By Peter Salusbury (Skipper – Longboard and Regatta Chair)
The 2024 Southern Straits Race is in the books and was a beauty. The 58 boats racing across four courses started Good Friday morning in a light easterly that built to about 10 knots as the fleet sailed into the Strait of Georgia. As predicted the easterly died off in the early afternoon and a light NW started to build across the eastern and northerns sections of the Strait, creating compression between the Long and Medium Course fleets.
On the Long and Medium courses, the fleet beat up the southern shore of Lasqueti, most tacking inside Sangster Island where there was much more favorable current. As the NW died further up the Lasqueti shore, it was evident the north flowing current and light to no wind conditions was going to make coming south after rounding Sister’s Islets challenging. More than a few boats reporting getting swept past Sister’s only to fight hard to make their way south to Sangster Island.
The other interesting observation was the apparent wind shear between Sisters and Sangster Islands – it was evidenced by the huge gains the longer waterline boats with taller rigs made versus their smaller competitors – gains that weren’t there all day when sailing downwind in light air. It became obvious there was more wind aloft than at sea level and the taller rigged boats generally did well in this stretch of the second leg to White Islets.
Once south of Sangster, the NNW wind settled in nicely and we all enjoyed a nice downwind sail to White Islets with a gorgeous moon rise over the city. The race hasn’t visited White islets in decades and it was fun to revisit the sea lion colony who were hilariously barking all night long – and that stench when you got downwind! On the Long Course, we then had one long starboard tack beat/fetch all the way to Ballenas that featured a beautiful dawn and sunrise.
From there the Long Course boats that did the best stayed on starboard gybe all the way down to almost Nanaimo Harbor before gybing to port for the long ‘great circle’ route back to the finish line off Point Atkinson. This last leg was relatively fast and fun with true wind speeds hovering in the low to mid teens for the faster boats.
On the Inshore Course, Rob Mulder’s Melges 24 Ferdinand was the elapsed and corrected time winner in an eight boat fleet.
The Short Course enjoyed solid wind conditions and the elapsed time winner was Bruce Townson’s J/112E Kajofi finishing early around 10:30 in the evening. Nick Conti’s J92 Live Wire took PHRF 5 on corrected time, David George’s J/29 Rhumb Line won PHRF 6 and Vatche Yerevanian CS3- Alatus won PHRF 7.
The Medium Course elapsed time winner was Theo Arsenault’s Solana 44 Rogues just nipping out Jason Saunderson’s Ultraman by 37 seconds and Tolga Cezik’s J/111 Lodos (sailing doublehanded!) by a further 62 seconds! With Charley Macauley’s Farr 39 ML Absolutely finishing a minute later, the Medium Course’s first four boats finished within 3 minutes of each other – close racing!
On corrected time, the timeless Cal 39 Chinook skippered by Noah Walcutt took the overall win in ORC and in ORC 3 with Rogues winning ORC 2. On the Medium Course PHRF 4 division, the J/109 Spyhop skippered by David Schutte took the division win.
On the Long Course, Peter McCarthy’s TP52 The Shadow II took the elapsed time honours but it was Gord Wylie’s XP44 Phoenix prevailing on corrected time for the overall win, making it two years in a row for Gord as overall winner.
Overall, it was another memorable, comfortable, and scenic Southern Straits Race with plenty of sunshine and no rain and great memories for all participants. Thanks to all of the racers for participating and supporting the event and many thanks to all the volunteers, staff, and sponsors at West Vancouver Yacht Club for the race organization.
Ed.Note: Once again we lean on Peter Salusbury, skipper and owner of ORC-winning Longboard, for an RTC report. Congratulations to Peter and to all who managed to get away for a wonderful weekend.
The annual running of Round the Country sponsored by Orcas Island Yacht Club is in the books and it was a beauty. Very pleasant conditions for the long deliveries from Seattle and Vancouver in both directions and it had to be the driest RTC weekend ever!
The downwind start of Lydia Shoals on Saturday morning was picturesque as 120+ boats powered downwind in a nice northerly with the course this year going clockwise around San Juan County. It was a fast run for us all down to Davidson Rock where we turned west into a faltering breeze. For the most part on Saturday, investing in the south shore of Lopez Island paid off big and if you ventured too far offshore, it made for a challenging day. The wind got very light as we crawled across the short course line of Iceberg Point and then the wind started to build just a little out of the NW to get us moving along the south shore of San Juan Island.
Photo gallery below by Jan Anderson. See the rest of them here.
A new to town Hobie 33 legging out after the start The inimitable MarthaAndrew Nelson’s ScountrelCowbell, one of the two Santa Cryuz 27s fighting at the top of corrected resultsMike Powell’s KeetHold everything, is that a symmetrical chute?!Manifest, fourth in the ORC classAnnapurna, winner of PHRF 0
The passing lanes were frequent and decisive for those of us in the lead pack of ORC, Div 0 and 1 boats – one minute you were a ‘hero’ and the next a ‘zero’ as we played snakes and ladders up the coast line. Eventually a steady 10 knot NW filled in and we all beat up the coast to the finish line off Mosquito Pass in pretty idyllic November afternoon conditions – nice and sunny, not too cold.
Dawn on Sunday morning featured a steady northerly and after the first two starts got away clean, the ORC, Div M and 0 boats had to live through a general recall before finally getting underway for the day. As always, the currents off Turn Point were tricky and the kelp beds were plentiful requiring more than a few of us to do complete back-downs to clear our rudders and keels.
Photos below by Sean Trew
Longboard by Sean TrewLongboard by Sean Trew
From Turn Point to Patos Island was a long light upwind beat with lots of lead changes, tidal currents, and wind shifts and eventually Bruce’s forecasted NW lifted us all up to Alden Point. You had to be careful not to hoist the kite too quickly as the south flowing current was running hard. From Patos to Peapod Rocks, we all enjoyed a beautiful and fast NW downwind ride with the sun shining and Mount Baker as a scenic backdrop. There’s something about seeing 120 boats with spinnakers all lined up down the shores of Patos, Sucia and Matia islands which really makes this race special.
The finish line off Lydia Shoals was as tricky as it always is with one last opportunity for lots of lead changes! The wind died off to nothing for the last 200 yards to the finish line and the boats that stayed further to the east on the great circle route faired better than the boats inshore. The other key was to figure out the set of the favorable flowing current so you got swept across the finish line, not around the ends (which happened to a few boats!).
The overall results can be found here but the division winners were:
Division M – Aliikai (who was the only full course finisher on Saturday)
Division ORC – Longboard (after two days of battling the well sailed Hamachi)
Division 0 – Annapurna (by four minutes over Tachyon and 10 minutes over Zulu Warrior)
Division 1 – Hooligan (J/111’s took top 3 finishes with 65 Red Roses in 2nd and Raku in 3rd)
Division 2 – Legacy (Canadian J/109 beating the US J/109 Spyhop)
Division 4 – Free Bowl of Soup (taking the J/105 division)
Division 5 – Kodiak (with Pangaea in 2nd place)
Division 6 – Wilder (beating out Cowbell by just 2 minutes)
Photos below by Frederick Savoye.
Huge shout-out to Betsy Wareham, Race Director and the Orcas Island YC volunteers who once again organized a great event – it’s always a lot of fun in the Roche Harbor party tent to get caught up with old friends on both sides of the border. This event is definitely the one ‘must attend’ race event for all of us who race in the Pacific NW and it was great to see so many great race boats with the NW’s top sailing talent battling it out on such a scenic and challenging race course.
After a three-year pandemic hiatus, it was a therapeutic reunion for those intrepid Pacific NW sailors who participated in the Southern Straits Race hosted by West Vancouver Yacht Club on Easter weekend. Bruce Hedrick’s “good news, bad news, very good news” pre-race weather briefing proved to be largely accurate though the fleet generally finished much earlier than the models predicted the night before the race.
On the long course, we started in a very light NE, steady rain, and scary ebb tide so the fleet started up-current very conservatively with Jim Innes skippering Red Sheila crossing the line first. As we made our way out of English Bay the wind shifted around to the SE and built nicely to 15 knots as we passed Bowen Island before building even further to over 20 knots as the leaders on the long course planed to Sister’s Island. Westerly, Blue, and The Shadow all rounded Sisters fairly close together with Longboard not far behind. At this point in the wind cycle, the wind shifted to the SW allowing a direct starboard upwind tack down the strait to Ballenas Island.
Photos courtesy of Graeme Clendenan and Doug Wardrop.
The wind glassed off for a few hours before rebuilding south of Ballenas to a light Qualicum which allowed us to slide down past the Winchelseas before the wind veered further to the west and increased as we crossed Nanaimo harbor. The wind stayed in the W most of the way from Entrance to Halibut Bank and built to over 10 knots before we headed upwind to Ballenas Island. The nighttime sail was gorgeous – dry, clear, with a big full moon all night – it was a tad chilly but comfortable in our best warm weather gear.
After Ballenas Island the W wind stayed up in the 15 knot range all the way down the Vancouver Island shore allowing a lovely downwind slide before we gybed north of Nanaimo for the long port tack gybe to the finish line. Up front the lead boats of Westerly, Shadow, and Blue were duking it out in the shifty conditions between the westerly and outflow winds off Bowen Island with Westerly skippered by Stuart Dahlgren breaking free to take the elapsed time win at 0612 hrs Saturday morning – a very fast race given the course was a relatively long 145 nm.
The provisional results at the time this report was written on the Long Course featured the Riptide 35-2 Longboard in first, followed closely by the always well-sailed J/111 65 Red Roses skippered by Alex Smyth with tactics by the Race Chairman, Graeme Clendenan. Michael Shoendorf’s very fast Riptide 41 Blue rounded out the podium and showed amazing flashes of speed throughout the race, often going toe-to-toe with the TP52 and SC70.
On the Medium Course, race veteran Colin Nichols skippering Jackrabbit was the line honors winner but another one of those pesky J/111’s Raku took the overall win – kudos to them as Christina and Justin Wolfe were sailing doublehanded – very impressive! Raku also took the Division 2 win with Jim Johannessen’s Intuition taking Division 3 and Vern Lhotzky on Invictus winning Division 4.
The short course line honors, Division 5 and overall win went to Bill Kitchen’s Terna – amazing to see an almost 50 year old C&C 39 still ripping up the race course. Kerry Phillips skippered Incisor to an impressive second place finish across the line and in Division 5 – a perennially strong performer in this race. Another almost 50-year-old C&C 27 Silik skippered by Wade Harrogate took the Division 6 win.
And finally, the Inshore Race Division 7 winner was PCH skippered by Philip Harland with the impressive WVYC teen age sensation, Andre Deseau, skippering a J/22 to the Division 8 win – well done Andre!
A huge shout-out to Race Chairman, Graeme Clendenan, and Race PRO, Jennifer Ross who along with the usually brilliant organizing committee and an army of volunteers and club staff resurrected Straits Race after a 3 year hiatus and made it such a successful event. They cleverly used ‘hybrid’ Tech Talks, Weather Briefing, and Skippers Meetings using a mix of Zoom and in-person facilities to make the event safe and comfortable for the participants.
Lastly, thank to all our American and Vancouver Island friends who made the trek to West Vancouver and back and who really make this race special. Many of you endured difficult deliveries in colder conditions than we usually get in mid-April. Thanks for your commitment to the race – hope to see you back again next year.
Ed. Note: Results here: wvyc.ca/on-the-water/racing/southern-straits. Scroll down and choose which course/class you want to view. Congrats to Peter Salusbury on his Division 1 victory and thanks to him for this report.
Who would have guessed six months ago that the traditional June single-handed race hosted by WVYC and RNSA would be over-subscribed with a waiting list of participants wanting to enter and ending up being the most anticipated yacht race in British Columbia? Well, with the pandemic grounding all formal racing activities around the world, what better concept than a single handed day race which met all the social distancing requirements and offered a day on the water, a getaway from self isolation, with great camaraderie amongst competitors (keeping boats six feet apart that is), and of course all that beautiful coastal scenery. The organizers ending up approving a double-handed division (subject to both crew being part of the same social bubble) and the numbers doubled to 50 entrants which is the maximum limit for gatherings in BC right now. By start day, we had a waitlist of 15 boats – just a little pent up demand out there!
Bruce’s Friday night race forecast did not look promising – unsettled conditions with weather models varying widely and it looked like a light and shifty day of racing. Saturday morning produced a nice 15 – 18 knot SE at the pre-start with thunder and rain showers pounding the fleet as we rigged up our spinnakers and code sails for the downwind ride to Popham Island. The course started off Point Grey bell-buoy, around both Popham Islands, and back to the finish at the bell-buoy for a total distance of 20.5 miles. A pursuit start was organized using PHRF ratings with the first boat Trigger, a C&C 25 rating 244 starting at 0930 hrs with the fastest boat, Cheekee Monkey, a high tech catamaran rating -21 starting 1:30:50 later.
Longboard
Legacy
Idiopathic
65 Red Roses
Cool Beans
Aqua Perla
Phoenix
Haida 26
X40
Audrey B
Daia
Wraith
Fortissimo
Manana
Daia
Happy Race Committee
Northern Girl
As the starting sequence unfolded over the 1.5 hours, the rain abated, the sun came out and the wind moderated in the 9 to 12 knot SE range for the duration of the race – perfect conditions for those of us who are new to shorthanded sailing, with no wind holes or big gusts to challenge the fleet. On Longboard, I entered the double-handed division with my son, Jim, who is a regular crew member and after a somewhat delayed start, we started to slowly reel in the 48 boats who were ahead of us. Gybing Longboard is interesting with the twin topmast backstays and fathead main but we found if we centered the main and tightened the new backstay before gybing the A2, we had enough hands to gybe the boat (no autopilot) safely, and sort out the main afterwards.
It was a beautiful downwind slide along the south shore of Bowen and Worlecombe Islands before gybing onto starboard for the final approach to Popham Islands. Rounding the Pophams went pretty smoothly with very little wind shadow to negotiate and then we had the 10 knot SE beat to weather. There were two schools of thoughts on the return leg with some opting to tack earlier onto starboard to work the shoreline and then a few of us who expected a slight veering of the SE to the SSW so hung on port tack until we got the big shift, sailed into slightly better tidal current, and then flopped over for the beat which turned into a long cracked-sheet jib reach until the finish.
Sailing shorthanded through a fleet of every conceivable kind and age of sailboat in BC was truly remarkable and looking at the final finish order, it was amazing to see how many very old boats sailing singlehanded performed very well against the more modern designs, many of which were being double-handed. For example, first in the single handed division was Dave Kells C&C 32 Covivant, followed by John Polglase’s J/92 About Time, Trevor Salmon’s Express 37 Manana, and Tim O’Connell’s Flying Fifteen FFANG. These are all boats designed along time ago who finished well ahead of all the very well sailed Melges 24’s and a host of newer designs with great sailors onboard. We had to work very hard to catch these guys – including one of my childhood favourites – Dan Klinksgaard’s flush-decked Haida 26 – amazing to see these boats being sailed so well with just one person onboard.
My personal experience of the day was slowly passing singlehanded veteran Manana with Trevor sitting on the weather rail with a cold beer in his hand, smiling from ear to ear – he must have had a 180% genoa up perfectly trimmed with the autopilot driving better than he ever did! Just kidding, Trevor! The photo perfectly captured the spirit of the race – the simple joy of being on the water, sailing a race shorthanded on a beautiful day.
Huge shout-out to Sonia and Cam Telford for all the hard work they put into organizing the race – not easy figuring out how to organize a race these days that’s fun but still complies with local health policies but they found the right balance between safety and fun for all the participants. They not only did all the organization but also did RC work at the start and finish on their beautiful Frers 45 Northern Girl with a little help from daughter Jennifer – thanks to you all for making the day possible, and the experience for all participants memorable. Let’s hope other clubs take their formula and plan similar races this summer and fall.
And thanks to Bruce Hedrick for providing our pre-race forecast and to Kurt for publishing it on sailish.com – we always appreciate the huge support you both give our WVYC races.
Results can be found on the WVYC race website here.
Ed. Note: Peter and entire BC community should be commended. Thanks for sharing this and leading the way!Waiting list for entries? Oh yeah.
By Peter Salsbury
When we entered Longboard in this summer’s Transpac, there was no doubt in my mind how we were going to get the boat to the start line - it had to be an offshore passage with old friends, giving the boat one last test, and experiencing the thrill of sailing Longboard downwind in the ocean.
So I set out to find the best delivery crew I could and completely lucked out. Stewart Jones volunteered immediately - a key part of our crew for 7 years now, he couldn’t make the race itself but really wanted to be part of the delivery. Paul Bieker, the designer of Longboard also jumped at the chance - he’d only been on the boat once since it launched in 2012 so a great opportunity to sail his creation. And an old friend, Darren Burns, also signed up - Darren runs a top Farr 30 program in Vancouver but had never been offshore before so this was a special experience for him.
Stewart, Darren, and I left West Vancouver Yacht Club on Monday, June 24th and powered all the way to Anacortes to clear customs, pick-up fresh groceries, and pick-up Paul. After a nice dinner at Paul and Charlene’s house, we headed out the following morning.
We were greeted with a sunny, flat calm day and ended up powering all the way to just before Sheringham Point before a nice high teens NW filled in for a traditional beat out of the strait. As always, by Duntze Rock the wind disappeared and we then powered for the next 19 hours - strait offshore! Bruce was helping us with our weather routing and due to a low pressure ridge located off the WA and Oregon coasts, he recommended we target a waypoint 125 miles offshore - basically a course which seemed like we were going to Maui, not California.
Just before a nice NW filled in, we felt like we had some weed on the drive unit so Paul dove over with a knife to clear it - the water temperature reported to be quite warm which was a good thing given he had no wetsuit on. For the next 4 days, we had the easiest offshore sail one can image - relatively flat seas and a NW wind of 7 to 11 knots allowing us to jib reach or fly a delivery kite with only a few short powering stints. The weirdest thing was the large amount of milled logs 1 foot in diameter by 6’ to 20’ long which scattered the ocean all the way down the coast - it was like a Panabode cabin shipment fell off a ship 5 years ago judging by the growth. We were constantly dodging them and the first night hit one pretty hard while powering.
Whales and porpoises were abundant which was great to see but surprisingly few birds seem to be around - maybe it was because our route kept us about 135 miles off the coast until we got south of San Francisco. The last few days, the seas really start to build, disproportionately to the strength of the wind which was hovering around 20 knots. Finally, we were experiencing a true offshore sea state and Longboard was really enjoying it. On our approach to Pt Concepcion, the seas continued to build and the wind started to get into the high 30 knots and, unfortunately, we ran over some kelp and seaweed which clogged up the rudder really slowing the boat down. So, when we got those nice puffs which allow the boat to take off down the waves, it didn’t! The result being breaking waves pooping the stern and landing in the aft cockpit area - not a very comforting feeling.
The biggest seas and highest winds were rounding the point itself where the wind accelerates along the coast and the ocean floor shallows up considerably - we had a pretty hairy few hours with Paul driving, Stewart trimming the J4 (no main up at this point), and Darren looking astern calling the waves and gusts to prepare Paul for how he needed to set the boat up on the waves. I stuck to the laptop below calling course changes to allow us to dodge commercial traffic and oil rigs. Once again, AIS is the most brilliant invention ever in these conditions.
After getting behind the lee of the point, we backed down under sail, cleared the rudder, got the main back up and had a nice sail north of the Catalina Islands overnight arriving on Tuesday morning, 7 days, 2 hours after leaving Anacortes.
The offshore passage helped us find a few key issues we are now addressing before the start of the Transpac race - it’s great to find these things out before the race, not during the race. So, the longest delivery to a start line was a huge success - Stewart, Paul, Darren and I completely enjoyed one another’s company and it was really rewarding for Paul to see how great his little 35’ offshore passage-maker is first hand.
Thanks to everyone who sent us nice notes along the way - we all appreciate it. And a big shout out to Bruce Hedrick who sent us weather advice twice daily - you made it easy, Bruce - thanks so much! Our start is next Friday, July 12th - we are all looking forward to sending Longboard flying downwind to Honolulu!
As of this writing, Longboard was getting free from the coast at 8.1 knots. We’ll be watching for when the wind goes aft…..
By Peter Salusbury, owner and skipper of Longboard.
This was the 50th anniversary of the Southern Straits Race classic and weather cooperated for what most will admit was a very pleasant and enjoyable race. Bruce’s pre-race forecast was mostly spot on though the NW wind stayed on a little longer than forecast into Saturday morning and then re-built closer to Vancouver to get most boats home early Saturday evening.
Peter Salusbury’s Longboard near the finish line.
After a brief postponement waiting for the westerly winds to build into English Bay, all the fleets started in a light westerly which built fairly quickly as we passed Point Atkinson and hit the Bowen Island shore. On the long course, most boats left the Bowen Island shore after reaching Cowan Point and started the long starboard tack over to the Nanaimo harbor area. The now NW wind built to between 12 to 16 knots all afternoon. The Shadow, Blue, Ha a’Koa, and Jam really legged out with their long waterlines on the smaller long course boats (Longboard and Poke & Destroy) but we stayed in touch enough that after rounding Ballenas Island (the first time), we could start to gain back some of those upwind losses. The long and fast downwind sail to T10 was beautiful with a huge full moon all night long and clear skies. On Longboard, we seemed to notice an unusual amount of wood in the water and twice ran smack into substantial logs doing 10+ knots!
On the downwind leg, it seemed to pay dividends to keep tacking to port offshore every time the wind went light while on starboard tack. We always found bigger breeze offshore and made big gains on our fleet by approaching T10 from the north.
After rounding T10, we had a solid beat upwind to Ballenas (second time) with winds peaking out over 20+ knots at time, but lightening substantially after Nanaimo harbor. Going upwind, it seemed advantageous to be a little closer to the Valdez/Gabriola Island shores as we picked up a nice port tack lift which definitely helped us on those competitors who were more offshore.
The start was delayed. Photo by Alex Anglin
After rounding Ballenas, the NW backed to more of a westerly and softened to less than 5 knots. On Longboard, we favoured the north side of the course home, found a very nice 4 to 7 knot northerly which seldom hit the water but we were able to keep the boat moving at 3 to 5 knots and sneak by Boondoggle and Hamachi. Eventually the NE wind disappeared, and after a short period of calms (good time for hot oatmeal and cinnamon buns), a very light westerly started to build which continued to build all the way to the finish. The smaller, slower boats on the Long Course were a little less fortunate with the westerly dying off not long after we finished on Longboard with many finishing late into Saturday evening – well done to them for persevering and getting a result. Overall, a very pleasant but somewhat ‘longer’ Long Course race compared to more recent years – but no rain, no clouds, full moon, lots of sun – none of us were complaining!
Peter McCarthy’s recently acquired TP-52 The Shadow was first boat home on the Long Course with Michael Schoendorf’s very well sailed Riptide 41 Blue finishing not far behind to take the PHRF Overall win. The boat that really impressed us on the Long Course was Bill Fox’s J/160 Jam who took the ORC Overall win by a wide margin – they appeared to sail a flawless race – super fast up wind, and really managed the light air on the last leg to get the win – kudos to their team.
On the Medium Course, Ross and Marcia Macdonald’s recently acquired X-41 DAIA took the line honors win (they were so fast upwind) but the experienced and always well sailed Shock 35 Excalibur skippered by Jason Vandergaag took the overall win in a very large 42 boat fleet. J/109’s seemed to love the conditions as they took 3rd to 5th overall with a double handed J/120 called Shearwater skippered by Justin Wolfe taking an impressive 6th place overall beating some very talented fully crewed boats. Great job to you both!
On the Short course, a perennial winner,William Phillips CY 8.0 Incisortook line honours, but the irrepressible C&C 30 Silik skippered by Wade Harrogate prevailed once again to take the Short Course overall corrected time win.
Once again, the race organizing committee deserve so much credit for making the 50th anniversary race so successful. On behalf of all participants, I’d like to thank first time Race Chairman, Mike Seper, and his army of volunteers at West Vancouver Yacht Club for making the race possible – great job, Mike! And lastly, thanks so much to all the participants who travelled from afar from home bases like Seattle and Victoria for the race – we appreciate the commitment you make to deliver your boats up and back at this time of the year and hope to see you all back next year.
Ed. Note: I’m hoping for some more photography. If more is forthcoming, I’ll put the photos in a separate post.
The Southern Straits Race is celebrating its 50th anniversary with Saturday’s start! Many happy returns to our brethren north of the border. We’re giddy to have Peter Salusbury, owner of the Bieker Riptide 35 II Longboard, give us a little history primer, and of course Bruce Hedrick is going to looking into his magic weather crystal ball tomorrow with a Bruce’s Brief right here on sailish.com.
By Peter Salusbury
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Southern Straits of Georgia Race this year, Sandy Huntingford and I were asked if we’d put together an historical retrospective of the race for one of our club’s regular pub nights. We gave our presentation this past Friday at the club to a packed house and we had a lot of fun over the course of the evening. In preparing our presentation, we dug into the club archives, documented our own personal experiences (combined we’ve done 89 races), and then reached out to a few notable Straits race veterans particularly those who were regulars in the 1970’s.
One of those contacted was Bruce Hedrick, an old friend I got to know in the 1976 SORC, who with his father, Lang, campaigned both their Columbia 50 Six Pack and Chance 50 Warrior to line honors, divisional, and overall wins in the early days of the race. Bruce has always spoken fondly of his memories of the races and the club volunteers who organized the race and helped them out in times of need. Bruce kindly responded to my request for his sea stories from his Straits Race days with some wonderful stories that we incorporated into our pub night presentation to a warm reception from the participants.
I’ve included excerpts from Bruce’s stories below to illustrate how attached and committed the Hedrick family was to this great PNW race and to highlight key themes we included in our presentation. One of the key themes we wanted to celebrate was the incredible commitment of our US sailing community to make the difficult and long delivery up to West Vancouver and return during the early spring to attend the race. Here’s an excerpt from Bruce on his memory of delivering the boat north in 1970……
As they say, you never forget your first…..Straits Race and the 1970 one is still indelibly printed in my mind. We were getting ready to do the Vic-Maui Race and wanted some more overnight racing experience besides Swiftsure. Besides, it perfectly coincided with spring break at the University of Washington which meant I could take the entire week to get the boat up to West Van YC from Seattle. Why go south to California when you could sail and fish for salmon the first part of the day, find an anchorage and then go scuba diving for scallops and abalone for appetizers followed by salmon, rockfish or ling cod for dinner. Those were the days.
And here’s Bruce’s story of an epic delivery home in 1975 after the race…..one of the points we made last Friday evening is that frequently the delivery legs are much harder than the race itself……
In 1975, the real story was the delivery back to Seattle. The forecast in the Strait of Georgia was for 25-40 from the NW which should have been perfect for a downhill run to Seattle. We decided to use the storm jib and no main. The problem was that once we got out there, there was a lot more wind than that. The anemometer was the analog B&G which only went to 60 and it was spending a lot of time pegged.
We made great time past Pt. Grey and about ½ way to Sand Heads, when we realized we were being set onto Sturgeon Bank and we weren’t going to clear Sand Heads. We couldn’t go back so we decided to hoist the storm trysail to see if that would help drive the bow up. In addition, we dropped the storm jib, unhanked it and moved it aft to the staysail stay. That combination worked and we were able to sail up enough to clear Sand Heads.
Back then, Six Pack had an ingenious way to get a flat main using roller reefing…..from the 1970 Straits Race….
By the time we went by Pt. Roberts, it was cranking and we decided to get the 150% down and go with a short hoist 110% with a reef in the main. This wasn’t easy as those were the days we had hanks on the headsails and used roller reefing for the main. We did, however, have the secret weapon for reefing and ending up with a reasonably shaped mainsail: we took the cushions off the berths and placed them in the foot of the main so they would flatten the main as you rolled the reef into the sail. It was really cold and since we almost never used the small headsail the hanks were tough to open, especially with gloves on. Then there was the problem of keeping the wind from blowing the cushions out of the foot of the main while slowly rolling the reef in. And all it did from there was get colder and colder and windier and windier.
Click to enlarge.
And one more gem found in the club archives was this handwritten letter from Lang Hedrick to race chairman, Jim Page, at the height of the 1973/1974 OPEC oil embargo asking if the club could provide 50 gallons of #2 diesel to get the boat home after the race. What a commitment to bring Six Pack all the way up to Vancouver given the diesel shortages at the time.
As for the racing itself, one of the funny parts of our evening was reading Fred Russell’s log on Solquest (multiple overall race winner) during the 1972 race when Six Pack roared up from astern off Merry Island under full canvas with marginal helm control (it seems)…..
1749 – Six Pack abeam – much shouting – appears to be slightly out of control – Six Pack crew warn about her broaching tendencies – then proceeds to demonstrate – very thrilling!
And then Sandy discovered a series of black and white photos he snapped from the cockpit of Solquest with his Kodak Instamatic, which captured perfectly a fully pressed Six Pack and the seconds before they gloriously broached out of control! Epic!
The Hedrick family’s Columbia 50 Six Pack, pressing hard in Southern Straits. Photos by Sandy Huntingford. Click to enlarge.
And then there was their perfect race on Warrior in 1977 where the clean sweep was performed…..one of our themes was how much different coastal navigation was back in the 1970’s and this describes it perfectly……
This was one of my favorite South Straits Races. The start was once again downwind in moderate breeze which was just perfect for us plus it was a long run up to Sisters which put Warrior right into her favorite conditions. We got steadily away from Weatherly and the rest of fleet, rounding Sisters right around sunset in 20-30 knots of southeasterly breeze, choppy and lumpy seas.
This was where my dad was really in his element. Keeping a running DR plot going on the chart table, navigating with the hand-held compass, repeatedly asking for bearings to different lights. Then he would set the RDF shrouded in a plastic bag on top of the companionway hatch, get a bearing and then disappear below to do the plot. He kept us off the rocks and took us inside of the Ballenas, Gerald, and Amelia Islands. It was when we tacked to go inside the Winchelsea Islands that things got interesting; we were introduced to Whiskey Gulf. All of sudden there were flashing lights, flares, big spotlights, horns, and guys in rubber boats with big outboards, guns, and bullhorns telling us to exit the area immediately.
We crossed the finish line just after 1:00 am Saturday morning which I think may still be the fastest elapsed time ever for a Straits Race. In the end, it had been a clean sweep for Warrior: First to finish, First in Class, First Overall and a course record. We flew the broom for a week.
All of these stories from Bruce illustrate so perfectly the dedication of Bruce, Lang, and their crews to repeatedly make the trek north each year to participate in Straits Race, a commitment we highlighted last Friday that all US entries do each and every year. All of us at West Vancouver Yacht Club truly appreciate and are thankful for that commitment and look forward to welcoming those US crews who are entered this year on Thursday evening at the club. And thanks, Bruce, for sharing your personal history of the race – you added a lot of color to our presentation last Friday!
