| the
Warm Water Regatta Conestoga SC, June 7-8, 2008 report by Uncle Al with Joanne Van Kampen pictures |
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Gusty winds bring welcome hot-weather
relief
Lake
Conestoga was the perfect place to be June 7-8 as the Conestoga SC
hosted yet
another successful Warm Water Regatta. Breezes gusting to near 20 knots
provided a refreshing change from the hot, humid and largely sunny
weekend. In many ways, this Warm Water took us back to the good, old
days.
 For
starters, one of our favourite Race Committees, John and Alistair
Martin (above) who ran the
Warm Water racing for decades, came out of semi-retirement. They
provided us with eight fine triangle- sausage-windward races - five on
Saturday and three on Sunday.
For a season opener, the winds were quite challenging, usually blowing about 6 to 12 knots but gusting to 20+ knots at times - SW on Saturday and more westerly on Sunday. It was a thoroughly tired, bruised but happy group that left the premises on Sunday afternoon. Indeed, the fresh cooling winds and waters of Lake Conestoga were a marvellous relief from what was a record-breakingly hot and humid weekend elsewhere.  Socially,
we had lots of fun. Several people camped out in front of the club.
Breakfasts and lunches were included with entry, and our traditional
Saturday night out at the Heidelberg
Inn was its usual success with the fine beer brewed on the
premises, great food and excellent company (above).
 Fresh
from a week's cruising on Chesapeake Bay, Oakville's Uncle Al took top
honours, scoring a very consistent 1-1-1-2-1-1-2 before sitting out the
final race. On Saturday, Al was ably assisted by his wife, Julia (above),
who got a baptism by fire after having not sailed a serious race since
the 1986 Worlds. She coped amazingly well with the constant demands
placed by the shifty and gusty winds, but a pulled arm muscle forced
her to sit out Sunday's racing and take pictures instead.
 Kindly
and capably replacing Julia aboard SHADES
for the Sunday races was Joanne Van Kampen who should have gotten to
clutch the Carling Trophy
which is supposed to go with Wayfarer first in the Warm Water (for
photo of the trophy, click here).
 Defending champions, Dwight and Pat Aplevich of Conestoga SC (above) had a less consistent series than they usually do, but still looked impressive in winning three of the eight races, as they and Eclairelle began their warm-up for the Nationals in North Bay later this month with a very solid runner-up finish.  Tied for series third were Brantford's Brian Hickman with his recently married daughter, Crystal Bouckhuyt (above), and the international team of Marc Bennett (Pickering) and Julie Seraphinoff (Lansing, MI). Brian and Crystal were seeded 6th and by placing 3rd also earned the green flags as the Most Improved team in this year's Warm Water. Congratulations, Crystal and Brian!!  2nd-seeded Marc (scratching his head above) was introducing Julie's W2412 (aka 864) to the world of racing, and he and Julie had an extremely interesting time getting a boat set up for cruising to go through its racing paces.  Perhaps the finest piece of jury-rigging ever seen on a Wayfarer (above) was the pair of Tim Horton's coffee cups that Julie and Marc installed to hold the spi pole along the boom. Julie mentioned increasing limbo practice with every tack as the day's racing wore on and the cups began to droop with age.  Series 5th went to Al Nichols and Ken Nethercott (above) of the host club who showed fine boat speed, even off the wind this time. Some lack of consistency left them 3 points out of the "money", but Ken and Al still beat their 7th seed handily and deserve Most Improved honorable mention.  The ever-improving father/son team of Leo and Daryl Van Kampen (above) from Conestoga also beat their seed by two big places. After an unpromising start to their series - two 9ths - the Van Kampens picked up the pace and nailed down a very solid 6th overall.  And what a pleasure it was to have Roger Shepherd of Dutton, Ontario and his beautiful Porter-built woodie Invasion with us again at last. Making her debut as Roger's crew and also to sailing was New Zealand import, Raewyn Perry (above), who got the crash course under very tough circumstances, and did amazingly well for a rookie as she and Roger took series 7th. Two
dads who have been sailing the past few Warm Waters together, this
year brought their
daughters along and sailed in separate boats. Fittingly enough, they
ended the series tied - in 8th place, having made sure to respect their
crews' endurance limits by not sailing the entire complement of races.
 Mike
Codd's daughter Lilly (above)
made history in this event. Barely six years old, she became the
youngest crew ever to race in a North American Wayfarer event. Well
done, Lilly! Father, Mike, can now also lay claim to two records:
having sailed with the youngest ever crew mate and also the oldest. The
latter being George Blanchard who was 91 when Mike crewed for him as
they placed 35th of 58 boats in the 2004 Worlds.
... Mike's usual crew, Kirk Iredale, brought along his CL and made a fine and promising helming debut on the Wayfarer circuit with his daughter, Virginia (13), doing yeoman work as the crew.  Another pair of Wayfarer newcomers (above) rounded out the standings. Ben Harrison and Andrew Gardner raced the Conestoga club Wayfarer and were even seen flying the spinnaker in their first Wayfarer regatta. Well done, guys! It was nice to have you with us, and we look forward to seeing lots more of you. |
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