It wasn’t looking good for the Smith Island Race last Saturday. After an 0900 start the long and short course fleets (with a couple of exceptions) were bunched up, stuck south of Point No Point with 0-1 knots of wind, facing a flood. None of this was a surprise to Bruce Hedrick, who’d suggest lunch in Kingston would be a good option (it was). A few boats, starting ironically with the fastest boats, had already withdrawn. Nor’wester had somehow managed to drop an anchor in about 400 feet of water.
It was the first race in Seattle Yacht Club’s annual Tri-island Series, complete with separate long, short and cruiser/racer courses. The Long Course takes boats all the way north to Smith Island and return.
Many more boats withdrew before a mild but steady northerly filled. But fill it did and gave those that stuck it out a good, albeit light air, race.
The fleet was now down to a handful of boats, none of which had the speed to break too far into the lead. The ORC “O” class had abandoned completely, but ORC “1” still had two stalwarts, Jim Marta’s Eye Candy and Justin Beals’ Sadie Mae. On the PHRF side, Grace, with Grace, Bravo Zulu, Freja, Lodos and DarkSide were closely bunched going around Point No Point.
In the mix were the short course boats, except for the Flying Tiger 10M Izakaya which was clear ahead. Izakaya was the lone starter in the Sportboat class. Skipper Iain Christenson solidified his lead by heading to the Whidbey side early, rounding the Double Bluff buoy well ahead of her class. In the end, she won overall by just five seconds over Thomas Andrewes’ Davidson 29 Madame Pele. Pele had worked hard throughout the drifting conditions, taking advantage of every zephyr using an effective drifter.
In the cruiser/racer division, the Beneteau 345 Lightfoot ran away with the victory. This fleet continues to gain momentum, and there are now two classes.
Back on the Long Course, it became an entertaining battle. Onboard Grace, we went for the Whidbey side of Admiralty Inlet, and for a while it looked to us like the defining winning move, but when we came back wiht the rest of our fleet, we’d actually lost ground. As night fell, the northerly held, turning to a westerly as the fleet close reached to Smith Island. Eye Candy, Freja and Bravo Zulu were around first followed by Grace and with Grace (yes, a bit weird on the names) rounding overlapped at the east end of Minor Island. The persistent J/109 Lodos wasn’t far behind. It was a beautiful moonlit reach back to Admiralty Inlet where the wind lightened once again, but did not die completely.
The Long Course boats all finished the next morning, led by Grace but with Lodos and Bravo Zulu correcting to firsts in class and overall.
It was a hard but good race in that Pacific Northwest kind of way, with maddening light winds much of the time, adverse currents and a relentless cold. All that said, it was a beautiful sail with opportunities to get ahead, great competitors and some of the most challenging waters to figure out anywhere. For those interested, I’ve philosophized a bit about this kind of sailing in a separate post.
Results here. The full photo albums here and here thanks to Alex Kimball, who also provided the photos here.
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.