Author: Kurt Hoehne

Renaming Ceremony

Kurt Hoehne Kurt's Swiftsure Listings 0 Comment
Renaming Ceremony

One of the frequently asked questions I get asked as a broker is “do I need to do a renaming ceremony?”

As with all sailor’s superstitions (e.g. not leaving for a voyage on a Friday, never allowing bananas onboard) there’s really no way to say for sure. Let’s just say that if you want to do everything you can to stay on Poseidon’s (Greek) or Neptune’s (Roman) good side, it’s worth the effort.

On a recent sale I brokered, a CMS 41 that sailed into the hands of some very enthusiastic new owners, renaming was at the top of the list. After all, like so many other sailors we work with, they are planning on the Big Trip in the coming years.

Like everything these days, there were several sets of online instructions. In lieu of finding a virgin to pee off the bow (apparently that would help matters, and they said a broker would suffice. I didn’t volunteer, however) they invited about a dozen friends to Shilshole Bay Marina to witness several readings and sacrificial cups of wine dumped into the water to appease the East, West, North and South wind gods.

Apparently it was all done correctly as no sea monsters leapt out of the water to eat guests or sink boats.

I felt privileged to be a witness. Sand Dollar had had a wonderful run. It is now Pearl‘s time.

(As a side note, my own boats have always retained the names they came to me with. Not that I’m superstitious or anything. However, if I ever end up with a boat that’s named something like Mom’s Mink or Wet Dream I’ll be pouring wine over the side too.

Bieker design Baby Blue Wins at Mackinac

Kurt Hoehne Pacific Northwest Sailing Industry, PNW sailors around the world, Racing 3 Comments
Bieker design Baby Blue Wins at Mackinac

The Chicago Mackinac race is known as one of the greatest races anywhere in the world, and with good reason. Conditions change with frightening speed, chunky waves test boats and, moreover, crews and the quality of racing is top notch.

The white boat in this Yellow Brick tracker image is Baby Blue approaching the Mackinac bridge and finish line at the Island beyond. All the other boats in the image are from Class 6 (her class), Class 5 (bigger, “faster”) and Class 4 (even bigger, even “faster”). Baby Blue won her class handily and finished 6th overall in the under 40′ Mackinac Cup division.

Paul Bieker’s 40′ Blue design caught people’s attention when she appeared a few years ago sailing around and in front of much larger boats. This year, the Bieker designed and Jim Betts built Baby Blue rocked the Mac fleet with a resounding Class 6 win. In the process, she beat all the supposedly faster Class 4 and Class 5 boats boat for boat.

Congratulations to Peter Heppel, Evan Walker and the largely PNW crew. Hopefully we can get some first-hand comments about the race.

SSP Fundraiser and Birthday Party at the Magnuson Cafe

Kurt Hoehne Community, Youth Sailing 0 Comment
SSP Fundraiser and Birthday Party at the Magnuson Cafe

Sail Sand Point is Seattle’s Non-Profit Community Sailing Center and it has been an oasis for small boat sailors in this area since 1998. This summer they are hosting their 25th Birthday Party Celebration and Fundraiser on the evening of Thursday July 27th over on Lake Washington and you should attend to celebrate and support their work! For this special year’s party they are taking over the beautiful deck of the Magnuson Cafe and Brewery overlooking the lake to celebrate with passed apps, dinner, open wine/beer/cider bar, live music, an award presentation to Rod Dembowski (King County Council President), student sailor remarks and a mess of fun raffles (including free haulouts, Kraken/Sounders/Mariners/Storm tickets, Hood River vacations, ski/snow packages, boat shows, local cruises, a kayak full of beers and LOTS more)! Many local sailors will be in attendance and YOU should join the mix. 

Hobie Waves at Sail Sand Point

Info and LIMITED tickets available here.

Bob Perry in the Sailing Hall of Fame

Kurt Hoehne Pacific Northwest Sailing Industry, PNW sailors around the world 1 Comment
Bob Perry in the Sailing Hall of Fame
Bob Perry with a Portuguese water dog shirt. Very fitting.

Of all the PNW sailing luminaries, Bob Perry has probably had the biggest impact of all. His induction to the Sailing Hall of Fame is well deserved.

First of all, Bob’s designs are everywhere. And even when cruisers are not of his design, it’s not too hard to detect Bob’s influence. Secondly, Bob’s boat reviews in Sailing Magazine have educated and entertained sailors everywhere about yacht design. Who among us have not pored over his reviews? Finally, he moved with the times and enjoys a large online following, with sailors engaging with him constantly. And he does love the discourse. His enthusiasm and creativity has not waned and he continues to surprise with the projects he takes on. For instance, I just learned he redesigned the interiors for the Farr racer turned offshore trainer/adventure boat Falken for 59 North.

I’ve had the great good fortune to edit his column in Sailing Magazine for several years and now sell his designs as a broker. I’m proud to call him my friend.

Here’s a link to the US Sailing announcement.

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Terramoto’s Triumph

Kurt Hoehne Racing, Seamanship 1 Comment
Terramoto’s Triumph

Countless stories will be told, retold and no doubt embellished about this year’s Swiftsure race, sailed last month. It was one for the record books, literally. There were dismastings and DNFs, shortened sail heading out the Strait and serious surfing coming back to Victoria.

The biggest story has to be the Terramoto dismasting, which was not enough to stop her from winning the Cape Flattery course and in the process also setting an elapsed time record. The Paul Bieker designed, Bill Weinstein skippered 35-footer has been wreaking havoc in PNW for more than a decade and appears to not be slowing down one bit.

Curious about the race details, I called Alyosha Strum-Palerm who was onboard. He and a crew largely made up of Tasar sailors had Terramoto dialed in, sailing a strong beat to Cape Flattery and then lighting it up after they made the turn for the finish. Coming out of Neah Bay close to Tachyon and Hamachi, Terramoto planed in a building breeze leaving those 40-footers in her wake. They played it conservatively, dropping the chute before Race Passage, then hoisting the A 2.5 masthead asymmetrical in the flat water east of the Rocks anticipating lighter winds.

Instead of the wind dropping, the wind piped up to 33-38 knots and then one last big gust hit while Tim Scanlon was forward pulling the lazy sheet around for a letter-box drop. The backstay crane peeled off the top of the carbon mast and the mast buckled at about the middle point between the spreaders. After pulling the spinnaker aboard, Herb Cole pointed out they were still going six knots toward the finish line. With the main still half up on the broken mast, and a storm trysail rigged forward, Terramoto crossed the finish line amid some humor about an unreadable sail number,

Terramoto ending it downwind
Still racing
Getting creative
The happy crew

The biggest challenge was probably getting the main down after the finish, which required breaking the spreaders.

Were they thinking about the record? “No,” Strum-Palerm said, “I wasn’t even aware of it until my mom texted me about it later in the morning.”

Strum-Palerm pointed out another dismasting story that played out behind them involving some “heroics” from Annapurna. The Terramoto crew had heard about Hamachi‘s dismasting west of Race Passage, so when the Canadian Coast Guard came roaring by and assumed it was Terramoto that needed help, they quickly pointed out that there situation was under control but there was another boat that might need help. It turns out that Hamachi broke her rig in heavy seas west of Race Passage, and Annapurna dropped out of the race, managed to get a tow line over to Hamachi, and then towed her through Race Passage. The Canadian Coast Guard took over from there, and Annapurna went on to the finish where she was given redress and finished third.

These stories aren’t really in much need of embellishment….. The question is, will Van Isle or Round the County top them?

As Flattery Course Falls, So Does a Mast

Kurt Hoehne Racing 0 Comment
As Flattery Course Falls, So Does a Mast
A happy crew, a record and a broken mast. Photo by Bruce Hedrick.

There will be stories (and maybe even songs) about the 2023 Swiftsure Lightship Race(s), and our intrepid weather prognosticator will share some soon. In the meantime, we do know that Terramoto broke her rig and the Flattery course record. And, by the looks of things, the corrected time win as well. Results.

By the way – I’d love it if any of you have stories or photos to share. Send them!

35th Annual Round Bowen Race

Kurt Hoehne Uncategorized 2 Comments
35th Annual Round Bowen Race

(Ed. note) This from our friends at the Bowen Island Yacht Club for their big Round Bowen Race. The notice of race is up! I’ve never done this race, but I have to say being part of a 100-boat start would be a hoot. The event is being sponsored by Martin Marine.

The Round Bowen Race is our most popular event. There are normally 100+ plus boats registered, and with only 1 start, makes it one of the largest single starts on the west coast. The race involves the circumnavigation of Bowen island and takes place on the 2nd Saturday in June. The race begins at 10:00am PDT, and the latest finishing time is 17:30 PDT same day.

Here’s the link.

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 19, 20, 21, and 22 May. A cloudy but pleasant weekend ahead for the Sound, breezy in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Kurt Hoehne Bruce's Briefs 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 19, 20, 21, and 22 May. A cloudy but pleasant weekend ahead for the Sound, breezy in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

After a warm week, the onshore flow has returned and that has brought Mother Natures’ air conditioning back to the Pacific NW. It has also sent the smoke and haze from the wildfires in BC and Alberta to Eastern Washington. Take a look at the sat pic for yesterday.

May 19 500MB
May 19 Surface Analysis
May 20 Surface Forecast
May 21 500MB
May 21 Surface Forecast
May 22 Surface Forecast
May 23 500MB
May 23 Surface Forecast

The surface analysis chart shows that we still have a weak ridge of high pressure along the coast with a weak (1014MB) low-pressure system over Eastern Washington. This will keep the onshore flow in place well into next week. Also still in place over the Gulf of Alaska is that large but weaker low-pressure system with its attached cold front. There is a possibility the tail of the cold front may drag over the area on Tuesday. The 500MB charts show that this large low protrudes into the upper atmosphere and the jet stream is such that it won’t be moving very much.

May 19 Sat Pic
May 20 Strait of JdF

The other interesting feature in the 500MB charts is the 96 hr chart which shows an upper level, cutoff, low-pressure system forming right over the Pacific Northwest, while the jet stream travels around this low and goes into southern mainland Alaska. This could make for a very interesting Swiftsure.

Winds for the weekend will stay a little on the light side for Puget Sound and Admiralty Inlet with some breeze filling down the Sound by mid to late afternoon. Wind in the Strait of JdF until mid to late afternoon will also be light however as the onshore breeze develops, it will blow in the Strait at 25-30 knots by early evening and hold until just after midnight. Sunday will see a similar pattern.

It is still a week until Swiftsure so anything could happen however, right now two models are showing that this could be a very long and very light Driftsure. So we’ll see.

Have a great weekend!

ORC Measuring In More, Smaller Boats. Three Classes for Protection Island Race

Kurt Hoehne Handicapping, Racing 1 Comment
ORC Measuring In More, Smaller Boats. Three Classes for Protection Island Race

Over the weekend of April 22-23 US Sailing Head Measurer (and PNW rigger for many years) Chris Tutmark got out his measuring tape (and more) to bring more boats into the ORC handicapping fold.

Tutmark explains the ORC progress being made: “There are a bunch of smaller boats in the processing queue- Pell Mell, Moonshine, Scheme (Pyramid 30), Blur (B-25) a J109 well as J111s along with a number of boats signed up for VI 360- J99s, Grand Soleil 40, Cal 39, C&C 115, J120, Cal 40,  and a Club Swan 42

“For production boats like J109s, J35s, J122s and the like once we have an application along with crew weight and sail dimensions we can generate a certificate pretty simply and quickly since there are a good number of examples already in the ORC system.”

Fittingly, the measurement fest was followed by Seattle Yacht Club’s Protection Island Race on April 29 which featured 16 boats in three ORC classes.

Alex Simanis took this shot aboard class winner Rush. Lots of downwind in this race!

It will be particularly interesting to see how disparate boats correct out on each other in a variety of conditions. Currently there are no ORC-targeted designs in the region, and it’s up for discussion as to whether or not those exist right now.

Jeanne’s at it Again!

Kurt Hoehne Adventure Sailing, PNW sailors around the world, Women Sailors 0 Comment

For those of us looking for inspiration to keep sailing (and living life to its fullest) into “maturity,” we need look no further than solo sailor Jeanne Socrates. She’s set records as the oldest singlehanded circumnavigator via the five great Capes and first woman to circumnavigate starting and ending in North America. I’ve had the great good fortune to write about Jeanne in the past and even talk to her by satellite phone while she’s offshore. She’s at it again at age 80. This time it’s not intended as a record breaking circumnavigation, but more like a Pacific cruise with stops along the way, ending up in the Antipodes. She calls Victoria her home port much of the time, so we get to claim her as part of the PNW community.

Jeanne asked me to help drum up some subscribers to her Youtube channel. Yes, folks, she’s a Youtuber. It’s the least I can do. Subscribe here.

In the meantime, here’s Jeanne as she overcomes a less than trouble free start: