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,
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?
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.
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!
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.
(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.
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.
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.
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 PicMay 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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
It’s not often that a sailboat racing article that’s not the America’s Cup gets into the New York Times, but that’s exactly what happened. We’ve been following Greg Slyngstad’s Bieker-designed Fujin since its launch and through its dramatic capsize, and now that Todd Slyngstad’s HH66 Nemo isn’t hindered by Covid, we’re bound to see some great multihull racing in the Caribbean in the coming months and beyond. See David Schmidt’s article here.
Here’s a taste of the piece to get you started:
Brotherly Love Has Its Limits When Sailing
By David Schmidt
It’s an old sailing joke that whenever two or more sailboats are within sight and on similar courses, they are informally racing.
Now, imagine that you are sailing in a world-class regatta and your brother owns one of the other yachts.
Nemo
That is facing Greg and Todd Slyngstad, brothers who are scheduled to race their high-performance catamarans in the same multihull class at this year’s Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille.
The brothers grew up in San Jose, Calif., and learned to sail on Monterey Bay as children, but serious racing came later. Greg, 67, and now retired, moved to Seattle almost 40 years ago and spent his career in the tech industry, including at Microsoft, Expedia and Kayak. Todd, 58, and the youngest of the family’s eight siblings, lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., and he owns a grading and paving company.
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.
For some reason, some additional comments on ORC aren’t appearing. I’ll just post them here for everyone to see Dave Lynch further question JAM’s rating and US Sailing’s reponse.
From Dave Lynch, in response to US Sailing’s response to his earlier questions regarding Jam’s rating.
Interesting, and thanks for the sleuthing. There were a couple of items I hadn’t noticed, and it’s helpful. Here are a few thoughts in return:
Difference in 2-blade or 3-blade feathering props. One would think that a 3-blade feathering prop would cause more drag than a 2-blade. In contrast the change was coincident with the change in rating from 540 to 533.
Similarly, one would think a roller furling headsail would be less efficient, and thus slower…that change also happened coincident with the faster rating in 2021 compared to 2017.
The issue of crew weight is a bit hard to evaluate. Given the size of the boat and the need for the boat to be sailed well it’s pretty reasonable to assume the boat is fully crewed for most races. In both 2017 and 2021 the maximum crew weight was 907kg, while in 2023 it was 850kg. Assuming weight of an average crew is 185lbs (84.1kgs) that 57kg (a single smaller crewperson) doesn’t seem like much…especially on a boat that displaces 36,000 lbs.
Changes in D/L ration: from 111 (2017 w/ the aluminum rig) to 106.6 (2023 w/ the carbon rig). Not much of a change. Even less of a difference from 2021 (107.7).
Considering how small the changes are from year to year, and even considering the potential of additive effects, I’m still finding it hard to understand how they can add up to an 18spm change in performance.
And US Sailing’s response to David’s additional concerns:
A 2 bladed feathering and a 3 bladed folding prop are very differently treated. In absolutes the changes are small but lots of small changes do lead to large changes. If I mis-typed it as 3 bladed feathering that is my mistake, the current prop is listed as 3 bladed FOLDING.
Yes, furling will be slower than changing jibs, Jam is now rated as changing jibs having previously been rated with furling jibs. They probably should have been rated this way all along.
None of the noted items aside from possibly the rig composition which in default values mean a carbon rig will have a lighter weight and lower CG had a large individual impact on the rating.
The list was more to point out that the inputs for the boat actually were not the same so it’s a little bit of an apples to pears comparison but not as bad a comparing apples to chickens.
There are always efforts to improve the science and the VPP. This is ongoing work by a group of very smart people. Here is the list of those involved with the ITC (International Technical Committee) being those who work directly on the VPP https://orc.org/index.asp?id=62. This is done proactively versus sailors having to protest ratings as is the policy in other rating systems. As the pool of boats being rated has grown so has the work by the ITC to be sure the rule is fairly rating all boats. There are some types of boats which are rare outside of North America (ULDBs) and there has been a directed effort to make sure these boats are accurately and fairly rated by ORC as their numbers have grown in the database and more performance data has become available. Same for relatively wide boats for their length such as Class 40s.
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.
For anybody who’s been wondering what the Globe 40 was all about, and get a taste for these impressive boats, Take a look at this video. Seattle’s Craig Horsfield, who was on the Amhas team that finished second overall, is featured several times in the video.
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.
Correction: A previous version of this post said that the yacht Aquavit lost crew overboard. It did not. It abandoned the race and helped in the recovery of the persons overboard.My apologies to the skipper and crew of Aquavit. This story is still evolving and I hope to get the facts straight soon. KH
If there is a race that signifies the best of Seattle Sailing, this is probably it. By the best, it doesn’t mean the most important or competitive. It does mean fun, inclusiveness, sportsmanship and dose of PNW weather, which can be benign or sporty. Saturday’s Blakely Rock Benefit Race was sporty. So sporty, in fact, a serious rescue was required. Fellow racers, of course, were up for it. More on that later. Results, if you must.
First, we get the photos from our hero Jan Anderson. See the rest of a large album here.
Now, let’s look at inclusiveness. BRBR is a “fun” enough race kids are welcomed. Since this found its way to Youtube from Grady Morgan’s boat, I figure it’s OK to show here. And how did they finish? Better question, who cares?
And now for the sportsmanship and safety issues. This speaks to our great community. During one of the puffs on the return leg from the Rock, the Folkboat Aquavit and other vessels dropped out of the race to help crew overboard situations. Note that the details are still coming together. It’s known that the Seattle Sailing Club boat Avalanche was able to cover the crew overboard. I also heard a firsthand account that one of the overboard crew was in seriously rough shape before rescue. 50-degree water will do that. I’ll let Sloop Tavern Yacht Club Commodore Mike Scribner’s letter to STYC members explain what is known so far.
Hello Sloopers,
Writing to let you know the status of our fellow sailors who were part of the Crew Overboard (CoB) incident during this weekend’s Carol Pearl Blakely Rock Benefit Race. All individuals who were in the water were recovered successfully and transported to on-shore emergency medical services as necessary. All have recovered fully.
A brief recap of what occurred: (This is based on our best current understanding, and is subject to adjustment as we learn more.)
There were three CoB calls within several minutes of each other from three separate vessels participating in the event.
1 of the CoB Calls was withdrawn almost immediately by the vessel as a crew member was found below in the cabin after a crew count occurred.
1 vessel was able to self-recover their crew member who was overboard.
1 vessel had 3 crew members in the water
CoB calls were made by the involved vessel.
The Coast Guard and Seattle Fire responded immediately.
Several event participants immediately retired and/or lowered their sails in order to provide search and recovery assistance.
1 event participant began coordinating the response via radio with the Coast Guard and Seattle Fire & Rescue.
Several event participants attempted to recover individuals in the water, but due to mechanical limitations and higher free-boards, only one vessel was able to recover all three persons in the water.
The recovering vessel was towed into Shilshole Bay by Seattle Fire & Rescue with the crew and recovered COBs on board.
All three individuals were transported to a medical facility and eventually released.
All have recovered fully as of this communication.
I want to take a moment to commend the actions of several vessels that were in the race who immediately responded in an attempt to render assistance.
S/V Avalanche – Skipper: Jean-Piere Boespflug – This was the vessel that was ultimately able to recover all of the individuals who were in the water.
S/V Irie – Skipper: George Dowding – This was the vessel that conducted a substantial amount of on-scene coordination with the Coast Guard and Seattle Fire & Rescue.
This CoB incident could have ended very differently, but did not because of the heroic actions of the vessels, skippers, and crews above. If you see any of these individuals out in our community; please thank them for their quick response in an emergency situation. If you see them at the Sloop; buy them a beer. They deserve that and more.
A number of other vessels also ceased racing and attempted to render assistance to the individuals in the water. Their actions are also commendable and should be recognized for their efforts. These vessels are:
S/V Those Guys – Skipper: Tim Huse
S/V 20 Degrees – Skipper: Duncan Chalmers
S/V Gusto – Skipper: Beth Miller
S/V Perfectly Strange – Skipper: Paul Kalina
S/V Aquavit – Skipper: Dave Sinson
S/V Impulsive – Skipper: Ulf Georg Gwildis
There may have been other vessels involved; our understanding of the incident and all boats on scene is developing. If you have more information; please reach out to Commodore@styc.org.
Additionally; we as a club and the broader community must acknowledge and thank the professional & volunteer first responders who were on scene within minutes. This included response teams from the Coast Guard Sector Puget Sound, Seattle Harbor Patrol Fire & Rescue, and the Seattle Fire Department. Their response in these situations is critical to saving lives.
Moving Forward:
At this time we are working with all individuals known to be involved in the CoB incidents to fully understand the timeline and circumstances that lead up to these events. As we work with those individuals more information may be released; we ask for your patience as we work through our response. There have already been a number of posts on social media and email threads being passed back and forth on the incident. Information sharing is always encouraged, but I ask that we respect the process and the privacy of the individuals involved.
STYC is committed to putting on safe events and part of that commitment is taking the time to learn everything we can from accidents when they happen. Once we fully understand what transpired, a report will be presented to the STYC Executive Board for review and eventually released to general membership and CPBRBR Participants. The objective of this process is to identify any specific actions that STYC can take as a club to improve safety as well as identifying opportunities to educate our members, and other sailors in the community, on safety best practices, risk identification, management, and mitigation. Sailing is an inherently dangerous sport, even on the calmest days. A 100% mitigation of risk would likely mean never going out at all…In lieu of that; we can prepare ourselves with the right tools, the right training, and the right mindset.
If you have any additional information regarding the incident this weekend, have any questions, or are interested in being part of the safety review process. Please let me know. Commodore@styc.org
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.