The Vashon Island Race last Saturday threw a little bit of everything at the fleet, from breeze-on conditions to a few agonizing holes that snatched defeat from victory. It was also a great example of why racing on Puget Sound is so entertaining. It’s a beautiful course around the some extraordinary scenery, a definite mental puzzle to work around the currents and geographical windshifts and, for better or worse, the kind of race where you’re never really out of it ’til the finish horn sounds.
I heard from a couple of guys on those ridiculously fast 50-something footers.
Sailish’s Bruce Hedrick was naviguessing Crossfire around the course. “Other than a terrible start, I think we sailed a near perfect upwind leg. Threaded the flukey stuff from Blake Island to Three Tree Point, put a huge hurt on Smoke and Neptune’s Car but couldn’t shake Glory. Then right before Point Robinson, being slightly more to the west, we got above a northbound freighter that Glory had to go below and that put us on the inside of a continuous lift. Where we just continued to take advantage of and really put them away.
We had a huge lead starting up Colvos, then got into the hole first. No magic way to get around that hole while they brought the new wind up with them. Oh well, it is Putrid Sound.”
Skip Anderson of Flagship Maritime pointed out some proper commercial/racer traffic interaction on Facebook, which it seems everyone should hear about. See photo below. Skip explains: “The ferry was neither “following a vessel traffic lane” nor in a narrow channel, so was simply a “power driven vessel”. Recognizing that the sailing vessel was the stand on vessel, the ferry sounded three (3) short blasts (“I am operating astern propulsion”), gave “Smoke” ample room to pass ahead, and the moment passed without incident. Nice to witness in person.”
Once again, Jan Anderson has been kind enough to lend some photos to this story. Go to her site to see the rest.
And on the aforementioned Glory, 48 North editor Joe Cline enjoyed a new-to-him role on the TP 52 Glory. “Saturday was great. We had a different main trimmer and a new jib trimmer (me). The stand-in main trimmer, Scott Smith, is vastly experienced, but considering my inexperience in that role and generally having people out of position, I felt good about finishing second less than a minute behind Smoke.
“But really, any Vashon Island race that you finish in daylight is a good race! There was a little cell with breeze in the teens down south, but otherwise it was light to moderate with mercifully little rain. The fun trip up Colvos required a ton of jibes (I was glad not to be on the grinder pedestal for that one Ed. Note, his usual spot)! I’m nursing my first sunburn of the year, and couldn’t be happier about it.
“It was really rewarding to get the promotion to trimmer for the day, and to try to put into action what I’ve observed about the absolute WORLD of ways to affect different shapes on those boats. Those floating leads, man! There were certainly a few fraught moments, but overall what a great experience and a steep learning curve.
“No joke, I had a dream about floating lead placement the night after the race.”
As the second of Seattle YC’s Tri-island series, it sets the scene for the grand finale of the Blake Island Race on June 3. Terremoto and Kiwi Express are in charge of the overall long and short course PHRF divisions with a pair of bullets each. The ORC Long Course class has become very interesting with Smoke winning Vashon. The top three boats are separated by only two points, with Glory just ahead of Smoke and New Haven.
Among the cruisers it’s Jiminy, Runaway and Puffin with three, four and five points respectively. There are a lot really good sailors in that class who probably just don’t want to pull their anchors off the bow and stack the rail. I get it. It’s great to see the cruiser/racer class becoming more popular, and I’ll bet that for Blake Island there will be some pretty focused cruisers.
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.