Race District Championship. Photo by Jim Skeel.
If anybody says ever says “watching sailboat racing is like watching grass grow,” just tell them they’re watching the wrong kind of sailing. No, I don’t mean everybody run out and watch re-runs of two 40-knot foiling America’s Cup cats. In fact I mean quite the opposite. Team racing is out of the “mainstream” racing and is done mainly in the college and high school ranks, and it’s quite the spectacle. As two three-boat teams race on extremely short courses, the points are constantly being recalculated in the head and the teams do whatever it takes to have their teams points come out on top. That means slowing down the other team, sometimes circling back to do it. It means very aggressive use of the rules, and several of the rules have been adjusted to allow for that. Boat handling skills are high demand (imagine circling back on your competition, sitting on one boat’s air to set up for leebowing another. Or perhaps going downwind claiming leeward on one boat, gybing to claim starboard on another. Then doing that 30 times in the next two minutes. That’s what it’s like. It’s way more tactically complex and interesting to watch (way more confusing) than 40 knots on foils. And, surely, it’s a lot more interesting for the sailors.
It’s great to see our high schoolers enjoying this kind of racing.
Anyway, that’s a long way to share stories from last weekend’s Northwest Interscholastic Sailing Association (NWISA) Olympia Team Race Regatta. First we have a quick report from the NWISA web site (here’s the original along with the results), followed by a special report by Maggie Toombs, a varsity skipper with Orcas. We don’t have any photos from the event, but if any of you spectators were taking pictures, please send them to me and I’ll add them to this report.
This coming weekend’s events include the NWISA Islands Cup at Roche Harbor and the silver fleet is at the Mt Baker Open.
From the NWISA Site
Saturday, April 7:
Wind! Rain! And lots of team racing!
A low pressure system off the coast of Washington brought with it high winds and April showers, making for challenging but great conditions for getting off many races. The most notable challenge was the draining of Capital Lake at low tide each day, creating a river like current in Budd Inlet. Saturday saw a complete round finished with 36 races. One redress request was granted. Other than a brief yet strong 20+ knot squall that knocked a number of competitors down, the sailors handle the conditions well, and managed to have engaged team racing.
Sunday, April 8:
The rain and wind did not let up, but the racing continued swimmingly!
After a scrumptious breakfast at the Olympia Yacht Club, competitors sailed to Port Plaza (the regatta venue) and races were under way before 10:30am. Due to the redress granted Saturday, race 13 (Round 1) was re-sailed, prior to the beginning of Round 2. While the wind was just as strong, and the rain endless, the weather was “better” in terms of no sudden squalls or puffs, making for efficient races and rotations (the 300 yards to the start line from the rotation dock helped too!). The 2nd Round was completed before the cut off time, and after coaches discussed, all teams agreed to see through the completion of 1 top 4 round, and 1 bottom 4 round – making for a satisfying end, of a rigorous but awesome weekend of team racing.
Congratulations to Orcas, Sehome and Olympia for placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively.
Thank you to Bainbridge and Sail Sand Point for bringing travel boats.
Thank you to the wonderful race committee who braved the conditions, especially Casey Pruitt, PRO. Thank you to all the OYC members and Parent volunteers who provided food, warm drinks, and shelter!
Lastly, thank you Norm Smit for being the head Umpire, and prior to the event training up volunteer umpires. The interscholastic sailing community would not be as successful without volunteers and professionals like you.
Maggie Toombs’ Report
The Orcas sailing team has done it again, traveling to Olympia for a win this past weekend. We were faced with heavy rain and heavier, shifty wind on Saturday morning, fighting to stay warm with an abundance of tea and adrenaline.
This weekend was a different style of racing, called ‘team racing.’ This means we race each team 3 on 3, using rules and maneuvers to get into stable combinations. The goal is to cross the finish line, with the combination of our scores less than the combination of the other team’s scores. We practice team racing together and push each other to our limits, so we felt very prepared and communicated well this weekend.
As racing went on, we were quickly realized to be one of the stronger teams on the water.
As we went head-to-head with the other strong teams, our communication, boat speed and teamwork proved to help us into the first place spot. We finished one ‘round robin,’ similar to a bracket where we race each team once. Coming back on Sunday morning, we were again faced with the same wind, and even more rain. As our faces began to freeze off, we began racing again. After finishing a second round robin, we broke into the top half and the bottom half of the teams, racing each other in a ‘final four’ lineup.
We raced the other 3 top teams, and managed to finish strong with a nail-biter against Olympia’s varsity team. We secured our top spot with 17 wins out of 18 races this weekend, and with a bit of skill and careful observation. We look forward to our next regatta in Roche Harbor this weekend. For full results of this weekend, go to
https://scores.hssailing.org/s18/olympia-team-race/.
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.