. Very well sailed!!!

Unlike Marc Bennett's, Uncle Al's return to action after his 9-month pound of flesh, was not as smooth as could have been hoped for. But it was interesting. Our departure was delayed until 5:30 PM Friday after son, Dave, got done with school business in Hamilton. For the first time in a long, long boat-towing career, Al met torrential downpours that pretty much demanded pulling off the road in three separate events. In between, we crossed into the US at Port Huron with Dave's brand-new passport. Our man in the booth wondered why my passport has Schoenborn with an "e" but David's does not. I explained about being stuck with the "e" that appears on my Canadian citizenship certificate and represents the two dots over the "o" in the German name. "You mean the Umlaut," said our man in the booth. Wow! A German student! And then our friendly border agent turned out to be a sailboat fancier as well, asking about the boat. By the time I had enlightened him about Frank Dye's W48 in the British Maritime Museum and the movie Summer Cruise, the people behind us must have been getting impatient!! After another deluge- caused stop east of Flint, we went north on 15: slower but it got us out of the downpours. Just before midnight, we found the Timberlane Resort's white house where we (thought) we had a room reserved. Alas we were mistaken, but by not that much after 1 AM we  were ensconced in the last room the Bays Inn had to offer, this being girls' softball weekend after all.

What with one thing and another, we ended up starting nearly five minutes late in race 1, with enough breeze not to mind too much that our spinny was not yet rigged. A quick rigging job and we'd be set to spinnaker in race 2, or so we thought. Turned out I had wedged the pole uphaul and spi halyard under the mast heel. It was still occasionally pretty gusty so we downed the main before lowering the mast to free the aforementioned ropes. Shades of my good old early Wayfarer days in the 60's. This time we got to the start line less than two minutes after the start.

In race 3, we actually reacted best to a late 45° back, tacked across the line with the gun at the pin end and led a "parade" to the windward mark. David Pugh was the only one who passed us on what was now a broad reach while we did the spinnaker practice we should have done earlier. The Pughs rounded just ahead of us and we both had a good lead over 3rd. Both leaders proceeded to go left in case the wind backed even further. We did a great job speed testing against each other, and all was peachy until we looked up and saw that Jim Heffernan and a gaggle that had gone right with him were now hundreds of yards ahead in far better breeze.

Still, Dave and I enjoyed our sail together and were pleased with our boat speed and most of our boat handling. The next day everything was pretty functional, if you don't count the fact that our spi halyard cleat needed lubrication and let the spi fall down if I didn't squeeze the cams shut. All in all we were pleased to have rescued a series 6th while having the usual fabulous Tawas time.

After decades of CL16 excellence, Mike Duncan and his wife, Marg, converted to a new Hartley after last year's Worlds and have done very well. Inconsistency has been holding them back a bit thus far, and so it was again this year. They scored a runaway win in Saturday's finale but could add only 7-10-8-10-7 to that. Still, it's an inconsistency that many would envy!!

Coming all the way up from Charlotte, NC, Richard Johnson and his wife, Michele, were our furthest travelled entry - not counting the Heffernan detour via Maine, of course. Team Black Skimmer ended up only one point back of the speedy Duncans, in series 8th. The Johnsons, too, had their series high point in Saturday's finale, a sparkling 4th!!

One point further back in 9th were Cleveland's Tony Krauss with Detroit's Nikos Damskinos. Tony and Nikos are looking more proficient each time out these days, as rumour has it that Nikos is developing his competitive edge.

Our defending Tawas and North American champions, David and Anne Pugh of Oakville, Ontario, ended up a far cry from their spectacular 1-1-1-2 North Americans-winning series on Tawas Bay last year. The Bay was less kind to them this year. Right off, David and Anne capsized, turtled and dredged a bit before completing race 1 in 12th place with a bent mast. 11-9-10 placings followed on Saturday before a beer-fuelled Wayfarer team effort straightened the mast. Sunday's 2-5 enabled the Pughs to snag the final top ten spot for the series.

Toronto's Kit Wallace teamed up with the ineffable Chip Cunningham from Oxford, Michigan to good effect. In this very capable fleet, even four single-digit finishes fell short of getting them into the top ten, five points out of series 10th.

Being just a smidgen slower really cost Leo Van Kampen and his wife, Joanne, our Conestoga contribution to this event. After a first-race DNF, they scored a very respectable 9th but it was downhill from there.

Wayfarer veteran, Joe DeBrincat, a past W North American champion out of Walled Lake, MI, again sailed the lovely Maltese Falcon with his son, Jeff. The only bright spot in their series this time around however, was a 4th in race 2 as this 6th-seeded team ended up 13th overall.

Detroit's Dave McCreedy and Nick Seraphinoff teamed up in Dave's new Mark IV instead of the old Mark I that Dave had sailed in 2013. It was a disappointing series (14th) for them as Nick discovered that his 73-year-old body is no longer up to crewing in a Wayfarer, and Dave saw first-hand that the Wayfarer learning curve tends to be slow (unless you are Sue Pilling!).

Coming for another learning experience were Michigan's John Cadman and Charles Child (series 15th). John Cadman is really a cruising sailor at heart, who by the way, had a great time at Hermit Island this year. It was a pleasure to sail with you again, John and Charles.

RC Boat owner - Anthony Kus
PRO - Donald Thwing
Scorer - Yohann Thwing
Spiritual Leader - Jenna Princing
Weather Mark - Richie Main & Anne Princing
Leeward Mark - Leroy Princing & Ass Haglund (Matt)
Safety Boat - Neil Ericsson & Frank Fitus
Race Documents - Marc Bennett & William Coberly
Registration/babysitting - Mary Seraphinoff
Wayfarer/TBYC Liaison - Nick Seraphinoff
Savior of Saturday Dinner - Commodorable Jennifer Princing<>