Five classes enjoyed CYC-Seattle’s small boat version of PSSC (Puget Sound Sailing Championships) last weekend. 18 J/24s made the trek out from Lake Washington to sail on the Sound, which provided great racing. The RS Aeros were out in force with 20 on the line for at least one of the races. A half-dozen 505s were out, as were three Snipes. Jay Winberg, the lone Laser, won the class with three straight bullets! (My apologies, Jay, for not being out there. I blame lead poisoning from keelboats.)
We have a short report from the top of the RS Aero fleet. Derek Bottles won it over Dan Falk, Dalton Bergan and Scott Malone with consistency. Falk and Bergan spent race three together toward the back of the fleet, which really hurt their final scores in the no-throwout regatta. Here’s Derek’s report
The RS Aero fleet is now well established in Seattle, 21 boats having sailed PSSC. The Aero is still a relatively new boat but mature enough everyone is sailing the boat well making the racing close. For this year’s event the tricky part was the conditions. Saturday started out with a solid 8 knot wind falling off to 3 knots while at the same time a major flood current built. It was easy to get caught in a hole or adverse current. Sunday saw the wind build from 8 knots to approximately 12 knots over the day, the last race was sailed in the most wind of all weekend. Staying in the right wind, current and shift was not easy as seen by how mixed up the finishing order was race to race. In these conditions I focused on not taking big risks and letting others make errors I could capitalize on. -Derek Bottles
Looking at the J/24 results, it’s pretty obvious that the racing was tight. Just about every boat had a great score and a regrettable score, with consistency winning out in this fleet as well as Pete Sauer sailing Self Abuse came out on top. (photos courtesy of the Pearl Racing Team and Joy Okazaki Facebook pages). I don’t have a report, but I do have the photos! For more information on the Seattle J/24 fleet, check out its web site.
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.