Kudos to the San Juan Island folk who’ve introduced a the new East Sound Spring Regatta. It’s accessible to a lot of boats, in a beautiful spot and has a feel of community about it. And where else can you see a 49′ Bob Perry designed schooner crossing tacks with a Catalina 27? Bob Brunius (who sailed his Ultimate 20) sent us this report -KH:
East Sound on Orcas Island is a pretty mystical place. It’s long and narrow with little signs of development as you sail it’s length. At the head is the city of Eastsound, WA the largest city on the Island. Since the only marina on the Sound is a small non-commercial one at Rosario Resort halfway up there is no commercial boat traffic on the Sound.
Photos by Ron Montgomery. Click to enlarge.
The winds on East Sound are usually much better than other places in the area so the sailors on Orcas have often thought that it would be a great place for a regatta. So in the mid winter meeting for race planning at the OIYC a voice spoke for moving the club’s spring regatta from West Sound to East this year. Closer access for boats from Bellingham and Anacortes and the Rosario Resort would host.
Great ideas at winter planning meetings never envision the work part. It turned out to be quite a chore for many people to make this happen. In particular FCS Jimmy and Robin Roser took the brunt. And, well the event worked out really well.
Two days of racing with 6 races and 7 hours of sailing for three fleets. We had a bit of rain on Saturday but nevertheless good racing. Sunday’s long leg up to the city of Eastsound was spectacular. I’d sure like to sail that again.
When the scores were totaled, John and Ann Bailey with Sir Isaac took the cruising class, Chris White on his Martin 242 – Crazy Is took the Martin/SC27 fleet and Todd Koetje on the J105 Hravn won the PHRF fleet. And the trophies painted by local OIYC member Beth Gasser and framed by Jimmy Roser were really special.