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Toronto Sailing & Canoe Club, Canada * August 8-14, 1976 |
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Toronto’s
"horrible" Humber
Bay was characterized during Worlds week by winds that were mostly in
the
6-12 knots range – with occasional stretches of 15 and perhaps a puff
or
two of 20 knots.
Unlike the
first Worlds
where four boats clearly dominated the field, this 7-race series
remained
wide open until the very last race as boats were pretty even throughout
the fleet and the shifts seemingly random.
 ... Colin Wilson and
his brother,
Iain, (see photo above) – one of two UK crews sailing their own
boats, ended up with the title even though they placed only 12th in the
final heat while none of their closest rivals could place high enough
in
that final race to surpass them.
... There was
little doubt
that Jeff Jones, then in his run of 5 straight North American
championships,
was the fastest boat there. However, Jeff’s easy wins over the previous
two years had not prepared him well for the strategy that would be
necessary
in this much tougher fleet. It is rumoured that the sum total of one
Jeff
Jones seminar on how to win races was: "I just like to get out in front
and stay there!"
That approach was never available to Jeff in this series as he consistently went well out to one side of the first beat – and guessed wrong all seven times!! Thus he was well down the fleet at the first mark before he turned on the afterburners to end each race back near the leaders. But not near enough!! Not to be
outdone, your
Uncle Al made the first of many not to smart Worlds experiments in ’76
as he installed a beautiful new home-made centreboard with a half-round
leading edge in time for the event. It took him until spring ’78 to
determine
that half-round is terminally slow off the wind. By the time it was too
late, Al figured out that he had lost 20+ points’ worth of boats on
reaches
that should have been "parades"…
Among the half dozen or so potential World champs who started race 7 in light airs were Canadians, Heider Funck and André Laframboise who had lost potential strangle-holds on the title when both were DSQ’d out of excellent race 6 finishes for (hotly denied) violations of the (then) 30-second Rule. Anyway, it turned out that the Wilsons’ 12th in the finale was just good enough as all the pursuers finished in just the right places to remain close behind. Meanwhile, defending champion, Alan Wilson, obviously suffered from the light airs and a borrowed boat, ending up 12th overall. Like the UK,
the SWS sent
a full team of 6 boats but they seemed rather lost in the light and
shifty
winds, especially the three who were sailing "three up"! Murphy’s Law
was
in operation as I remember telling Søren Ejsenhardt and his two
big, strong crewmen who were borrowing my W4000 that it was suicide to
race with 3 in the boat, especially in Toronto in August when it almost
never "blows". Naturally, as we got out of the car at my club, the wind
almost ripped the doors off the car, and Søren and his crew just
smiled politely…
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