Whidbey Island Race Week 2016 Recap

By Liza Tewell

A fleet of 64 sailboats traveled to the Oak Harbor Marina July 11-15 for the 34^th running of Whidbey Island Race Week (WIRW) hosted by the Oak Harbor Yacht Club. The nation’s only true race “week,” WIRW gives sailors from the United States, Canada and Europe the opportunity to test their racing skills on both short and long courses in Penn Cove and Saratoga Passage. The event, which includes nightly awards and live bands, kicked off Sunday night as sailors sized up competition and rekindle friendships at the traditional Sunday meet-and-greet.

Dictated by the tides, this year’s event was held mid-July in cooler than normal temperatures and lighter than average winds. Nonetheless, Race PRO Charley Rathkopf and his committee from Corinthian Yacht Club Seattle finished eight to nine races during the five-day regatta. Nine classes, including three one-design classes, vied for daily honors, class overalls, and the Tesla boat-of-the-week title. Not your usual pickle dishes, daily awards sponsored by Ullman Sails were useful beverage glasses. Class overalls were hand-blown glass trophies commissioned by Seattle artist, Veronica Margarito Lopez.

Short courses on Monday and Tuesday established front runners in all but the 13-boat J/105 class, which saw flip-flopping finishes and the week’s sole DSQ. Wednesday’s Z-course ping-ponged racers around Penn Cove like a pinball-machine, while treating spectators on the Coupeville dock to a colorful spinnaker parade across Penn Cove.

Unconventional courses continued Thursday with a marathon distance race sending most of the fleet off Saratoga’s southern horizon near the island town of Greenbank. The race scored doubled with only half of the day’s total qualifying for a throw-out, either damning some who found themselves on the wrong side of he 180 degree shift or cementing a win for those who landed on the right side of the roulette wheel when it stopped spinning. Dodging holes, boats created a confusing spectacle as they raced side by side, heading in the same direction, with some flying spinnakers while others held jibs. The larger the class, like the 13-boat J/105 class, the bigger the discrepancy of the day’s tally, with the week’s win for the one-design 105s going to David Cohen’s Inconceivable. Just two points separated the next three boats, with Delirium placing second and James Geros’ Last Tango winning the tie-breaker for third over More Jubilee. On Friday, the RC finally called uncle on an overly persistent easterly and set a windward-leeward, only to have it fade, abandoning the week’s final race for five of the nine classes.

Stalwart front runners managed to escape Thursday’s race wrath and held on to class overalls, including John Hoag and his 1D/35, Shrek, in PHRF Class 1, which, after a string of bullets, had to swallow one of their freak double-fifth-place points; Mike Goldfarb, with longtime crew Mark Brink, on War Canoe, in the one-design Farr 30 class; Kevin Welch’s one-design Melges 24, Mikey, helmed by Olympic medalist Jeff Madrigali; and Chris White and crew aboard his Martin 242 , Crazy I’s, which stayed atop PHRF Class 8 with just 7 points and took boat-of-the-week honors thanks to straight bullets.

Tight PHRC racing gave the Left Coast Dart, Ogopogo, a one point lead in Class 3 over Brad Butler’s Sierra 26x, Uno, who landed unusually near the back of the pack on Thursday, forcing them to keep one of the double 4s on their scorecard. Though they horizoned Class 4 during Wednesday’s racing, Stuart Burnell’s J/109, Tantivy, faced some fierce handicaps and fell by just two points for the week to the  J/90, Eye Eye. Also missing the week’s overall by just two points, Pat Denney’s J/29, Here & Now, in Class 7 fell to sister-ship, Slick, who was able to throw-out one of the two 4-pointers from Thursday. Keeping with the two-point theme, the Wylie 25, Exodus, won the week in Class 9 with 11 points over the 13 points earned by Ron Ernst’s Martin 29, Ignitor.

Racers took advantage of the light air which tended to arrive later in the day by rafting up to the dock at Coupeville’s Red Barn and stroll the old-timey boardwalks of Whidbey Island’s historic and picturesque Penn Cove town. Racers ducked into establishments such as the newly remodeled Front Street Grill for lunch, or waited willingly in line for ice cream from Kapaw’s Iskreme Worldwide Headquarters, a few step away from the original Stewart brother’s Wet Whiskers ice cream shop which sparked America’s obsession for espresso in 1969.

Though the local breeze was less ample than desired, one indigenous delicacy was in abundant supply—Dungeness crab. Boats setting traps on the run out to the day’s course were rewarded after the day’s racings with overflowing traps stuffed with one of the Pacific Northwest’s favorite bounties. For the second year in a row, the Crab Cake Cook-Off, judged by Oak Harbor Yacht Club Vice Commodore, Avis Berney, Oak Harbor Mayor Bob Severns, among others, was won by the culinary crew of Rex Dupuis’s J/30, Gadzooks.

Shoreside, the bands Kickin’ Dust, Rabbit Wilde, Jones & Fischer, Gertrude’s Hearse, Maggy’s Fury and Original Jim rounded out this year’s live-music line-up. Princess Bride was the feature for movie night, and the Oak Harbor Yacht Club’s offered famous Penn Cove mussels Monday and Wednesday evening. For those not into the fresh bivalves, the OHYC grill fed hungry sailors all week with mouth-watering burgers and corn on the cob.

While mom and dad raced beyond the breakwater, children spent the week making memories at the Brenda Van Fossen, MD Kids Camp. Morning activities at Kids Camp headquarters on the yacht club lawn included learning knot-tying, how to craft a make-shift safety line, building model boats, and creating marine-themed jigsaw puzzles before heading out for the daily field trip which included exploring the Fidalgo tidepools, climbing the Fort Casey lighthouse, hiking down world-famous Deception Pass, painting pottery and making glass art. After a hearty lunch campers spent the afternoons racing Oak Harbor Youth Sailing’s fleet of Optimists at the entry to the harbor’s marina. A highlight of their summer, every camper from the inaugural year returned for 2016, plus some, and even more have committed to next year’s Kids Camp 2017.

New for 2016 was the presentation of a Sportsmanship Award honoring Phil Wise, WIRW board member and long-time racer in the Puget Sound sailing community who passed away in August 2015. The first recipient of the perpetual award was the alternate RC vessel, Gopher Baroque, who suffered some cosmetic damage while helping to pull Steve Johnson’s White Cloud off Oak Harbor’s mucky sea floor. Rather than accepting compensation for the repair, Gopher Baroque requested the amount instead be donated to Oak Harbor’s youth sailing program. Narrowly missing the callout for exemplary sportsmanship were the young men on Ryan Conner and Hendrick Reidel’s Melges 24 up from Tahoe, Blue Dream, who worked long and tirelessly to put together a junior sailing campaign based on elbow grease and hard work.

Mark your calendars for the 35^th anniversary of Whidbey Island Race Week, scheduled for July 10-14, 2017.

Ed. Note: This looked like a great deal of fun. Thanks Liza for the report and Schelleen and Charley for all you do to make this regatta happen. They have really made it appealing for families as well as racers. Schelleen is putting a call out for fleets “who want to use the infrastructure of Race Week to conduct fleet local, regional or national championships.” I can think of several fleets that might use this event as a springboard to light a fire their fleets’ keels.

 

Results

 

2016 Whidbey Island Race Week
Preliminary Cumulative Results
			Bow	Sail Number	Yacht Name	Owner/Skipper	Rating	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Race 6	Race 7	Race 8	Race 9	TO	Total
	One Design Division
		Fleet 2-Farr 30
		1		57	Warcanoe	Michael Goldfarb		2	1	1	2	3	1	1	1	1	[3]	10
		2		USA 630	Square one	Matt Pistay		1	3	4	5	1	2	2	2	5	[5]	20
		3		USA 55	Bat Out Of Hell	Lance Staughton		4	5	2	1	2	4	3	3	3	[5]	22
		4		USA 53	Nefarious	Dan Randolph		3	2	3	3	5	5	4	4	4	[5]	28
		5		CAN 7	65_Red Roses	Bruce Chan		5	4	5	4	4	3	5	5	2	[5]	32
		Fleet 5-J 105
		1		USA 403	Inconceivable	Lance Rummel David Cohen, Bill McKinnon		4	2	10	5	1	7	1	1		[10]	21
		2		USA 272	Delirium	Jerry Diercks		11	1	2	7	3	1	7	7		[11]	28
		3		USA 212	Last Tango	James Geros		9	3	1	1	6	2	8	8		[9]	29
		4		USA 114	More Jubilee	Erik Kristen/ Kathryn Meyer		1	6	3	4	2	4	9	9		[9]	29
		5		USA 604	Troublemaker	John Weil, Kent Sisk		7	4	4	2	8	6	4	4		[8]	31
		6		ITA 89	Moose Unknown	John Aitchison		6	10	6	3	4	3	6	6		[10]	34
		7		USA 174	Dulcinea	Matthew Gardner-Brown		3	7	9	8	7	9	2	2		[9]	38
		8		USA 475	Usawi	Robert Blaylock		8	8	7	9	9	5	5	5		[9]	47
		9		USA 299	Jaded	Chris Phoenix		2	5	5	11	5	14/DSQ	12	12		[14]	52
		10		459	Abstract	Doug Pihlaja		13	9	11	12	13	11	3	3		[13]	62
		11		495	Avalanche	Dave Pengelly		12	11	8	6	10	8	13	13		[13]	68
		12		USA 46929	Escape Artist	Dana Sibilla		5	13	12	10	12	12	11	11		[13]	73
		13		115	Puff	Steve Summers		10	12	13	13	11	10	10	10		[13]	76
		Fleet 6-Melges 24
		1		USA 838	Mikey	Kevin Welch		1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		[1]	7
		2		USA 379	Nikita	Brian Maher, Krak/Kimberly Arntson		2	4	3	2	3	5	2	2		[5]	18
		3		USA 96	Distraction	Tom Greetham		3	2	5	4	2	2	3	3		[5]	19
		4		USA USA 520	Comfort Monkey	Don Linrothe		5	3	4	3	4	4	4	4		[5]	26
		5		USA 832	Myst	Rod Buck		4	5	2	5	5	3	6	6		[6]	30
		6		USA 219	Blue Dream	Ryan Conner / Hendrik Reidel		6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5		[6]	40
	PHRF Division
		Fleet 1-PHRF < 45
		1		USA 35016	Shrek	John Hoag	36	1	1	1	1	1	1	5	5	2	[5]	13
		2		USA 3909	Absolutely	Charlie Macaulay	18	2	2	5	3	3	4	2	2	1	[5]	19
		3		8455	White Cloud	Stevan Johnson	18	6	4	4	2	2	2	1	1	5	[6]	21
		4		CAN 1997	Occam’s Razor	Mark Vangolen / Henry Reeve	12	5	5	3	4	4	3	4	4	3	[5]	30
		5		69150	teddy bear	gray hawken	39	4	3	2	6	6	5	3	3	7/DNS	[7]	32
		6		USA 79093	Anam Cara	Tom Kelly	42	3	6	6	5	5	6	6	6	4	[6]	41
		Fleet 3-PHRF 46-114 Light
		1		USA 2	Ogopogo	Paul and April Faget	114	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	2	[2]	12
		2		26001	uno	brad butler	81	2	2	1	1	1	1	4	4	1	[4]	13
		3		USA 7169	Brilliant	Tim DuMontier	90	3	3	3	3	4	4	2	2	4	[4]	24
		4		28274	BAD DOG	Bradley Terpstra	87	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	6/DNS	[6]	28
		5		79747	Overtime	Ed Snyders	87	5	5	6/DNS	5	5	5	5	5	3	[6]	38
		Fleet 4-PHRF 46-114 Heavy
		1		USA 3	Eye Eye	David and Vernice Cohen	69	1	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	1	[2]	11
		2		USA 248	Tantivy	Stuart Burnell	69	2	1	4	2	2	2	1	1	2	[4]	13
		3		USA 40622	Grace E	Brian White	72	4	3	3	3	3	8	7	7	3	[8]	33
		4		56500	Gardyloo	Eric and Aubre Nelson	63	3	6	8	5	5	3	4	4	5	[8]	35
		5		USA 51	Elusive	Jeff Whitney	72	6	4	1	4	4	5	6	6	7/DNF	[7]	36
		6		USA 52804	Different Drummer	Charles Hill	81	5	5	6	7	7	4	5	5	4	[7]	41
		7		USA 50791	With Grace	Chris Johnson	57	8	8	7	6	6	6	3	3	6	[8]	45
		8		USA 161	Jeopardy	Edward Pinkham	69	7	7	5	8	8	7	8	8	7/DNF	[8]	57
		Fleet 7-PHRF 115-142
		1		USA 69299	SLICK	Nelson and Johnson	120	1	1	2	1	1	1	4	4		[4]	11
		2		USA 31834	Here & Now	Pat Denney	120	2	2	1	2	2	2	2	2		[2]	13
		3		73392	bodacious	J Rosenbach	129	5	9.5/SCP	5	3	7	3	1	1		[9.5]	25
		4		USA 17	Kowloon	Ken Chin	129	3	3	6	5	4	4	3	3		[6]	25
		5		69182	Flying Circus	Eric Yaremko	135	6	6	3	4	5	5	5	5		[6]	33
		6		CAN 87061	Jasmina	Frank Rogers	132	7	8	4	7	3	7	7	7		[8]	42
		7		USA 118	Imzadi	Douglas Ullmer	138	4	4.5	8	6	6	6	8	8		[8]	42.5
		8		359	ConradJ	Adrien Felon / Geoff Wolf	138	8	7	7	9	9	9	6	6		[9]	52
		9		USA 8122	Gadzooks	Rex DuPuis	141	9	9	9	8	8	8	9	9		[9]	60
		Fleet 8-PHRF 150-180
		1		203	Crazy I’s	Chris White	165	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1		[1]	7
		2		USA 108	yeah dogg	Chad Holcomb	174	2	3	2	2	3	3	2	2		[3]	16
		3		69219	Ohana	Bill Schafer	174	3	2	3	3	4	2	3	3		[4]	19
		4		91	Make Me Smile	Neal Holmlund	150	5	4	4	5	2	4	4	4		[5]	27
		5		USA 93	Sling Shot	Rick Almberg	162	4	5	5	4	5	5	5	5		[5]	33
		6		USA 1155	SISU	Stefan Damstrom	177	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6		[6]	42
		Fleet 9-PHRF > 180
		1		CAN 74283	Exodus	Matthew, J.C Dale	192	1	1	1	2	2	1	3	3		[3]	11
		2		USA 39616	Ignitor	Ron Ernst	205	4	3	2	1	1	2	2	2		[4]	13
		3		1764	Fayaway	Gay Morris	264	2	2	3	4	4	3	1	1		[4]	16
		4		USA 3202	luckj jim	jim mc alpine	186	3	5	5	5	3	6	5	5		[6]	31
		5		22188	Wind Warrior	Nate Deano And Becky	228	6	6	4	6	5	4	4	4		[6]	33
		6		38	Gypsy’s Child	Steve Sponar	183	5	4	6	3	6	5	6	6		[6]	35