I got a call from my friend Brad on Thursday. “Want to race Blakely Rock on Saturday?” A quick conversation with my lovely, mostly understanding wife Abby, and I was signed up. But it wasn’t without mixed feelings.
See, I had lead poisoning at an early age. Not the serious kind you might get in Flint, Michigan or die from while seeking the Northwest Passage in the 1800s, but the kind you get from racing keelboats. There is one similarity, however: judgment is one of the first things to go. I understand memory is affected as well.
Nobody, but nobody, can rationalize (and self-deceive) better than a racing sailor. How else can you explain spending hours in a stress position, while cold and wet, and then eagerly come out for more the next time? How else can you explain racing vastly different boats and pretending they’re somehow really equalized by a handicapping system – any handicapping system? As often as I’ve had great races, I’ve walked off the dock wondering if I should spend more time on the mountain trails or with my little Laser.
The key here is that it’s not always like that. Sometimes, like on Saturday, it’s intoxicating. It’s sunny and relatively warm, the breeze is fair and favorable and the snow-covered mountains seem to have been put there for your own private viewing pleasure. And if you’re on a good boat with a good skipper and crew, as I was on Double Take, it’s near perfect. You forget all the other stuff.
By virtue of it being the first “big” race of the season, Blakely Rock is not one to be missed. There might be a new boat or two. Let’s see who’s got a new mainsail or chute. Who is sailing with whom? Now for a few of the diehards, it’s not new at all. They’ve already been out for Duwamish Head Race or maybe some Sloop Tavern buoy races.
Personally, I love to see a big Blakely Rock blow. I love knocking the rust off in one fell swoop and watching others do the same. And this race is always a reminder of Kelly O’Neil’s positive energy that seems to bubble around the Rock along with all the tulips that are tossed in her honor.
Not much rust was knocked off this year. From the start it was a yummy fetch to the Rock, then a quick spinnaker set and gybe. Then it was a long starboard tack reach toward the mark south of Edmonds, that is until the east-south-easterly shut off completely. When the west-north-westerly appeared in the most subtle way possible, everybody got to head straight for that mark (now the finish mark, thanks to an alert and decisive Corinthian YC PRO).
Yes, Virginia, there weren’t many tactics to speak of. The boats that footed too much on the first leg were faced with a short but painful tack to make the Rock. The crews that weren’t paying attention on the long leg north were a step or two slow in transition. But all in all, it was point and go. Crews got to catch up on rail jokes and if you didn’t get sunscreen on early enough there was a real danger of getting a crispy nose.
On Double Take, we managed to start on the weather hip of Smoke with Glory coming up to full speed on our weather hip, so we got spit out and rolled. Then we lost our chance to go right early, but that served us well as we had a great position for the long fetch.
The rust was apparent just after the spinnaker hoist when a tangled lazy sheet yelled, NO GYBING UNTIL YOU DEAL WITH ME! Since when did something so lazy get so much power anyway?
We did deal with it, gybe and get rolling. Everything remained fun as Glory, Smoke and the Car ran away from us while we systematically worked our way over, through and around the smaller boats. The only bummer was Jam. She drove through and by us in what were “our” conditions, not hers. Yuk. Hmmm. Are those new sails on Jam? Whatever it is, we can’t let that happen again. “Again.” See where this is going. . .
Well, in my leaden mind I’m hearing once again,
“big boat racing is great.” For a while, at least, that’s all I can remember.
-Kurt
Kurt grew up racing and cruising in the Midwest, and has raced Lasers since the late 1970s. Currently he is a broker at Swiftsure Yachts. He has been Assistant Editor at Sailing Magazine and a short stint as Editor of Northwest Yachting. Through Meadow Point Publishing he handles various marketing duties for smaller local companies. He currently is partners on a C&C 36 which he cruises throughout the Northwest. He’s married to the amazing Abby and is father to Ian and Gabe.
Yes you took a selfie Kurt, how grand. I love this article because it reminds me of what I miss about sailing. If time and money were on my side, I’d take it up again. Hats off to you.