Wayfarer North American Midwinters at Lake Eustis Sailing Club
by Trevor Fisher 12 Feb 2014 17:22 AEDT
31 January -2 February 2014
On the 2nd February, the Irish crew of Trevor Fisher / Emily Watt won the annual North American Wayfarer Mid Winter Championships. The event was sailed hosted by Lake Eustis Sailing Club, in central Florida.
Only 4 of the scheduled 7 races were sailed, due to very light winds and fog. The small but competitive fleet included reigning World Champions, Peter and Alex Rahn from Montreal, as well as crews from Toronto in Canada, North and South Carolina, Delaware, Michigan, the host club in Florida plus a competitive English crew of David and Anne Pugh, now resident in Toronto.
The four races were held in very tricky conditions, with Fisher / Watt winning two races, and the Pughs and Rahns wining one each. However, after the four races, Fisher and Watt were clear winners, with the Pughs taking 2nd overall and the North Carolina team of Jim Heffernan and Jim McIntyre taking 3rd.
The commitment that the North American Wayfarer fleet have to travelling to events is gob smacking – the Rahns drove over 1500 miles from Montreal to Florida, yet this was easily overshadowed by Sarah Pedersen, who drove over 2500 miles from Idaho to the event!
The event is unusual in that there are no discards.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Seed | Helm / Crew | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 1 | Trevor Fisher/Emily Watt | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 2 | 6 | David & Anne Pugh | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| 3 | 3 | Jim Heffernan/Jim McIntyre | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| 4 | 4 | Richard Johnson/Michele Parish | 5 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 22 |
| 5 | 2 | Peter & Alex Rahn | 3 | DNF | 1 | 3 | 24 |
| 6 | 5 | Nick Seraphinoff/Craig Yates | 7 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 24 |
| 7 | 12 | Dave Hepting/Charley Jensen | 8 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 29 |
| 8 | 8 | Cynthia & Jim Best | 6 | 6 | DNF | 5 | 34 |
| 9 | 9 | Tom Erickson | 12 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 37 |
| 10 | 14 | Ken Butler & Ken Jr. | 10 | 9 | 9 | TLE | 38 |
| 11 | 7 | Jim Lingeman/Pat Kuntz | 11 | 8 | 10 | TLE | 39 |
| 12 | 11 | AnnMarie Covington/Mike Tighe | 9 | 10 | DNF | TLE | 46 |
| 13 | 13 | Izak Kielmovitch/Bill Hemphill | 16 | 12 | 11 | TLE | 49 |
| 14 | 16 | Sarah & Jim Pedersen | 13 | 14 | 12 | TLE | 55 |
| 15 | ‑ | Jesse & Carolyn Tate | 15 | 13 | DNF | TLE | 58 |
| 16 | 10 | Mike Murto/Anne Ireland | 14 | DNC | DNC | TLE | 58 |
Fisher / Watt would like to take this opportunity to thank Fred J Malcolm for sponsorship enabling attendance at this championship.