It may have looked like it was going to be a light air race but now, at least for the start, there will be breeze. From the start at Clover Point to Race Rocks expect 20-25 knts of SW breeze, as you get closer to Race Rocks expect 25-30 knots and that will hold until about 10-15 miles past the Race where it will back off to 20-25 knots of westerly to WNW breeze. This will hold until about mid to late afternoon when the breeze will back to WSW and ease to 10-15 knts. The breeze will continue to ease to 5-15 knots as it backs to the SW from Slip Point out to Swiftsure Bank. From Slip Point in to the finish the breeze will stay out of the W at 10-15 with more wind near Race Rocks becoming lighter as you approach the finish. After midnight you would really like to finish before 0200 or at least be North of 48 15N and East of 124W as the breeze will ease significantly. Then there’s the tides…..
May 25th Race Passage
0735 Max Ebb 5.7 knts
1153 Slack
1440 Max Flood 5.3 knts
1856 Slack
2208 Max Ebb 3.5 knts
0135 Slack
0822 Max Ebb 5.9 knts
1232 Slack
1522 Max Flood 5.3 knts
The really rough part of the race will be for the bigger and faster boats that start early and ride the ebb to Race Passage. In the Race the ebb will meet the breezy westerly and it will be like sailing in the Waring Blender. In those seas and that much wind there will be gear failures. Just make sure everyone is wearing life jackets with harnesses and tethers before you leave the Inner Harbour.
The next challenge will be for the boats that haven’t made it back through Race Passage before about 0300 to 0530 hrs on Sunday morning.
What does the crystal ball say? For the Long Course, Mach 2 should round the Bank around 2000hrs and finish about 0500 hrs Sunday. For Cape Flattery Zvi should finish around 2245 hrs, the TP52’s about 2330 hrs. On the Clallam Bay course the J-35 should be in around 2315 hrs.
Good luck, be safe and have a fun race.
Bruce has raced and cruised the Pacific Northwest his entire life. He earned a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Washington in Biological Oceanography and learned meteorology “to keep from getting kicked around on the race course.” Bruce spent nearly two decades as Associate Publisher for Northwest Yachting Magazine, retiring in mid-2015, and was the chairman of the board of trustees for the Northwest Marine Trade Association in 2014. (photo of Bruce driving Playstation is a bit dated, but cool)