2022 Fenton One-Design Regatta report by Uncle Al

the first annual (we hope)
Lake Fenton SC Regatta/U.S. W Nationals
updated: 28 September 2022 at 2108 hrs

Rebels and Wayfarers Enjoy Weekend on Lake Fenton
Bennett/Seraphinoff Shine at 2022 U.S. Nationals at Lake Fenton SC

How they finished: Marc and Julie first, Peggy and Chris second

2022.09.28 A tough eight-boat fleet that included no fewer than four past or current National and/or North American Wayfarer champions gathered on Lake Fenton September 24-25 for the 2022 U.S. Wayfarer Nationals. Marc Bennett and Julie Seraphinoff (11339 above) of East Lansing, MI took their first ever U.S. Nationals Gold in a five-race series sailed in cool puffy winds of under cloudy skies. In addition, the 2nd-seeded Bennetts shared Wayfarer Most Improved honours with 7th-seeded Dave McCreedy and Dave Wilpula who also bettered their seed by one position.

We shared the lake - very amicably as always - with a fleet of eight Rebels. Saturday's planned three-race card had to be shortened by one as the mark-set boat developed motor trouble. I, for one, was not unhappy with the forced rest ashore which gave everyone a chance to socialize (below) - except those kept busy making sure the mark boat would be action-ready the next morning, of course.

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Regatta Chair, Tim Nickels, struggles to present The Designer's Trophy to our new U.S. champions, Marc Bennett and Julie Seraphinoff.

No doubt about the top two Wayfarer teams on this weekend as Marc and Julie placed 1-2-1-1-1, breaking open a series that had been a toss-up after Saturday's pair of races: Marc 1-2, Peggy 3-1. From my depressingly distant perspective, it looked like Peggy Menzies and Chris McGrane (below) out of Detroit's Crescent Sail YC had big leads in at least two of Sunday's three races, but Marc and Julie apparently pulled rabbits out of their hats and top-seeded Peggy and Chris ended up with (3)-1-2-2-2 and overall Silver, well ahead of the other teams.

The Bronze went to Oakville, Ontario's David Pugh (above) and wife, Anne, who sail out of the Mississauga SC. They scored 4-3-3-(7)-3 and finished well ahead of their Oakville neighbour, Uncle Al (below), who again had the joy of sailing with his favourite crew, Shannon Donkin of Grand Rapids, Michigan, but could do no better than match his 4th seed.

Show and Tell: new mom. Shannon, with the lovable Sophie who turns one in October.

Only one point back of Shannon and Al was the fast-improving Canadian team of Jan d'Ailly and Tom Legrady (below) out of the Conestoga SC near Kitchener-Waterloo, ON. Memorable moment for team Zephyrus was their excellent 2nd-place finish in the opener.

In general, it was cheering to see the lower echelons of our fleet doing Wayfarers proud with grade A boat-handling and smart sailing as their long-time coach (Uncle Al) looked on proudly. Our aforementioned U.S. team (Detroit) of Double-Daves, McCreedy and Wilpula, were the only other team to beat their seed as they took series 6th helped in no small way by their excellent 3rd-place finish in Sunday morning's race 4.

When East Lansing's Robert Mosher was left crewless, Lisa Bills (above) volunteered and seemed to be immediately at home in Robert shiny new mark 4. She and Robert held on to edge out the fleet's oldest boat, the wooden W1028 Oracle, very capably raced by Detroit's Matt Dailey and Nick Burtka (below).

Rebel Cards Fall Right at Fenton for National Champs, Dave Nickels and Karolina Karmona
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In a very closely contested Rebel fleet, three home-town Nickels teams ended up within a point of the top. All the cards fell just right in the final race for the legendary Dave Nickels and crew, Karolina Carmona (above), as they pulled out the Gold by a single point over both Tim and Kevin.

Winning that tie-breaker and the Silver were Dave's nephew, Tim Nickels (l) and brother, Brad. I didn't catch the name of the future crew but his smile did light up the whole hall.

Kevin Nickels (son of Dave) and Steve Middlebrook lost the 2nd-place tie-breaker and had to settle for Bronze. Going into the series finale, Dave was counting 6 points from (7)-3-2-1 finishes, Tim had 5 points from 3-1-1-(5) and Kevin was at 8 points from 1-(5)-3-4 placings. Dave and Karolina managed only a 3rd in the last race but that was enough, as Kevin managed only a 2nd behind a spectacular win by Keith and Gabriela Councell. Being the nice guys that they are, Tim and Brad also helped out by finishing DFL (mirroring Uncle Al's first race Dead F...ing Last). A week before, Kevin and Steve had also lost Rebels at Clark Lake by a single point to his dad.

Mary mug shot here

A third past National champion in the eight-boat Rebel mix was Mary Reif (née Vorel) who now sails with her husband, Aaron, out of Grand Rapids. Their (6)-2-4-2-4 finishes placed them a solid series 4th.

Sean Fiddler and Greg Whipple of the host club (book-ends above? or are they Bill DeCoste/Ken Seaman) took 5th overall on the strength of 2-4-(6)-3-5 finishes in Rebel 4160 which we used to see and fear at the Clark Lake YC.

The aforementioned Keith Councell and wife, Gabriela, used their final-race victory to good advantage as their 5-(7)-7-7-1 finished left them with a one-point edge in 6th overall over Grand Rapids clubmate, Scott Wright who teamed up with Anne Markaity on Saturday before switching to the less rain-averse Steve Cummings for Sunday. A further addition to Team Wright in Saturday's post-race was Uncle Al who, at his wife's urging, cleaned out a basement box of Dark 'n' Stormy makings of which we made short work - pics here.

Shannon and I got a bit acquainted with the last of the Rebels, Bill DeCoste and Ken Seaman (in 3994 loaned by Jay Topping who was having a procedure done one his knee - a success by all accounts and Jay's smile above) as we fought over muliti-fleet-DFL in the first race - a battle which Shannon and I regrettably won. Multi-fleet DFL! A first in Al's lengthy and storied racing career. My crew had stern words for me after that race about ignoring her input.