Club Championships & Corn Roast

Summary by John Kabel, Race Officer Posted Oct. 19

FYC Club Championship Regatta – Third Time Lucky!

2026 has not been the luckiest for sailing at Fanshawe. Between weather, a lake level rise and many members travelling, it has been tough to find competition of good callibre. So it was no surprise that with heavy winds and sunshine on Saturday, the wind gods of Fanshawe bit hard into the Club Championship.

Three thin fleets came to the start line for Race 1 as the winds started out in the 7 knot range. Speeds picked up, gusting to 9 kt at the start of Race 2 but taking us into serious sailing at 11.5-13 kts as the finish approached and the Lunch flag went up. Thankfully things calmed down after lunch to about 10 kt in Race 3, and then a calm-ish 6 kt in race 4.

The Laser Radial fleet was quickly winnowed down by retirement to two boats who were tied at a couple of firsts and a couple of seconds each. Andrew Paul denied swimming that day, and squeaked out the first First over Arabella’s tight racing to break the tie.

Despite sharp spinnaker work, the RS-400 could not match the corrected time of Richard King’s Y-Flyer but did squeak out ahead of Marla Betts on the other Y. Jens Biskaborn did not venture to fly the kite, as his crew was a very young Daniel De Jong. But the computer helped him stay ahead of
the RS-400. The wind caused an injury, as Lucy Turnbull was rolled against the mast in the first race; she was not seriously injured, but definitely was out of racing.

The biggest surprise of the day was the sharp sailing of John and Carla Norton. The rating of the Sandpiper, along with a strong stomach for winds and much improved sailing over last year helped them to a 45 second gap over Jeff and Vera Eames. Bob Magill was two minutes further back and Chris F another 2.5 minutes.

Then the wind gods said, “Enough!” Sunday morning brought in nearby thunderstorms over a lake with barely any wind. A try at further fleet racing and a Champion of Champions Race was not to be.

We tried again on the following Thursday, hoping to use the novel twist of adding the C of C Race to the normal mid-week informal racing. We even promised members a start on the water after the Champions, timed from the Barge. Not to be, alas, as the wind gods brought in more thunderstorms, rain and completely unsafe conditions.

The third try for Championship was pushed out to Sunday, September 13 by further weather and race officer issues. But the wind gods were kind that day, as speeds and direction were almost the same as they had been after lunch on that first Saturday, with sun to make it feel perfect. The Sandpiper was not to repeat that day, unfortunately, finishing almost 10 corrected minutes over two brisk laps of the course behind the winner. No stomach for wind, apparently. Richard King and Celina Everling got ever so close to winning, only 5 corrected seconds behind the Laser Radial. Andrew Paul did add a brief swim to his circuits but held it together to have a clean finish with a clear corrected time.

Thanks very much to the folks who helped out at various times in the three attempts to complete the regatta, including Ken Clarke, Andrew Elliott, Anna Toporowska, Mike Van Wiechen, Andy Turnbull and the great kitchen staff who delivered excellent lunches and burgers, sausages and
corn at the Saturday Corn Roast.

Congratulations to The Champion of Champions Rear-Commodore Andrew. With results like this year’s, the wind gods may have said the day of automatic and easy Club Championship wins by Lasers might be coming to an end. There are plenty of members who can get within seconds of the first-place boat. All we need is great winds and luck to really narrow the margins.

See you at the Pumpkin Regatta.
John Kabel, Race Officer

2026 Results

Click Here to View the Club Championships Results PDF file

Click Here to View the Champion of Champions PDF file

Photos

Click Here to View the Google Photo Album of the Prize Giving!