In honour of this truly special occasion, Uncle Al actually prepared a little speech - having been asked by the organizers to come up with a few George Blanchard anecdotes. To let more of you share these little snapshots from the Wayfarer part of George's life, I have added an amplified version of my speech notes as follows:

• my first memory of G: 1959 National Capital Regatta at Ottawa's Britannia YC - Saturday night, huge crowd around the piano > GB playing - next morning (bring pants) George and Tom Johannsen
• '64 my start in W's - there was veteran George, already helping the newcomers with a series in the newsletter on how to best sail a W
• '65: GB > NA champ
• '68: GB becomes first Hon. Life Member of CWA - category created just for him and his many contributions to the Class
• '71: GB wins closest ever NA's in 55-boat fleet at Bronte as George, Jeff Jones, Larry Schwartz and Ken Holloway all finish within two Olympic points in the days when the difference between a first and a second-place finish in any race was 3 points. Poor Ken Holloway and Ivar Zalitis were leading the final race and in line to win but Uncle Al drifted past them and won by less than 6 inches. That cost Ken and Ivar 3 pts. and dropped them from 1st to 4th place in the series. All this after Ken and Ivar had become the only W known to have been struck by lightning during a squall the previous day - tell story briefly (In our 1971 North Americans at Bronte Harbour (just west of Toronto), our 50+ boat fleet got caught in a severe thundersquall. W851, a wood W helmed by Ken Holloway of North Bay, suffered a direct hit while the crew, Ivar Zalitis, was in the act of pulling down the jib. Ivar told me that he was leaning right between the metal mast and the shroud, when they got hit! While the plywood topsides near the starboard shroud and near both ends of the metal spi pole which was lying along the longitudinal seats looked like they'd been hit with a sledgehammer, Ivar said that all he got was "tinglies".)
• '74: George went to England for the first Wayfarer Worlds, and he has sailed each Worlds since, making him the only W to have sailed in all 11 Worlds
• '78: George and Graham billetted for Denmark-based Worlds with Dr. Nils Ebbehøj - sat down to breakfast the first morning - Graham had to be resuscitated when he choked on his toast as the 17-year-old daughter walked in ... topless
• '81: Wampler's Lake - biker gang - George into bar right after them - comes out 20 min. later all smiles, saying: "They're just a nice bunch of young fellas."
• '83: George's Hall of Fame career with the aircraft manufacturer, DeHavilland, got our boats a free flight to the Worlds in England courtesy of George's friend, Max Ward, owner of the charter airline, Wardair - ton of correspondence organizing absolutely everything - speech "pool" at Portsmouth Guildhall - fix > Roger Redwin, George's crew, wins with inside knowledge of a time of 11 min. 20 sec. - my envy when George's contribution to the daily 200-yard low tide Hayling Island haul-out was to sit on the transom to reduce tongue weight while chanting "This is the way we get 'em out!"
  
• a couple of years later, June Bug mast break > 35 knots, George and Doug N. delight crowd on cliff with a daring - but brief - spi hoist > the mast snapped at the spreaders which had no limit on forward swing
• also mid-80's: I devoted a Whiffle to George and his lifetime W accomplishments since, judging by G's health problems, that it was a certainty G wouldn't be around much longer ...
• '98 Worlds X interview in DK: pretty young Århus reporter starts interview by marvelling that an 84-year-old man would come all the way to Denmark to cheer on his Canadian Wayfarer Worlds team > "Cheer on, nothing!" replies George. "I'm racing!!" . and George beat 12 boats!
• '03: at age 89 and almost 90, G hits top 10 in W NA's at Port Credit
• George set an example for W's: we have a number of people well into retirement age who still race W's actively and capably: Sid Atkinson at this club, Hubert Dauch in Detroit and just last weekend, 79-year-old Bob Frick won Clark Lake with his 80-year-old crew, Peter Every

Personal note: best thing I got from is that George took away my fear of growing old: watching George in action made me realize that geezerishness is not inevitable, that you can have a great, active life if you have the right attitude. George is an inspiration to all of us who know him.

But Uncle Al's favourite George Blanchard "moment" dates back about 40 years to a National Capital Regatta in Ottawa which boasted "dry" Sundays back then. This moment required the assistance of Tom Wharton to re-enact: It was a calm, sunny Sunday morning, about 8 a.m. at Ottawa's posh Britannia YC. As Al was making his way to the boat park, Al saw George Blanchard (W283) and Tom Johannsen (W649) strolling through the immaculately kept flower beds in front of the club. What puzzled Al was the fact that George and Tom were each holding one leg of a pair of sweatpants whose waist was dragging on the ground between Tom and George (as demonstrated by Tom and Al above). The mystery was not solved until George lifted the pant leg he was holding to his lips and took a gulp of his beer.

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