Northwest Harvest Benefit Race had it all; Sun, Breeze, No Rain and a Good Cause

Seattle Singles YC’s Northwest Harvest Benefit Race turned out to be a good one. The best turnout in some time, good competition and fundraising for a great cause. Thanks to Sue Weiss and Mark Philiposian for getting the photos and the report. 

By Mark Philiposian

Breeze, sunshine, no rain…if we’re lucky on Puget Sound, this is a “pick two” proposition. For this NW Harvest Benefit race, we got all three! Bruce Hedrick’s forecast and advice turned out to be a winner, although thankfully, the expected convergence event didn’t materialize during our race. We elected to start at the nicely favored pin-end. A tough proposition for the trimarans in our class. This helped us to be first to West Point. With breeze in the 18’s with puffs to the low 20’s, it was a magic carpet ride to Spring Beach.

We watched the trimarans pass us as we struggled with all hands looking for the mark, only to watch Trillium sail a little extra distance past it and Freda Mae go bareheaded. A little schadenfreude on board, but we also felt sorry for them and were grateful that their course helped us locate the mark. The beat back to the start/finish was an exercise in keeping the boat on its feet, but the nice weather kept the occasional splashes from chilling our bow union down too much (in violation of their contract.)

We enjoyed the final go around Meadow Point where the challenge was to call the final tack…we got close to the heavily favored boat end and shot up to finish.

All in all, a very fun race with sporty conditions. Thanks to race committee and Britt Larsen for running the show!

Kurt Hoehne

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.