Pumpkin Exciting End to Sailing Season

October 12, 2008  |  by Al Schonborn  |  Results  |  Photos

Cool but very pleasant weather blessed the 41st annual Pumpkin Regatta held October 4th and 5th at London's Fanshawe YC.

The following article was written by Sue Goldt for the FYC Scuttlebutt - December 2008 issue. Below Sue's report is Al Schonborn's - edited slightly only for length - from the Canadian Wayfarer Association web site. Al's full report, awesome collection of photos, and play-by-play captions from the Pumpkin Regatta 2008 can be found here: http://www.wayfarer-canada.org/08Pumpkin/08Pumpkin_index.html

The 41st Pumpkin Regatta was held in very pleasant weather this year with 6 races overall – three each day. Winds were light to medium each day. As always, it was a pleasure having racers from out-of-town join us at this regatta.

The racing was started from the A-B start line using a land- based committee in the race hut. With the prevailing wind direction, this made it very difficult to have a square start line which, with shifting winds, resulted in interesting starts for all races.

The largest fleet was the Laser fleet with Brad Biskaborn bulleting into first place.

For the first time at the Pumpkin, there was a Laser Radial fleet, which brought new younger racers into the regatta and one older face from the past. I must say that if one wants to continue sailing the single-handed Laser in air too heavy for the skipper's weight (or skipper's years higher than their sail number) the radial is the best class change ever made.

The Wayfarer fleet was the second largest with the most out-of-town racers. Our very own Jens and Sharon Biskaborn placed second after Al and Julia Schonborn - excellent racing guys, and consistent!

The Y-Flyer fleet raced its provincial championships at this regatta so had a good fleet with most of their racers from away. The smallest fleet of club members only, the Hobies, decided their positions in race one...talk about consistent!

The open Class was very variable ranging from 16 foot to 23 foot entries. A lot of our Wednesday racers helped to run the regatta so we missed them on the course. One point of interest this year was finding ourselves as part of the British Fleet as we rounded mark 4 by the beach where a re-enactment of the war of 1912 was taking place. First regatta we have had with canons fired in a leg of the race or the Brits sailing through our moorings looking to do battle!

Many thanks to all the volunteers who worked hard to make this regatta happen:
Race Committee: Rob Perquin, Marc Lacoursiere, Jim MacKenzie, Doug MacKenzie
Registration: Rob Perquin, Marc Lacousiere
Safety boats: Mike Morris, Steve Currie, Ross Green, John Bryant, Paul Chesman, Graham Forester
Kitchen: Carleen Hone, Kim Petteplace, Lisa King, Denise Kinting, Denis Dube, Nancy Stanlick
Photography: Paul Chesman, Steve Currie, Bob Steer (past club member)

Special thanks to Kevin Biskaborn who had not started out on the regatta committee but was invaluable - providing all the necessary paperwork, advertising the regatta, explaining rules, assembling and designing the unique personalized awards given out to all participating sailors. Kevin ended up being the glue that binds.

Sue Goldt Laser Radial 3434

2008 Season Comes to an Exciting End at Fanshawe's Pumpkin Regatta
by Al Schonborn

Cool but very pleasant weather blessed the 41st annual Pumpkin Regatta held Oct. 4-5 at London's Fanshawe YC. About 40 boats - mostly Wayfarers, Lasers and Y-Flyers - enjoyed six races in light to medium airs and temperatures around 15C under somewhat sunny skies. An added bonus for us again this year, was the (apparently) annual re-enactment of one of the battles of the War of 1812, and we shared the waters of Fanshawe Lake with some most interesting craft.

Like last year, we got six races in: three on Saturday and three on Sunday. Despite the best efforts of our hard-working but land-based (above) Race Committee, our starts were always an adventure, with shifts often making it impossible to cross the line on starboard tack.

In the 10-boat Wayfarer fleet, Al Schonborn of Oakville maintained his stranglehold on the George Blanchard Red Top Trophy, with his wife, Julia, doing an excellent emergency crewing job after being pressed into service when Al's intended crew, Dave Hansman, was called away on mining business to Mongolia at the last minute. A sparkling 1-3-1-1-1 record over the first five races allowed Al to let Julia rest her weary bones without having to sail the finale.

In contrast, the fight for series 2nd and 3rd went right down to the end of the final race, in which Fanshawe's Jens Biskaborn and his wife, Sharon, scored a close 3rd-place finish that was just enough to take the runner-up spot by just a single point. Like Al and Julia, the Biskaborns (who were sailing the Wayfarer because Jens had broken his Laser mast a few days previously) were models of consistency. In the typical shifty Fanshawe winds, they scored 3-2-4-3-3, not an easy thing to accomplish in our very evenly matched fleet, in which one shift or dead spot could easily drop you several places. By beating their seed by two places, Sharon and Jens grabbed a share of Most Improved honours for the 2008 Pumpkin Regatta. Well done, Jens and Sharon!

London's Jeff Eames and his wife, Vera, outduelled their Fanshawe club mates, Len Macdougall and Andy Turnbull, to avoid last place by two points. A Pumpkin regular who has last named W7220, Jeff plans to address his most pressing rigging needs - specifically getting a nicely functional vang and some sails with a bit more life in them than his venerable Storers - in time for the 2009 season. His boat name? Oh yes: Bloody Thing.

It speaks well for the high level of our Wayfarers' racing abilities, when I could look at Len and Andy live and in the many Pumpkin pictures, and find no noticeable flaws in their boat and sail trim or in their boat handling. It's rare that you can say that for a last-place boat in most other fleets. Well done, Len and Andy! It was, as always, a pleasure to sail with you!

A ton of thanks to ...
... the many Fanshawe volunteers - most especially to Kevin Biskaborn who not only does the magnificent Fanshawe YC web site, but who also did the lion's share of Pumpkin 2008 organizational work. And that's not to mention that Kevin spent much of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon creating framed individualized awards for each and every Pumpkin participant (see the above sample) complete with a personal action shot chosen from the many fine pictures taken by Bob Steer, FYC Commodore Paul Chesman and Steve Currie.

Al Schonborn Wayfarer 3854