Greystones Wayfarer helmswoman Monica Schaefer has rounded out a remarkable racing season with a successful defence of the Scottish title on Loch Lomond writes W M Nixon. This means that she now has the triple, having won the Irish title during the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta in July, and then topping the Silver Fleet at the UK Championship.
But those are only Monica’s successes on this side of the Atlantic. The Wayfarer class’s international links are strong, and she was offered a boat to race in the North Americans in Toronto. Despite being noted for the devoted way she prepares her own boat W11152, she responded to the challenge of a strange boat in strange waters by finishing third overall.
Her most recent success has been retaining the Scottish title, and for this event she’d her own boat, and was crewed by Neil McSherry. He is best known for his involvement with the Shipman 28 Class in Dublin Bay through the National Yacht Club, but is also a Wayfarer fan, and brought the bonus of being Scottish, so he provided a certain level of local knowledge.
A two day event saw the Schaefer boat getting a good lead with two bullets when two races could finally be sailed on the Saturday after a breeze eventually filled in, with second place held by local crew Bob and Margaret Sparkes. After a fine evening of Scottish hospitality complete with singing and dancing, Sunday dawned bright, but the Loch was like glass with no wind at all.
The AP was up and racing postponed for about an hour when a nice breeze filled in, with the Race Committee doing well to get three races under way in quick succession. Conditions were a bit tricky with positions on the beat constantly changing with massive wind shifts. The leaders played it safe up the middle, roll-tacking on every shift to maximise momentum and wind lift advantage. This tactic paid off handsomely and they finished all three races at the front to give them a clean sweep of five races and the Championship honours.
The positions overall were 1st W11152 (Monica Schaefer (Greystones SC) & Neil McSherry (National YC)); 2nd (and first Scottish boat W6117 (Bob & Margaret Sparkes (Loch Lomond SC)); 3rd W7588 (Dawn Crow and Jackie Meldrum (LLSC))
