Veterans edge out young bucks in exciting 2004 Warm Water

2004 was the year that Uncle Al decided to refurbish SHADES. As often happens, the projected elapsed time was overrun and Al was without a boat for the Warm Water Regatta May 29-30 at Kitchener's Conestoga SC. When Hans Gottschling turned out to have no crew for The Nutshell, Al volunteered to crew for Hans who in turn invited Al to helm. It was decided that Hans would start out helming and that Al might get a turn later in the series.

Saturday morning brought us two races in lovely late spring weather and light westerly zephyrs that were right up Hans' alley as he won both races. After lunch, the winds began to do strange things which only young Mark Taylor and his brother, Paul, seemed able to figure out to the tune of a couple of firsts. Thus, as we sat around having beers with John and Dolores de Boer at their hospitality suite (their camper), and later dined deliciously at the Heidelberg Inn as usual, Mark and Paul (3-2-1-1) held a two-point series lead over Hans and Al (1-1-3-4).

Sunday arrived a bit cooler with easterly winds that began fairly light but increased to overpowered gusts as another four-race day wore on. Things looked grim for the Nutshells, as the Taylors were leading Hans in race 5, only to sail the wrong course on the trapezoid course given us by our fine RC of Dave Meijer and Alan Laderoute. The Taylor lead turned into a deficit as Mark and Hans dropped from 1-2 to last and second-last. Mark however, dealt better with the adversity, recovering to place 6th while Hans and Al dropped to 8th.

This seemed a good time for Uncle Al to have a turn at the helm to see if he could make The Nutshell go a bit faster upwind in the by now overpowering gusts. Al did and he could, pulling out a pair of wins and moving The Nutshell into a first-place series tie with Mark and Paul Taylor. Recognizing this, the RC gave us one final race to break the tie. Al spent much of the pre-race standing in The Nutshell looking at the trapezoid course and carefully figuring out exactly what marks would need to be rounded in what order - preparations that later paid off handsomely.

Mark got the upper hand early, leading off the first beat, the first reach, the first run and the second beat. But Al chipped away at Mark's lead until the leaders were bow to bow as they reached the end of the second run. Mark still had the inside at the mark but Al was prepared to go past the mark a bit before gybing to port in order to keep clear air. Then it would be a footrace down the final reach and an exciting short beat that would determine the winner of the 2004 Carling Trophy. Or would it??!! Mark had gotten so excited, that he thought the next leg was a beat and headed back upwind, leaving Al and Hans to gybe to port in peace and sail away. "Are you sure??!!" asked Hans. "Absolutely," replied Al, "that's why I spent so much time figuring out the course before this race."

By the time Mark had figured out his error, it was too late. Hans and Al had won the series while Mark and Paul had to console themselves with the fact that their boat speed had been outstanding - something that would win them the Wayfarer division at TSCC's TARTS and 'balls the following week over the outstanding competition of Heider Funck and Peter Rahn.

The battle for series 3rd went to London's John and Dolores de Boer who were tied with Conestoga's Dwight Aplevich and David Von Wahl going into the final race but won the final showdown. Dwight in fact, fell to a tie for 4th with Mike Codd and Kirk Iredale who took 2nd in the finale while Dwight placed 5th, but Dwight and David got the nod in the tie-breaker, having won race 5 while Mike's best finish had been a 2nd.

A couple of 3rds highlighted the Warm Water for Al Nichols of Conestoga who sailed with a couple of different and new crews, Klas Bockasten and Andy W…. Among them, they took series 6th, an improvement of two spots over their seed. This made them the 2004 Warm Water's Most Improved team. Well done, Al, Klas and Andy!

TSCC's Alastair Ryder-Turner got a gritty performance from his young son, Andrew, as he edged out clubmate, Peter Kozak and his even younger son, Benjamin for series 7th. Actually, Peter sailed with Annelies Groen in Saturday lighter airs before Benjamin got stuck with the job of keeping the spray off his dad on the windy Sunday!

A third Conestoga entry was a family effort, as Rod Gardner introduced his two young sons, James and Rory, to joys of sailing (and getting wet in) a Wayfarer.

All in all, it was a fine weekend to start off our northern Wayfarer sailing season. Special thanks to our great RC and rescue people (not needed, fortunately) and the ladies of Conestoga who provided the usual coffee, doughnuts, hot dogs and other sustenance to hungry and thirsty sailors! See you next year!!