When Scott and Susan moved north from California they knew they had to take advantage of the PNW’s great cruising grounds.They came across a Sabre 362 at Swiftsure’s docks, and immediately felt it was the right boat. Alas, that one went to another buyer. But that gave us a definite target to shoot at, and when the next one came along they were ready to pounce. Socarrat is happy in her Gig Harbor home, and Scott and Susan have upgraded and babied the beautiful Sabre along the way. The initial cruising was a success, surely followed by many more, and longer voyages.
I first heard about Hurricane Mitch at dinner with Andre and Vivienne in the thatched-roofed marina restaurant. John had been gone about a week. Eating at the awful marina restaurant, our conversation revolved around fabulous meals we had enjoyed elsewhere, in contrast to the rubbery steak and tasteless bread we now consumed. Kate, Emilie, and Hugo played tag under the empty tables. Some boaters focused on a TV at the bar where a weatherman pointed to a cloudy mass drifting around the Western Caribbean.
Kate reading before leaving the Rio DulceJohn, Kate and Elmo freezing on the Intracoastal
“A hurricane but it doesn’t look like it is headed our direction. And Category 1 is not bad,” Andre said after wandering over to the TV to check it out.
I trusted Andre’s judgment. Andre and Vivienne had sailed across the Atlantic and raced in world-class sailing races. I wasn’t sure, though, whether he would play it down to keep me from worrying. The pit of my stomach tingled. The others who had listened to the weather milled around, ordering more watery Gallo beer, yawning, and playing cards. A couple of people leafed through the used books, looking for something to read before bed. It was the end of October, late in the season for a hurricane. It didn’t feel like a crisis. Still, I wanted John around if something major was happening.
The next morning, I dropped Kate off at Renee’s boat, Big Easy, and went to Felipe’s Internet café in Fronteras to write John and see what information Felipe had about Hurricane Mitch. Before this voyage, I associated the dinghy with New England seafood dinners in Connecticut harbors or Block Island. On summer weekends, we would pass other sailors heading into shore to quaint seaside restaurants—a man running the dinghy, a woman, and children crowded alongside. Since John left, Kate and I had been bombing around the river on White Fang together, and on our own. We wondered how we could have been so chicken about it earlier. We were like teenagers who had just gotten our licenses. But we were not on a summer vacation; the dinghy was our lifeline.
Felipe sat before his computer with a small crowd of locals and cruisers around him. He was in his thirties, mustachioed, and six feet tall, an unusual height here. He had lived in the States before returning to his native country.
The satellite picture on Felipe’s screen showed a fiery mass covering most of the Western Caribbean. Mitch was huge. Winds had strengthened to Category 5. At two hundred miles per hour, it was the largest and strongest hurricane on record. It had strengthened rapidly from the evening before. A few hundred miles out, its direction was unclear. Mitch seemed to be heading north, meaning it would miss us, but there was talk of evacuation. We gawked at each other.
“I’ll keep track of it and broadcast over the radio. Check channel 67 and call me if you want,” Felipe said in Spanish, then in English. He printed out a copy of the satellite map and scotch-taped it to the window in his door.
In a daze, I headed for a computer to check email. I would have to handle a Category 5 storm without John. Right now, the sun was out but that would change soon enough. John and I had weathered a couple of weak hurricanes when we lived in Connecticut on Phaedrus, but Hurricane Mitch was on a different scale altogether. This was not the first time John was away during a storm, either. He had been away for the storm in Beaufort, North Carolina. But now, I was in a poor foreign country, in what was shaping up as a major disaster. I became conscious of my shallow breaths. As I sat at a computer to log in, a cold shiver wriggled through my gut.
John had just heard about Mitch—his email had yesterday’s date when Mitch was not yet very powerful. He wished he could be with us. Just hearing his words in my head calmed me. I looked around to see people shouting anxiously into Felipe’s long-distance phones and frantically typing on keyboards.
To learn more about Susan or order Holding Fast, visit Susan’s website.
I’m pleased to share an excerpt from Susan Cole’s cruising memoir, “Holding Fast.” I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book, which from its title and first few graphs promises to be a reflective look on the cruising life. Coles recently moved to the Northwest (Portland), and joins the many sailing and adventure authors already here, including Wendy Hinman, Jordan Hanssen, Jim Lynch,Jeffrey Briggs and others. KH
Excerpt from Chapter 1: Underway
We still lived in Connecticut that Saturday my husband John and I took our seven-year-old daughter Kate to Mystic Seaport. As we reached the town of white picket fences and tidy window boxes of petunias, geraniums, and zinnias, John turned to Kate and said, “In a few weeks, we’re going to move on Laughing Goat and go sailing.”
John, Kate and Elmo
I sprang to attention in the back. We had discussed breaking the news to Kate, but I hadn’t known when John would do it. He waited until we came under the spell of the tall ships and recreated nineteenth-century village where blacksmiths and carpenters plied their trades. As usual, John took his time, raising a cigarette to his lips, inhaling, flicking ash in the tiny metal tray, flashing a grin at me, and waiting for Kate’s response. Though the smell of his cigarette smoke no longer intoxicated me as it had twenty years ago, I still loved the sensual curve of John’s hand around a cigarette.
John was six when his family moved to Africa. Before they went, his mother told him about lions and tigers and elephants and snakes, anthills as big as houses, and the wild bush that would surround their new house where he could play. He couldn’t wait to go. He wanted to impart a similar excitement to Kate about our voyage.
“Where are we going?” Kate asked.
“South. First to Florida. Then we’ll figure out where we want to go from there—somewhere in the Caribbean. We’ll snorkel. There are fantastic coral reefs, like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
“What about school?”
“You and Mom will do it on the boat.”
“What about our house?”
“We’ll rent it out.”
Kate glanced at me. Passing the schooners on Mystic River, I could imagine sailing down the Intracoastal Waterway through charming towns like those on Long Island Sound.
“It’ll be fun,” I said, feeling like Judas. I didn’t share my doubts and fears.
Kate Reading
Kate told her class the next day that she was sailing to the Caribbean and snorkeling, and she wasn’t going to school anymore. Her teacher, a sailor, was thrilled for her and asked her to write the class about her adventures. She promised they would write back.
I wish it had been that simple for me. I did not want to go. John would tease me and say, “I’ll have to drag you out kicking and screaming, clinging to the garden.” I imagined myself red-faced and shrieking, my fingers black with dirt, while John yanked my legs and Kate stared open-mouthed.
Ed. Note: This was news 3 months ago, but it’s still news. Cruising, after all, is timeless. Furthermore, this is one of sailing’s great honors and we as Northwesterners can be proud and impressed by the Niemans’ achievements. This is the press release from the one and only CCA. -KH
Ginger and Peter Niemann have been named winners of the 2021 Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America for two sailing circumnavigations that took them to the high latitudes, north and south. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second trip around the world included rigorous non-stop passages while returning home to Washington state.
The Niemanns exemplify the spirit of adventure and determination represented by the Blue Water Medal, which has been awarded regularly since 1923 to “reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized.” Past winners have ranged from Eric Tabarly and Sir Francis Chichester to Rod Stephens, Webb Chiles and Eric and Susan Hiscock.
The Niemanns’ first voyaging boat was Marcy, a 47-foot sloop they converted from a schooner. From 2006 to 2010, Marcy took them west-about from Seattle almost 50,000 miles around the world, including rounding the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.
In 2017, they departed Washington State on Irene, a 52-foot fiberglass ketch. Taking the opposite direction, east-about, through the Northwest Passage and staying in the northern hemisphere, they never crossed their first track around. Becoming the 30th U.S.-flagged vessel to complete the Northwest Passage transit, Irene touched Greenland, Newfoundland, and the U.S. East Coast before crossing the Atlantic to Ireland.
After touring the U.K., Atlantic Europe, and the Mediterranean, they found themselves suddenly stranded in Turkey when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Like international cruisers everywhere, they were stopped in their tracks, previous plans irrelevant. Unwilling to leave Irene, they considered staying in Turkey; sailing back home across the Atlantic; or heading home to the Pacific Northwest through the Suez Canal. They chose the third option, negotiating a landfall in distant Batam, Indonesia. Their of-necessity-non-stop voyage across the Indian Ocean during the monsoon to Indonesia required extraordinary perseverance. It was rough, as they had expected, but at least their worries didn’t include pirates, who were unlikely to be out and about in the challenging weather.
Two non-stop months and nearly 6,000 miles later, the Niemanns arrived in Batam, only to find that their permission to stay in Indonesia had been revoked. Nearby Singapore let them stay but they couldn’t leave the boat. They lived onboard at the Changi Sailing Club for five months. In all, they spent nearly 300 days aboard, unable to go ashore in any country. On February 2, 2021, they departed on the long cruise home via Japan and the Aleutians.
Despite the truly unique challenges posed by the pandemic, Peter and Ginger persevered, cheerfully adapting to a seemingly endless onboard quarantine and making lengthy passages in extremely difficult conditions.
They have coped with challenges posed by wind and weather, taken on the high latitudes in the Arctic and Patagonia, and found a way to successfully navigate the pandemic to complete a second circumnavigation in extraordinary circumstances. Their teamwork, courage, good humor, flexibility, and innovative spirit are evidence of their exceptional personal and sailing mettle. During these uncertain and difficult times, their persistence and ingenuity is truly inspiring, and the Cruising Club of America is proud to present them with the 2021 Blue Water Medal.
High school sailing is the best. Jan Anderson photo.
2019-2020 NWISA Pre-Season Prognostications
School is in session, which means it’s time to
talk High School Sailing. I’m once again putting out my pre-season predictions
ahead of the first NWISA regattas later in September. Olympia proved Last Year’s Pre-Season Rankings mostly correct
when they went out and absolutely crushed it (as predicted). Unranked Sehome
snuck in and disrupted things a bit after they took 2nd place at Fleet Race
Districts, but other than that the rankings held up pretty well. I’m glad
Sehome proved me wrong and I hope some other unranked teams do the same this
season.
In order to better quantify my predictions, I’ve
developed a high-point scoring system with point values assigned to NWISA
championships and qualifiers. The NWISA
Fleet Race and Team Race Championships are most heavily weighted (worth 5
points each), while the smaller Fall Championships/Qualifiers (Girls, Keelboat,
and Singlehands) are each worth 3 points. Runners up receive the remaining
points. Here is how last year’s predictions compared with end of season results
using this formula.
Heading into the Fall Season the NWISA conference
is looking more competitive than ever before. A lot of talent that has been
percolating for years is finally maturing. Orcas was really the only team that
graduated most of its varsity squad. I expect the top of A-Fleet to look very
similar to last year, with most of the same players returning- just faster and
more experienced. If anything I think the depth of the conference will make it
more difficult to predict the outcomes this year, and there’s not one super
dominant team like we had last year. Here’s my best guess…
#1 Gig
Harbor High School (Gig Harbor, WA)
GHHS will have a target on their back all season.
The Tides have arguably the best one-two punch in the conference with skippers
Axel Stordahl (‘20) and Dayne Hall (‘22). This is a team which is 80% intact
from last year’s Cinderella run. They came tantalizingly close to qualifying
for both spring national championships last year, and that memory is going to
keep them hungry all year. Graduated is varsity crew Ripley Morris and utility
player Peter Ryalls who was injured for most of the spring season. Both were
part of the winning keelboat team last fall. However, Axel and Dayne will still
have plenty of options in the front of their boat and a solid supporting cast
when they get in a keelboat. Carlos Rivas is a very key and versatile piece of
the puzzle this year. He’s turning into one of the best crews in the district,
but he is also capable of grabbing the tiller when needed, like he did last
year during Team Race Champs.
Prognostications: Look for strong performances in Keelboat Quals and Fleet Race
Championships. They could win the Team Racing Champs too, but they are going to
have to rely on a lot of 1,2, X combos to pull it off. It wouldn’t be the first
time a team has won it like that.
#2
Bainbridge High School (Bainbridge Island, WA)
It’s a toss up for 2nd place between Bainbridge
and Sehome, but if you put emphasis on the spring championships, then
Bainbridge gets the nod. The Spartans are heading into this season with the
most talent they’ve had in several years. These sailors aren’t new additions,
rather they’re all returners who are now upperclassmen primed for a breakout
year. Skippers Max Doane, Zach Cooper, and Dane Petrakis are as good a trio as
you’ll find in NWISA. It’s unclear which two will be in the varsity spot for
fleet racing, but they’ll be a real force when it comes to team racing. Barrett
Lhamon and Lindsay Campbell are versatile players who can both transition
easily between skipper and crew roles. Both crewed in the spring championships
last year, but Lindsay will likely skipper some Fall regattas, including Girl’s
Champs. Coach Susan Kaseler has been saying “one more year” for several years
now. If she’s waiting on another NWISA Team Racing Championship to retire, then
this may be her year. It’s her favorite event and she really pushes team racing
hard in the spring.
Prognostications: I would not be at all surprised if Max Doane wins Singlehands in the
full rig, although if Eric Anderson (Ballard) elects to sail the full rig it’ll
be a real battle between those two. Team Racing Championships are theirs to
lose, but the Spartans could certainly podium at Fleet Race Championships too.
#3 Sehome
High School (Bellingham, WA)
This is a team full of young talent that peaked at just the right time last year. They’ve been on my radar for awhile, and have become scary-good very quickly. Leading the charge is a boatload of female talent. Emma Powell and Natalie Serbousek are going into their junior years and will likely be sailing together again. Sammy Farkas is currently leading the NWYRC Laser Radial standings and has already sailed several national and international championships. Now a freshman, Sammy will join her friends Emma and Natalie in the varsity role (as an 8th grader last year Sammy could only sail JV regattas). Add any number of talented female crews, like Natalie Werner or Casey Malone, to the mix and you’ll have an all female team ready to make boys cry all season. This may be the last year to beat Sehome before they reach true dynasty status. You’ve been warned.
Prognostications: Sammy is the favorite to win Singlehanded Quals in the Laser Radial.
The team is a shoe-in for the Girl’s Champs, and will be a real force at fleet
racing districts again next year. However, their team racing game probably
needs another year or two to really develop.
#4 Olympia
High School (Olympia, WA)
The Bears absolutely dominated last year. A team
goal was to represent NWISA at every national championship/invitational and
they almost did it. Varsity A-Fleet skipper Owen Timms was a big reason for
that success, however he has since graduated and is now off to sail with at
George Washington Univ. Some might expect Oly’s star to fall after the loss of
such a key member, plus varsity crews Evan Krug and Kevin Hicks, but coach
Sarah Hanavan has a crop of talent ready to continue the OHS legacy. Skipper
Sam Bonauto and crew Peter Kelleher who sailed opposite of Owen last year have
established themselves as a real force, a pair capable of placing top-5 in any
given NWISA fleet. Skippers Erin Pamplin and Ella Hubbard will likely be
working to earn the other varsity skipper spot. When they put three boats on
the water, they’ll be more than able to hold their own in team racing.
Prognostications: Oly’s strongest events are most likely Girl’s Champs, which they are
hosting (home field advantage never hurts!), and Team Race Champs.I think they
also have a good shot at placing in the Keelboat Quals. It’s an event they’ve
won in the past, and they are one of the few teams that actively train for it.
#5
Roosevelt High School (Seattle, WA)
The nucleus of Miles Williams, Abbie Chipps, and
Sam Kimmel helped put Roosevelt on the map. They’ve been sailing at Sail Sand
Point together for several years, with Miles and Abbie starting in Optis. The
team has grown steadily the last few seasons and blossomed into a real
contender. Miles is one of the fastest skippers in the conference, and Sam is
capable of cracking the top-5 in B fleet. Abbie is one of the top crews in the
district and has been honing her skills as a skipper in the Laser this summer, which
may be put to use when it comes time for Team Race Champs. The Rough Riders
scraped together enough sailors to field a full team racing roster last spring,
a first for RHS, but they still lack the roster depth of some of the more
established teams.
Prognostications: This team could win Fleet Race Championships if they catch fire. As
previously mentioned, roster depth will make it difficult to get on the podium
in the other disciplines.
Honorable
Mention: Ballard High School (Seattle, WA)
There’s a high probability we’ll see Erik
Anderson on the podium at Singlehands and he’ll have a solid B-Fleet opposite
him all season. They could make a late season push similar to the run Sehome
made last year. I wouldn’t count them out of Fleet Race Champs or Keelboat
Quals.
Honorable
Mention: Lincoln High School (Portland, OR)
The Cardinals have the deepest roster in the Portland area and have two pretty quick pairs. Depending on who emerges as their third skipper, they could be a threat at Team Race Champs. We may also see senior Casey Pickett do well in Singlehands. This is a group with keelboat experience (Area L Sears winners), so watch out if they elect to do Keelboat Quals this year.
Ed. Note: Sailish loves to post results, photos, insights, and just funny stuff on the high school sailing scene, but we need help to get material. Competitors and organizers – send stuff! Parents, it’s a great way to be engaged and solidify the scene for the future.
Andrew Nelson of The Sailing Foundation has kindly offered this preview up (with some bold predictions) for the upcoming high school racing season. Yep, even though some of the schools’ bureaucrats might not even know it, these schools have exceptional athletes in a program that allows boys and girls to compete with and against each other, often with the full and enthusiastic participation of their families. So, even if you don’t have a kid in high school, take a good look at the excitement being generated by the next generation of sailors.
Last year’s NWISA Team Race District Championship. Photo by Jim Skeel.
By Andrew Nelson
Kids are heading back to school and the fall high school sailing season is just around the corner. Fall includes a few smaller regional regattas, the singlehanded “Cressy” qualifier (our only Laser event), a new NWISA Girl’s Championship, a keelboat regatta, and a Fall Championship (mostly for bragging rights). All of this happens in the span of seven furious weeks between mid-September and early November.
My not so totally arbitrary “Top-5 Power Rankings” are below. We’ll see how my predictions hold up over time, and I hope there are some spoiler teams out there that prove me wrong!
#1 Olympia High School
OHS finished up a stellar spring season last year with a trip to the Mallory (HS Fleet Racing Nationals), while just barely missing out on also representing the NWISA conference at the Baker (Team Race Nationals). Although their B-Fleet skipper Max Miller graduated last spring, the core of their team remains intact. Look for senior Owen Timms to be out in front of A-Fleet this year. Sam Bonauto (2021) and Erin Pamplin (2020) will be duking it out for the second varsity skipper spot, and when the three skippers unite for team racing they’ll be a formidable squad. OHS has a deep roster which also includes plenty of talented returning crews. One thing we didn’t really see last year were consistent skipper/crew pairings. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Oly move towards a more stable system of pairs as the season progresses.
Predictions: 1st Place- Team Racing, 1st Place- Cressy Qualifier (Laser), 2nd Place- Fleet Racing
#2 Orcas Island High School
OIHS cleaned up last year, earning a spot to both the Baker and Mallory spring championships. Like Olympia, they graduated a key member of their team, Maggie Toombs, last spring. However, they will have two veteran skippers leading the charge this year- Seniors Ronan Rankin and Dominick Wareham. They’ll be surrounded by a supporting cast of experienced crews including seniors Millie Kau and Emma Freedman. When it comes down to performing under pressure, there’s nothing like having a bunch of experience on your side. With more than half a dozen seniors set to graduate in 2019, this is the time for OIHS to cash in on their years of hard work and practice.
Predictions: 1st Place- Fleet Racing, 4th Place- Team Racing
#3 Bainbridge Island High School
BIHS is always a contender. Coach Susan Kaseler has more district championships under her belt than anyone else, and she’s been at it since before any of her current sailors were even born! By BIHS standards it might have been a bit of a down year last year, placing 4th in Team Racing and 5th in Fleet Racing at the NWISA Championships. A new generation will take their turn at the helm this year, including skippers Max Doan, Dane Petrakis, Zach Cooper, and Lindsay Campbell. They’ve all be sailing Lasers regularly this summer and are a fast group. I expect coach Susan will have some hard decisions to make about who to put in the varsity spot. This depth is a great problem to have and will make BIHS a tough opponent in team racing.
Predictions: 2nd Place- Team Racing, 2nd Place Cressy Qualifier (Laser), 3rd Place- Fleet Racing
#4 Capital High School
This team surprised me more than any other team last year. They were my “bracket buster” so to speak. I love it when teams prove me wrong and Capital did just that by placing 4th at Fleet Racing and 7th at Team Racing during the NWISA spring championships. Capital and Olympia both sail out of OYC, and Sarah Hanavan coaches both teams. Clearly this is an example of how the success of Olympia has rubbed off on Capital. Oly and Capital will have a chance to tune up against each other all year, and you can bet by April there will be some seriously competitive practices. Capital has a big crop of juniors and only graduated one sailor last year. This team will be in the hunt this year, and as we were reminded last spring, anything can happen at district championships. They’re going to get their shot either this year or next!
Predictions: 3rd Team Racing, 5th Fleet Racing
#5 Gig Harbor High School
I’m going out on a limb for GHHS. This team has had a lot of talent percolating and now the stars are aligning. Axel Stordahl, Dayne Hall, and Peter Ryalls have all been working very hard this summer and are constantly near the top of the FJ fleet. Crews Ripley Morris and Carlos Rivas have been a big part of this success, and have been very dedicated. They’ve also added depth to their roster and will now have more than enough eligible sailors to field a capable squad at team racing events. Like Oly and Capital, GHHS has had a chance to spar regularly with another very successful team, Charles Wright Academy, over the past few seasons. Recent (like really recent) CWA alumni, Alyosha Strum-Palerm, will be at practice again this fall, not as a sailor, but as the coach. Not so long ago another 19 year-old coach, Stasi Burzycki, led the North Kitsap High School team to nationals, surprising a lot of people in the process. We’ll see if Alyosha and GHHS can make a similar Cinderella run.
Predictions: 4th Place Fleet Racing, 5th Place Team Racing
If any of you high schoolers want to get a word in edgewise, send me your own predictions, race reports or team updates. Sailish is committed to covering youth sailing in the region, but we can use all the sea boots on the ground we can get. Oh, and for the teams not mentioned, prove Andrew wrong. He’ll love it!
5-ohs forever. These sailors are a tight-knit group, and the boat can sail in zephyrs and full-on blows. From their rabbit starts to freely trading all their boatspeed “secrets,” these sailors have figured out how to keep sailing fun internationally and here in the Pacific Northwest. –KH
By Paul Pihl
Bellingham Yacht Club hosted the 5O5 Pacific Coast Championships on June 15-17 on Bellingham Bay. Seven professionally run races occurred in varied conditions over the three days by PRO John Pedlow. Thirty-two teams attended the event and the pool of talent was deep. Several current/former world champions were present including Mike Holt, Rob Woelfel, Mike Martin and Howie Hamlin. The list of titles won by the top talent would exceed the limits of this brief report and perhaps even bore the reader. The competitors also included weekend warriors, college students and recent graduates. In fact, there was at least one competitor who graduated that same weekend from WWU. Teams traveled down from BC and up from Oregon and California. Doug Hagan flew in from Maui and the former International Class President and current class liaison, Pip Pearson came all the way from Australia. The father-son team of James and Ethan Brown drove all the way out from Alberta to race together on Father’s Day weekend. Walking around the boat park before racing it was clear that a great range of talent and ages were present, it was also equally clear that 5O5 sailors are united by their passion for the boat and class. Something that sets 5-oh sailors apart is their openness and congeniality. Boat set-up, sail trim, and tactics are openly and enthusiastically discussed by all competitors before, during and after racing. The goal seems to be to go faster together. Indeed the unwritten class goals seem to be, go faster, learn more and have as much fun as possible.
These Jan Anderson photos tell Saturday’s story. There are so many more good ones at her smugmug gallery.
Many of the competitors arrived early on Thursday, rigged and practiced on the bay in 10-15 knots from the south in champagne sailing conditions. The forecast for the weekend was for wind from the northwest, an unusual and often undependable wind direction for Bellingham Bay. Friday the wind lingered in the high single digits and was shifty. In race one, abundant weeds and lulls in the middle and left were painfully experienced by those on that side. In race two, the weeds had cleared and the left seemed favored. On Saturday, before racing many were busy making weed sticks to clear their rudders. As it turned out, the northwesterly filled in early with an unusual vigor. The wind and waves seemed to clear the bay of the eel grass, or maybe the boats were just going so fast they didn’t see or care about the weeds as they blasted by. Four races were run in 14-18 knots, at times gusting higher. It was full-on planing conditions. Finding pressure and lifts led to big gains at the higher speeds. There were abundant thrills and more than a few spills too. The racers returned to shore tired, sometimes bruised but always smiling. The 5O5 is pure joy to sail, whether you are in the front or at the back of the fleet. Jim and Susan Holstine hosted a fleet party at their home on Lake Samish after racing on Saturday and it was a fantastic finish to the fabulous day of sailing. Mike Martin said it was, “the best regatta party” he had ever attended, a notable comment from someone who has attended a plethora of sailing events around the globe. Sunday the northwesterly filled in late with its more typical, lackadaisical tendency. The RC got off only one race. Initially, there was some wiring upwind. However, by the end the wind shifted and faded to a whimper.
Former world champion, Mike Martin and his crew Adam Lowry took away the gold. They had sailed amazingly consistently with 2-(11)-1-1-2-2-2 finishes. Current world champions Mike Holt and Rob Woelfel finished second. Former world champion and legendary 5O5 sailor Howie Hamlin and his crew Jeff Nelson were awarded third place. But by the looks on all the faces after, everyone was a winner. Thanks for Mike Poulos, regatta chair, for organizing a fantastic event and to all the BYC volunteers for making it all possible!
Thanks to competitor Paul Pihl for putting this report together. If your PNW class wants some digital ink, email me and we’ll set something up.
