Some years those of us who miss Swiftsure say smugly, “I’m sure glad I didn’t go this year!” This was not one of those years. If you missed it like I did, read on and regret.
Due to the amazing response by plenty of sailish.com racers on the course, we have a number of different expert perspectives. Basically, it was the standard issue “good” Swiftsure, with a hard beat into and across the Straits, a modest temporary drop in breeze at sunset, but plenty enough in the Straits to have a good run home. Out by Swiftsure Bank it died overnight. If you happened to be a Sunday daytime finisher, the breeze came up again strong to bring you home. There was a sad casualty when the TP 52 Mist broke the top of her rig off early in the race.
I’ll do a separate post on the whys and wherefores of the great multihull turnout.
A word about these stories. There’s a lot here – tactics, strategy, emotion, seamanship, humpbacks, sea lions and boat handling, all straight from the sailors’ mouths. There’s far more here than just a sailing scribe trying fit everything into 2000 words.
Here are those stories, starting with our own Bruce Hedrick aboard Tahlequah, which won her division and was 9th OA in the Flattery PHRF fleet:
Bruce Hedrick, Tahlequah, J/35
Our weather guru Bruce Hedrick has been a long-term member of the Tahlequah crew. Email Bruce for private weather routing and consulting.
This will be the one people talk about and hope that the next race will be like. A strong onshore flow courtesy of a stable high-pressure system offshore created almost perfect conditions at least for all the courses that stayed within the Straits of Juan de Fuca. The long course, which goes a mere 18 miles out into the ocean had great sailing out to Neah Bay, but then it went light as the sun went down. Except for Crossfire, the calm held the fleet overnight offshore until the breeze filled again. Crossfire was 1/2 way down Puget Sound on the delivery back to Seattle before the next boat finished. Congrats to Lou Bianco, Nigel Barron and the rest of the Crossfire team.
The start set up was such that the committee boat end was heavily favored. There was still a bit of ebb in starting area however as you came off the line on starboard. You could see that as boats followed the traditional route by tacking to the west, when they tacked back it was clear they had lost ground by getting into less wind and the start of the flood. The boats that held starboard were treated to better breeze as well as up to 2 knots of ebb tide. This route also took you outside of Race Rocks, which while not the usual way to go, absolutely worked. The breeze also continued to clock around the Northwest which kept us on starboard all the way to west of Clallam Bay. We took one tack to change down to the #3 just past Race Rocks as the breeze got to 18 knots. Then we tacked again to change down to #4 as breeze built to 23-25 knots. We took one more short tack to stay well clear of bulk carrier that was headed out. Other than those tacks we just stayed on starboard which, in addition to the lump and slop, started to take a toll on people’s backsides who simply weren’t used to sitting on a hard,cold, pounding surface for hours at a time. The skipper finally relented and allowed seat cushions to be handed up.
It was on that long tack we suffered our only gear failure. While on the head a crew member got bounced off and tore the seat off the hinges. The engineers have already designed a fix so that won’t happen again.
After Clallam Bay we started banging into the US shore in anticipation of a shift to the WSW. It worked for two or three tacks but as we approached the mark it went back to the WNW, dictating a gybe set at the mark. Some consternation from the foredeck crew but they got it done.
We rounded with a lot of much bigger boats at around 1830 hrs with no sign of our favorite rivals, Elusive and Distant Drummer. We needed to be a long way ahead because those guys are so much faster than we are downwind.
Once we got squared away and headed roughly back towards Race Passage, it was time to get a hot meal (an incredible from scratch lasagne, thank you Sonja) into the crew and check the wind speeds and baro readings in the Straits, so we could develop an approach plan for Race Passage. Sure enough, 25-30 at the Race and 20 at Sheringham so we set the limit at 18 knots for the .6 and talked through a kite change to the 1.5. Right on schedule, just before Sheringham, we did the change and made sure we were where we thought we were. After two easy gybes in 18-20 knots of westerly, we were on final approach to the Race with a plan to hoist the #3 and drop the 1.5 if the wind got up to 25. Luckily that never happened and with an additional boost from the flood tide went through with no drama. The most we saw 23 knots of wind.
After Race Passage the wind stayed in the 15-20 knot range and continued to clock around to WNW. This made it easy to sail the great circle approach to finish. We only had a couple J-120’s and the J-133 around us so it wasn’t a complicated approach. At Albert Head, the wind started to drop so we changed back to the .6, stowed the #3, and tee’d up the #1 just in case. The breeze continued to drop as well as get very shifty but the team did a great job adapting and we sailed through the finish at about 0200 hours Sunday morning. The earliest we’ve ever finished a Cape Flattery Race.
We were welcomed to the inspection dock by the ever gracious RVYC team who made sure everyone had a large bowl of hot broccoli cheddar soup and did we ever need that! It was a bit of a cold race and that hot soup absolutely hit the spot.
Then it became a matter of following doctors orders and rehydrate to avoid scurvy while listening to boats call into the finish. Sure enough while we had been 14.5 minutes ahead of Drummer at the mark, they took 5.5 minutes out of us on the run to easily beat us on corrected. We were an hour ahead of Elusive, they took 16 minutes out of us on the run. You just can’t beat that combination of more waterline and more sail area. We did save our time on Elusive but only because of the big lead we had at the mark. In the post race postmortem we went absolutely the right way, did the right sail changes at the right times, and had no sail handling problems. We ended up winning our class and being 9th overall. We’ll take that and we’ll be back next year.
A big thank you and congratulations to the Tahlequah team for a job very well done in some, at times, very difficult conditions. The team consists of owners Don and George Leighton, Sonja Riveland, Marsha Hedrick, Laurie Turay, Ricky Chodek, and Ryan Stoller. An excellent and fun group of people.
Brad Baker, Firefly, Morris 45
Brad Baker, skipper Bob Strong and the crew of Firefly are preparing for Vic-Maui. Brad is an owner of Swiftsure Yachts.
It was a great Swiftsure! The most consist breeze for a Swiftsure we’ve had. I’m sure there are some long course folks or slower Neah Bay racers that would disagree as I believe the conditions faded, but as long as you finished in the early morning you had consistent breeze all the way. With very few exceptions it blew 10-20 for the entire race. Very civilized. We ended up 3rd, 20 minutes out of first. Rating wise, we sailed a good race, but there was definitely 20 minutes to be gained in tactical decisions alone. I feel pretty darn good about our performance. And we were the first boat to finish for the entire Flattery monohull group.
We had a great start front row nearer the boat end with good speed. We took a tack to weather which got us inside on the lift. The first tactical mistake was taking another tack up and getting in a spot where we had to go through race passage. The boats that went outside the rocks did better. Also there were a couple boats that went through race passage the waited to tack into that area late that did better as well. Most the rest of the beat went well, but as we neared the turn mark, we got out of sync a bit with the shifts allowing Joy Ride to catch up quite a bit. We were first to round with Joy Ride just minutes behind. Joy Ride wasn’t in our class, but we will be racing against them in Vic-Maui, so obviously we wanted to do well against them. We jibe set. Turns out it would have been better to initially play the right for perhaps ½ hour to hour before heading over to the left. This was mistake #3. We were heading toward the Canadian side, but didn’t hit it all that hard and took a jibe to the right because it looked light to the left. In retrospect it would have been better to continue left and take advantage of the shift. The wind held for those that did go all the way left. This was mistake #4.
The reality is we went mostly the right way, just not all the way the right way. We were too conservative I suppose. What is interesting is the plan I had in place would have been perfect! We sailed a pretty good race, but not a great one and finished where we should have from a tactical stand point. It was fabulous sailing in the goldilocks zone! Not too light, not too windy! And hey, we finished just before 1am. The crew learned a lot and I learned a lot about the boat. The next race for us is Vic-Maui! I can’t wait.
Alex Fox, Joy Ride, J/122E
Alex Fox is a long time BC sailor and works at Trotac Marine. He sailed this race on John Murkowski’s Joy Ride.
This was one of the best most enjoyable Swiftsures in memory. The beat out to Flattery featured perfect conditions, 10-23 knots of breeze is the range we experienced, with favourable current a large portion of the time. This year the Juan de Fuca boats were sent off first, followed by Flattery then Hein Bank and Swiftsure. We, Joy Ride, had some really great racing with Firefly, 65 Red Roses, Riva, Raven and few others at the front of the Flattery fleet, and it was fun mixing it up with a few multis and bigger boats from other races as well!
The general strategy of staying on the long, lifted starboard tack to the American shore, all the way to Clallum Bay in some cases, payed dividends and for sure anyone who invested at all in the Canadian shore suffered deeply. Once on the US shore, we generally played the shifts and tried to stay in the pressure while keeping an eye on the competition. Firefly extended on us when the breeze was up but we seemed to be able to claw back when it dropped below 15 or so.
Coming to the Neah Bay rounding mark we were very happy to be within 10 boat lengths of Firefly, with Jam, a Hein Bank competitor almost overlapped behind us. What a treat to round at 5 o’clock something, setting the A2, off on the homeward leg in good shape saving time, with a bit of a question mark on the J-120 Shearwater, they seemed a little too close. The breeze held at 12-14 knots making for a lovely rhumbline run home, plus we were joined by a humpback whale that startled us, surfacing a mere boat length away, pretty amazing! Just before dusk, the wind dipped below 10 for the first time . Jam had split to the American side earlier and they looked to be in better breeze so both Firefly and ourselves gybed back that way, and it wasn’t long before we were back 12 knots of breeze again. As darkness fell, the two of us were again back on port gybe heading only a few degrees high of Race Rocks. Closer to the Vancouver island side a few miles back and threatening, were Red Roses and Riva. We were very aware of them, while we remained focused on trying to sail fast and staying with Firefly.
Fifteen miles from Race Passage the breeze began to build a bit to maybe 16 knots and we elected to peel down to our A2+, a full sized but slightly heavier runner. The expectation of building breeze through Race Passage didn’t really materialize for us topping out at 18 knots or so. It was fantastic and rare to come through in positive current with the homeward leg to the finish yet to come. We were conscious of not getting sucked into sailing too high into lighter air as we trailed Firefly, Raven who’d come from behind and damn it, Riva had slipped by sailing DDW with a squared back pole straight down the Vancouver Island shore, Arrghhh! Roses was also within ten boat lengths, so we reset our sites on holding them off. The breeze held at 12-14 knots most of the way in making for a very nice reach and then, you guessed it, began to die and lift us as we approached the breakwater. Of course, this is Swiftsure! We held our nerve as Roses closed up to within five lengths and with one more gybe we were across, just pipping Raven who’d opted for the breakwater end.
A very pleasant, competitive, and yes even though we knew we’d been beaten by Riva, a successful Swiftsure. Turned out that Shearwater also corrected over us for Division win, by 20 seconds. And surprise, surprise, a Beneteau Oceanus 45 La Reve, twin wheels, in-mast furling and a hard dodger won the race overall. Good on them!
This was a very successful 75th Swiftsure, with a great atmosphere on the docks and around town. I know the organizers worked very hard to make it an even ore welcoming event than usual, good times!
Nigel Barron, Crossfire, R/P 55
Nigel Barron manages much of the Crossfire program and is the Sales and Marketing Manager at CSR Marine. Crossfire opted for the long course in hope of setting the record. Alas, this year was not the year to do it!
Wow, what an awesome Swiftsure! We rounded the lightship a bit before 7pm, in lighter breeze than we were hoping for. It was a nice beat out there. We started the race on a J2 on our fractional halyard anticipating that we would peal to the J3 near Race Rocks, so that we could peel to a locking halyard. Winds were a steady 15-20kts on the beat out, and as we got past Neah Bay they started to lighten to the 4-6kt range. We rounded the lightship on our A1.5 and started heading home. While it was light, we never saw zero for wind or boat speed. We never saw more than 12kt of wind until we got to Sheringham, so spent the night peeling between the A1.5 and A2 depending on if we were in the 10-12kt wind or the 6-8kt wind. We finally started seeing better pressure as we approached Race Rocks, but not more than 20kts. We finished right around 5am, so around 19 hours for the long course. Not a record by any stretch (record is 15h), but close enough to make everyone realize we could get a record, and will go back again next year.
Denny Vaughan, Bravo Zulu, Beneteau 40.7
Denny Vaughan is a past commodore of Corinthian YC-Seattle and skipper of the very successful Bravo Zulu program.
The good news is Bravo Zulu was the first boat in the fleet through Race Passage. The bad news is that we stayed on the Canadian side until after Sheringham. Ed. Note – pretty much says it, doesn’t it? The post-race emails indicate that despite BZ’s Canadian escapade, the crew had a great time.
Brian Huse, Leapfrog, C&C 40
Brian Huse is a serious racer, now with a C&C 40 set up for cruising. He’s also a broker with Fraser Yacht Sales.
We had a really fun time. We bought the C&C 40 last year and use it exclusively for cruising, though the lure of the inshore day race was too much for us so we have done that race the last two years. It is pretty funny sailing with sails from 1980 on a boat from 1980. It is a bit of a time capsule. We sailed with a bunch of friends and family 13 in total. We used a borrowed spinnaker from Ross and Marcia MacDonald’s X 41 which fits really well.
We actually sailed a pretty good race and came third. I think we benefited from some local knowledge at the end of the race. We did a good job of managing the ridiculous amount of current around Chatham and Discovery Islands.
I think Leapfrog‘s best racing days are behind her but the boat was certainly fun enough last Saturday.
Peter Salusbury, Longboard, Bieker Riptide 35 Mk II
Peter Salusbury is a longtime BC sailor. He was integrally involved in the development of the innovative Bieker-designed Longboard. Here’s the story of that design.
Overall, a very classic Swiftsure – nice medium air beat to Neah Bay, a very light, lumpy slog from Tatoosh to the turning mark, a challenging light, downwind battle to get back into the Strait until the NW built again east of Port Renfrew resulting in a very nice downwind ride down the Strait and through Race Rocks to the finish on Sunday afternoon.
We had an interesting rounding of the Swiftsure turning mark during the night in 0 to 2 knots of wind and we were no more than a boat length away from the ship in rolling seas. One minute we are gaining, one minute we are losing. And then a completely mad sea lion decides to get aggressive between ourselves and the ship by jumping out of the water, barking at us, and at one point we thought he was going to jump in our cockpit through our open transom! We eventually slid down the length of the Navy ship and the sea lion left us alone! Never a dull moment on Swiftsure Bank!
Click to enlarge any photos. All photos by Jan Anderson unless otherwise noted. Check out her Swiftsure gallery.
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.