Port Madison Yacht Club’s Jim Depue Memorial Race

It seems sailors are really ready to shake off the Covid blues and go racing. Port Madison YC’s Jim Depue Memorial race, which took the fleet across Puget Sound twice last Saturday, was a chance for Central Sound sailors to shake out the cobwebs that may have collected over winter. We are lucky enough to have a recap from winner Alex Simanis of Ballard sails (and his winning track), who sailed the Henderson 30 Sabrosa. And be sure to scroll down for Jan Anderson’s photos. Results here. And don’t forget to support Jan’s photography with the purchase of some of her shots! Here’s the link to her Jim Depue gallery. –KH

Alex’s Race

The Jim Depue race was a good one for sure!

The startline was set in a pretty big hole behind Pt Monroe, RC did a great job of AP and moving the line out to the breeze. A nice SE breeze filled in and maxed out about 15 knots true. For us on the Henderson 30 Sabrosa, we started near the committee boat and favored the Bainbridge side of the course for the 1st beat. There was a big 8 or 9-foot ebb that was running hard, and it really paid to try to stay out of it on the beat up to Eagle Harbor. Starboard tack had a very headed slant, and combined with the keel across the current, it made us eager to be on Port as much as possible. Two-thirds of the way up the beat we found 15 knots of true wind, and had to change down in jibs, at this point we were leading the fleet boat for boat. When we got the #2 Jib T-ed up to tack change, the soft shackle flogged off in the tack and we flailed around for a bit trying to deal with the big genoa halfway down, and the new genoa up but flogging. We lost some time here, and by then Peter Shorett, who was sailing his beautiful Farr 395 Ace got by us. Peter was sailing single handed with flying sails. He sailed a killer race. 

Once getting around the red nun at Eagle Harbor, it was a pretty straightforward drag race down to the Magnolia shore to the magic carpet ride down the beach in the Duwamish flush. The next leg down to Indianola, saw the breeze go fairly hard east. Some boats got caught too far towards Shilshole, and it was a painful port gybe in the east breeze coming back towards Indianola. We were lucky to be west when the shift happened, so we pretty much got headed to the mark, once around the PMYC mark just east of Indianola pier, we had a jib fetch to the finish with slightly cracked sheets to Point Monroe in the end of the easterly. 

Unfortunately, many boats saw wind from multiple directions after we finished, and it really spread out the corrected times. Overall, it was a beautiful dry day on the water, and as usual PMYC put on another fun and interesting event!

Note: Sabrosa is owned by Pete Sauer out in Montana. Since we sold Poke and Destroy and our new boat is in Port Townsend getting a bunch of work done, Pete has been gracious enough to lend us the boat to sail until it sells!

Photos by Jan Anderson

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•