Record Protection Island Race

You know something special’s happening when the folks on a powerboat run to get their cameras to shoot a passing sailboat. That’s what happened as Crossfire was tossing up a rooster tail at about 20 knots as they were heading from Point Wilson to Protection Island last Saturday.

The fun continued for the Reichel Pugh 55 and everyone else as just about everybody from both the long and short courses were home for dinner.

Here’s what it’s like planing in the high teens on Crossfire, courtesy of Mike Stanley. At about the 3 minute mark they pass said powerboat:


Bruce Hedrick says that no other Protection Island was that fast: “Not even close. The conditions were perfect.”

Crossfire’s track.

Mighty as Crossfire’s race was, setting the record didn’t mean success on the corrected time ledger in the ORC class. Glory easily corrected ahead, but both were pushed down to mid-fleet by winner Hamachi, second place New Haven and third place Jedi.

The T-birds weren’t going “quite” as fast as Crossfire, but the fleet sailing out of Port Townsend was probably having just as much fun. Jack Christiansen photo.

On the PHRF side of things Terremoto once again planed away with the win, followed by the 18-raters Absolutely and Tachyon.

The 35-mile short course was plenty fast as well with boats all finishing before 1730. Kiwi Express won class 7 and nipped the J/105 More Jubilee by a mere 17 seconds for the overall win. In fourth place overall and winning Class 6 was Poke & Destroy which came from behind to beat Different Drummer which was covering her nemesis Uno. Class 8 was won by Alexia Fisher’s Santa Cruz 27 Zipper.

The eight boat cruiser racer class sailed a fast 26-mile race, with the top finishers Runaway, Jiminy and Puffin.

Results.

Evgeniy Goussev had a bit of a controlled adventure on his beautiful Gray Wolf. Goussev was singlehanding and enjoying the ride immensely, perhaps so much so that the big wind line snuck up him. An experienced singlehander, he set out furling the big spinnaker with the drum furler as the new autopilot decided to do some S-turns when a steadier course might have been more helpful. In the end, the chute wrapped around the forestay and wouldn’t come all the way down, but Goussev was able to get it wrapped up, tied down snugly and then duck into Port Townsend. “I didn’t rip anything, and I’m happy with the decisions and staying on the safe side of things.”

 

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