ED NOTE: Rumor has it this work has been cancelled and the Narrows are open. We can’t verify either way, so, sorry, you have to figure it out. If you can nail down a reliable source of information, please pass along their contact info. Thanks.
Amazing what you find on Facebook. I came across this and figure its a need-to-know for sailish.com cruisers. If you come across things like this, please pass them along to us and we’ll spread the word.
DODD NARROWS CLOSURES July 14th to 18th, 2019
This notice is to inform all concerned boaters that Dodd Narrows will be closed to all vessel traffic starting at 0915 on Sunday, July 14, 2019 until Wednesday, July 17, 2019 and possibly extending to Thursday, July 18, 2019. The reason for this closure is that BC Hydro will be upgrading, and replacing, the cables across Dodd Narrows. They will be using a helicopter for some of the time as they replace the cables and put them on some new towers. The Nanaimo Port Authority will have vessels on site to stop vessels from transiting the narrows during the closure periods.
This work is scheduled to start on a Sunday as that is deemed to be the least disruptive to BC Hydro customers on Gabriola and Mudge Islands as they will be without electricity during the duration of this job.
There will be a scheduled opening for vessels to transit Dodd Narrows for one hour around slack water on Sunday evening. The scheduled closure times are shown at the bottom of this notice.
The information on the closures will also be broadcast on VHF radio. At this time I’m not sure if it will be on Ch. 16 or there will be a short notice on Ch.16 directing you to the complete notice on the weather channel.
I apologize for the short notice on this and the impact it may have on weekend plans. My assistance was only requested earlier today, Wednesday, and the NPA was only informed of this work on Monday, July 8.
Having said all this, there is a chance that none of this will happen and the work will be put off for several months. At this time that is not a likely option but a slim possibility.
– Bill Wilson
Schedule Sunday, July 14th: Outage Day – 09:15-15:30 Flying Rope – 16:30-20:00 Pulling New Conductor
Monday, July 15th: Pulling new conductor – 10:15-16:00
Tuesday, July 16th: Stripping old conductor – 11:00-16:45
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.
The Hamachi team is on the way to Hawaii. And they’re allowing us an occasional peek when possible. We already showed some drone video of their passage down the coast and shared some start footage on Facebook. Below, they’re off the west end of Catalina with lots of company (for now).
Hamachi off Catalina in TransPac 2019. Thanks to Jason Andrews!
Our friends on Longboardhad an interesting delivery and we here at Sailish are big fans of the Peter Salsbury owned & skippered, and Bieker designed 35-footer. They’ve made several changes to the already scary-fast boat, so we’re anticipating great things.
I was hoping to also be writing about Atalanta and her 120,000 lbs. charging toward Hawaii, but alas they decided to pull the plug and not race. We’ll be keeping an eye on the TP The Shadow II from Vancouver, which is in a very competitive class.
Stay tuned, because we’ll be hearing more from Hamachi, and Bruce Hedrick won’t be able to stay away from the tracker for the next few days. The big boys, including odds-on lines favorite Comanche and the other 100-footer Rio, have yet to start.
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.
As crews from Seattle to Bellingham gathered in Oak Harbor
on June 28 for the 2019 San Juan 24 North American Class Association Championships
there was great pleasure in greeting friends from previous championship
regattas and concern about the light wind forecasts for the coming weekend.
As Byron Skubi, the experienced PRO running the racing, said
the Friday night wind forecast for the weekend was “terrible.” A variety of wind forecasting sites showed
winds on Saturday ranging from 2-3 knots perhaps getting to 4-5 knots late in
the afternoon and only marginally better for Sunday.
As boats motored out Saturday morning on the 40-minute trip from Oak Harbor to Penn Cove, the light winds on Saratoga Passage and the flat glass on Penn Cove were not promising. Bu a dark line observed on the far west end of the Cove which slowly moved eastward and finally reached and then passed the Race Committee boat located just off of Coupeville.
Not to worry – the wind filled in with 5-6 knots westerly
and Byron sounded the first warning signal on time promptly at 11:00. The wind
was fairly consistent building to close to 10-11 knots in the afternoon before
settling back to 6-7 knots. Byron ran eight, count them, eight great races on
Saturday – windward-leeward courses, some long, some short, with both windward
and downwind finishes. David Steckman of Oak Harbor, the Regatta organizer, got
the racing off to a great start by dominating the first race on his renamed Juan Solo, followed by Mike Klep’s Bruce from Bellingham and Mike Irish’s Manhattan Transfer from Seattle. Pre-race favorite Return was over early at the favored pin end and its delayed
restart after ducking most of the fleet resulted in a 7th place
finish.
But Return bounced back handily, winning the next 3 races to regain the lead, with Juan Solo and my Grauer Geist keeping close with top 4 finishes in each race. Racing got closer as Return had another over-early call and finished 5th in the fifth race and got trapped on the far left side of the course in the 6th race resulting in a 4th place finish before grabbing a 1st and 2nd place result in the last two races of the day. Meanwhile Grauer rebounded with two firsts and a second, and Juan Solo kept close with its consistent top 4 finishes.
At the end of Saturday, after 8 races (one throw-out
permitted with 6 races completed), Return
had a 2 point lead over Grauer Geist
with Juan Solo just one point further
back. Jeff Kendal’s Fancy lurked in 4th place while Bruce, after two second places in the first two races, had fallen
to 5th overall as it suffered both a OCS in the third race and a DSQ
in race 7.
Proving the forecasts wrong again, a nice wind came in again on Sunday, and Return quickly took advantage to clinch its Championship win with two firsts and one second in the first three of four races held that day, followed by a safe second in the last race. Meanwhile Juan Solo and Grauer Geist were battling it out for second place – after winning the third race Grauer just had to finish just one boat behind Juan Solo in the last race to match her second place finish in the 2018 regatta. However, she lost track of Juan Solo at the start and had to go left while Juan Solo and Return headed to the right hand favorable Penn Cove current on the north side – at the windward mark, Juan Solo had a boat length lead on Return with Grauer another length back. The first two boats headed to the southern shore, where there is supposed to be a favorable eastward current. We followed on Grauer about half-way to the shore and, believing it had a favorable downwind angle to the long leeward mark, was the first to gybe. Nothing like being in the middle, and forced to watch boats on the south shore sail by and, at the same time, boats further behind at the windward mark that gybed toward the northern shore also found stronger wind and sailed by! Juan Solo held on to win the last race and second place as Grauer sailed to its worst finish, which became our regatta throw-out.
The racing was close and competitive. Of the 12 boats in the
regatta, 4 had at least one first place, and 7 boats had at least one top-three
finish. A single mistake on the course pushed
all the boats back in the fleet. Even
the top three boats had 6th and 7th place finishes.
At the awards ceremony Mark Bradner noted that he had been
sailing with the same crew for 15 years, and that crew consistency was
instrumental in Return’s win: Gary Reifel on foredeck, David Valentine on
main and David Fukuhara on sheets. Return previously won the SJ 24 NACA
championship in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
Boats had to be conscious of building tide both days (the
low was about an hour or so before racing started). It was easy (too easy for some of us) to get
pushed to the starting line early, causing many loud calls to “Stay Up, Stay
Up” as boats tried to jockey to keep from crossing the starting line
early. The Race Committee called boats
over-early in most races, but in only the third race did it signal a General
Recall (of course many skippers said they had had great starts and it was other
boats that were over early). The Race
Committee wasted no time in hosting the black flag and a conservative restart
followed.
With many boats lumped close together after the start, the
wind just lifts over all the boats. Boats that did well got to clear air
quickly, even if it meant ducking boats, irrespective of where on the Cove they
sailed. And skippers also had to
skippers had to balance the wind and the current. As the current built, the counter-clockwise
Penn Cove current is said to favor the northern side (the right-hand side going
upwind in the westerly) and the south side of the Cove going downwind – but
until the current really set in going up the left hand side or the middle,
wherever there was clear air, paid off. And
going too far to the north side commonly resulted in boats overstanding the
weather mark, letting boats coming in on port sail a shorter distance and tack
underneath them.
All in all, and despite having just 12 boats participating,
the 2019 regatta was great fun with challenging competition and racing, proving
again that when all the boats sail about the same speed it doesn’t really
matter how fast they are going. The
pleasure of one-design racing!
On Friday night the Class elected its 2020 officers: Dave Steckman of Oak Harbor as Commodore,
Mark Bradner of Seattle as Vice Commodore and Jeff Kendall of Seattle as Fleet
Measurer. The Class also decided to hold
the 2020 North Americans on Shillshole Bay in Seattle on June 26-28, 2020, and
to have a small group review the class specifications to see if any should be
modified (most have been in effect since the mid-1970s).
The excellent Oak Harbor Yacht Club hosted the regatta. Thanks
to Club Manager Joe Catanio for the excellent food and drink each night and OHYC
Commodore Ferd Johns for welcoming all of us.
Dennis and Marjie Wade Clark joined us for dinner Saturday
night, and Dennis gave an engaging talk about the origins and history of the
San Juan 24, followed by questions regarding the boat’s design. Marjie was the winning skipper of the first SJ
24 North American regatta, sailed on Bellingham Bay with over 50 boats
participating! To date she is the only
female skipper to win the regatta; her father designed and built the wire
sculpture of the boat that graces the SJ 24 NACA trophy. Chuck Skewes of Ullman Sails noted that he
got his start in the sailing industry working for Dennis as an apprentice
sailmaker in the mid-1980s. Chuck also described
his “year as a professional skipper” and commented on sail trim issues he
observed from the Race Committee boat.
Ullman Sails was the principal sponsor of the Regatta and
contributed money, prizes and support.
Other main sponsors: Oak Harbor
YC and Indigo Slate (t-shirt design and cash), followed by Jan’s Marine
Photography, Samson Ropes, Swinomish Casino & Lodge and Oak Harbor Marina.
Wayne Balsiger of Seattle chaired the protest committee,
aided by Bill Weinsheimer and Chad Holcomb, both of Oak Harbor. In addition to PRO
Byron Skubi, others on the Race Committee Boat were Chuck Skewes from Ullman
Sails, Larry Munns, Jane Mays and Avis Berney. The mark boats were manned by
Craig Cooley, Russ Wood, Ron DeRu, Dale Hendrickson, Rick Almberg, Joel
Servatius, Ben Servatius, Chad Holcomb, Max Van Dam, Peter Hillberry and Steve
Sears. Many thanks to all these
volunteers who make a regatta successful!
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.
Keeping the speed up on West Sound. Jan Anderson photos.
Those unstoppable Martin 242 sailors planned it, sailed it and can now call it a success. The 2019 Martin 242 North Americans were held in West Sound at Orcas Island June 29-30. In the process they proved you don’t need great wind to have a great regatta.
The wind wasn’t actually all that bad, ranging from 2 (hey, that’s not 0) to twelve. And the shifty breezes kept all 27 boats engaged.
But the camaraderie was the big winner for the weekend, with BC, WA and CA sailors together claiming #Martinswintheparty. I wonder what other classes might have to say about.
The winning boat All In was from California and skippered by Michael George. Second was Michael Clements and third was Alex Fox. Results.
Organizer Ken Machtley reports the following tidbits:
Our next big Martin 242 event is Cow Bay (Cowichan Bay, BC). Chris and I
are taking a Martin to Whidbey in a couple weeks (he won overall in a
Martin in 2016)
California is set to host next year’s NA championship, date/place TBD.
Vancouver will host in 2021, date/place TBD (much discussion about
possibly holding at Race Week at PR).
The two spectator boats got about 20 folks out on the water to see the racing up close.
No protests were heard (one was filed, but dismissed for being filed past the deadline).
Ullman Sails was an outstanding sponsor for us from financial support to giveaways and on-site presence.
We had ~25 volunteers helping out on the water, decorations, food, bar, dock, spectator boats, etc.
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.
Here’s a chance for the sailing community to pull together and provide some needed help. Kerry Sherwin, who many of us know as the ever helpful service manager at North Sails Seattle, needs that help.
According to the GoFundMe site set up for Kerry, as he was riding his Vespa scooter to work, he was victim of a hit and run. The result includes a broken arm, a broken leg, 5 broken ribs, several crushed vertebrae, and a broken collarbone. He was in the Harborview intensive care unit for 6 days.
Fortunately he has insurance, but as we all know that will hardly cover his needs, both immediate and in the coming months.
Kerry on the Vespa
Visit Kerry’s GoFundMe site and give what you can.
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.
Community sailing programs are booming, and not just on the salty Salish Sea. The Southern Idaho Sailing Outreach program is going full blast, taking delivery of RS Zests from sailish sponsor West Coast Sailing.
It’s easy to get caught up in things like the R2AK, Transpac and other renowned events, but it’s at the local level that fleet captains, moms and that guy who can fix anything on a boat really promote the sport.
SISO’s web site lays out a well designed and ambitious plan to “emphasize youth education, safety, and accessibility of this great sport to all.” If the Lucky Peak Spring Shores Marina in the Lucky Peak State Park ends up looking like the plans, there’s going to be some good sailing.
RS Zest
SISO is taking delivery of ten 12′ RS Zests, a great 1-2 person learn to sail kind of boat
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.
The Leukemia Cup is on Saturday! This event has generated a lot of money, and hence progress, in the fight against leukemia and lymphoma, two of the most heinous diseases.
The event is being hosted by Elliott Bay, and that’s where the sailing will start and end. There’s still time to enter. Supposing you already have plans for the weekend, you can go to the website and make a donation.
It’d be great to see a large fleet out there. Racing on the water is casual and will leave a feeling of camaraderie and the satisfaction of having done good as well.
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.
I’m still hoping to get some inside stories from the Seventy48. For those of you unaware, last weekend’s race was a non-sailing (all human powered) prelude to the R2AK. Seventy miles in 48 hours. The course, simply from Tacoma to Port Townsend. The winners Greg Spooner and Thiago Silva did it in about 11 hours in the two person shell Imua.
Jan Anderson stepped up once again with some great shots. Like the R2AK, this event is much more about participation than it is the winning and losing. Check these pix out, the check out the full gallery.
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.
Glory got through Race Rocks first, but the reality of Bruce’s forecast settled in on the Swiftsure fleet early and mercilessly. Congratulations to Rage for being the lone finisher on the long course, Panic for winning the monohull fleet in the Flattery course, Big Broderna for winning the multihull Flattery fleet and Gladiator for winning the Juan de Fuca fleet. And a tip of the hat (and glass) to the other die-hards who stuck it out. By my count that was 16 total.
Jan Anderson took lots of photos like the ones above, but don’t expect to see yourself on a screaming plane doing high-fives.
Speaking of Bruce Hedrick, he has this to say about the race: “Yes we dropped at 1059, first on the Cape Flattery course. We asked the team on the boat for a vote and I excused myself being the tactician and Wx guy and it was unanimous, let’s end this. In the morning when we met on the boat I said the our elapsed time had gone from 46 to 41 hours, the other J-35 finished in 39.5 hrs. Either way there are other ways to spend your Memorial Day weekend if it’s going to be a hair bag race, which it clearly was, let’s do family and friends things. The folks that stuck it out are clearly to be congratulated. Then there is always next year, which for me will be number 49. Will I miss the next race? Hell no! It’s always so great to see everyone from the years past as well as remember the ones who aren’t there, like Tom Rutten, Kelly O’Neil Henson, and Willy O’Neil. It’s a great tradition and as always so we’ll run by RVYC.
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.
There’s not a whole lot to say about Driftsure 2019. Bruce warned you. 14 finishers on the various courses needed perseverance and hopefully enough food. At this writing there were still three boats out there. The rest have “withdrawn” and a lot of them are probably back in their home slips by now.
Jan and Skip Anderson were out there shooting, but as she says “This pretty well sums up the race this weekend! 😊” She did shoot this video and promises stills (very still no doubt) soon.
As my son Gabe said when I asked him if he wanted to see a funny video, he saw it and said, “That’s not funny, it’s just sad.” That said, I’m sure the folks who stuck it out had a good time. .
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.
