Seattle YC’s second of three Tri-Island races, the Vashon Island/Pt. Robinson (short course) Race, could hardly have been sailed in better conditions last Saturday. The solid northerly whisked the fleet to the south end of Vashon Island, and after some predictably screwy conditions at getting around the end of Vashon, the fleet enjoyed a solid beat in great breeze to the finish.
Long Course
Steve Johnson’s TP 52 Mist picked up its first big victory, finishing third on the water to Smoke and Glory, but correcting on both in the ORC 1. The three boats were within four minutes of each other on the water and on corrected time. Jim Marta’s Eye Candy scored her second series win with a 20+ minute victory in ORC 2.
On the PHRF side of things it was Bob Strong’s Firefly (with her rating straightened out) that won her class and overall. Madrona and Absolutely finished second and third. Brad Baker of Swiftsure Yachts provided some insight into Firefly‘s race:
The race really played into our hands. We were short handed, so basically tried not to get fancy both tactically and maneuvers wise. Consequently we really didn’t bang any corners on the way down and actually did pretty well against the first three fast boats, Madrona, Absolutely and Constellation. The wind got funky after Point Robinson, but managed to fill in right with us as we headed to the south end of Vashon. This kept everyone close. At the south end the transition again shortened up as the wind filled with us again and we were very close to Madrona and Absolutely and actually passed Constellation at the south end. We managed to have a reasonably good sail change from the #1 to the #3 as we headed into Colvos Passage. Other than a jib halyard cover failing we had a pretty error free time of it. Thanks to Pete McGonagle’s quick reaction and a quick change to another halyard we kept losses to a minimum. Again on the beat back we realized we were in a very good position, so we tried hard not to do anything stupid and just hold on. The biggest risk/gain on the beat was deciding to follow Madrona on the west side of Blake Island. This was the way to go and cemented our lead on Constellation, caught us up to Absolutely and kept us hot on the heels of Madrona. We pretty much did what Madrona did for the rest of the beat to the finish. It was as good as it gets as far as the sailing goes and the wind gods conspired with us to for a good day for Firefly!
Short Course
A number of great rivalries and very close scores mark the short course classes. Last Tango won the J/105 class and overall, giving her the lead in J/105 class for the series. Different Drummer won the Vashon Race, but the Beneteau 36.7 Helios barely sits atop the class 5 for the series by virtue of her win in Smith Island. Actually, four boats are within two points, so it’s all to play for the final race of the series. And in class 7, Madam Pele and Kiwi Express have developed quite the rivalry, with each winning a race and going into the last race of the series tied.
The cruiser/racer classes have fully established themselves in the Tri Island series. A dozen boats split into two classes competed, with Jim Medley’s Bavaria 38 Puffin winning class 8 and Ryan Helling’s Velella winning class 9. Ryan Helling (who lives aboard Velella!) gave us this synopsis of the race:
The race was great. We were really all in awe of the weather. Our course was from Shilshole to Blakely Rock to Duwamish Head and back to Shilshole with consistent breeze that built steadily after rounding Duwamish. The whole racer/cruiser class was flying sails which keeps things interesting. It was a broad range of boats but all quite competitive. There was only about a 20 minute spread of corrected time over the full class of 12 boats! We finished shortly after noon, barbequed back at the dock at Shilshole, then sailed to Port Madison for the night!
And how about these photos from Jan Anderson. Click here for the rest.
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 US Sailing’s Youth Racing News for the month. Unfortunately, no Pacific NWers on the Youth Worlds Roster. Many other features for you eager youth racers.
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.
From our friends at Pressure Drop, an update on the Oregon Offshore. I just checked the tracker and Rage is just turning the corner into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
24 Boats signed up for the 2018 edition of the Oregon Offshore, which departed Portland yesterday for
the 193 nm jaunt up to Victoria BC. A feeder race for the Vcic Maui for some, a start to summer cruising in the
PNW for others
Report from Thursday afternoon:
Looks like a steady windy velocity from the East/Northeast doesn’t leave room for much tactics. Just point the nose up the coast and head North.
This could change later in the day and evening as wind is expected to switch North with an increase in velocity. We could see a split of the fleet based on tactics.
If you have not heard the news about Free Bowl of Soup, unfortunately ran over a river log on the way to Astoria.
They sailed into Astoria Wednesday for an emergency haul out to inspect the damage and found both prop blades sheared off!
After a last ditch effort to borrow a prop from a fellow J105 in Portland, the fit was not right. We wish these guys the best and and expect them to return to reclaiming their glory in 2019.
Enjoy the warm beds and dry clothes boys!
Boats set off from buoy 2 at 0900 this morning with a great start! Wind conditions have been stable all day from the W/NW at 15-17kts shifting N.
Most boats pointed straight up the coaston Port tack. Spar Trek hugged the closest to the coast and made great progress until an afternoon tack to join the fleet.
Many years you can see boats up to 25miles offshore but westerly breezes told the boats to head straight north.
In the last few hours we saw two great crosses between Anam Cara and Hana Mari with Anam Cara crossing 500 meters in front.
Salient and Abstract seem to be playing nice and are less than 200 meters apart! Wow!
If breeze continues over night we should see progress from the fleet up the coast with the A fleet passing Neah Bay into the Straight de Juan de Fuca Friday morning
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Rage on Rage
There is nothing more frustrating than light, shifty winds while trying to round the mark. Oh wait, yes there is when the rest of fleet has wind behind you!
Rage’s lead may diminish here as they fight to round the buoy outside of the straight in light winds.
They have two more hours before high tide and winds are not predicted to pick up for a few more hours as well… just in time for the other yachts to round…
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 number of people have decried the Leg 8 finish of the Volvo Ocean Race in Newport, Rhode Island as somewhat of a travesty. After all, Mapfre ghosted back from 5th (in a 7 boat fleet!) 24 hours before to win the leg by a few seconds. One look at the fleets’ plotter courses tells the story. It’s agonizing just looking at it. That said, I’ll submit that’s one of the things that makes this sport special. Yeah, the “better” sailors, or better sailed boats or better prepared boats usually win, but not always. No, it’s not fair. And sometimes it’s painful. But that possibility gives everybody a reason to stay out there, even when it seems hopeless. Who among us hasn’t clutched defeat from the hands of victory? Clutched victory from the hands of defeat? Anyway, here’s the video of the Mapfre and Brunel finishing, with the video starting a couple minutes before the finish.
And then there’s the Race to the Straits. Now, most of the crews were too busy to spend their time videotaping, but the Sloop Tavern crowd managed to get some footage of the finishes. Here’s some of Saturday’s finish in a nice breeze and sunshine:
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.
This question came out with all of Nate Creitz’ overflowing, bubbling, enthusiasm for last weekend’s Race to the Straits (RTTS). The double and single-handed Sloop Tavern Yacht Club event from Seattle to Port Townsend and back (with an overnight in the unique sailing town Port Townsend) hit its limit of 125 boats several days before the race, and it’s no wonder. The atmosphere before, during and after the event is special. Let’s get to his question later. First, the race.
The Leg North
It was hard to find a frown in Port Townsend Saturday afternoon. The fleet had just spent 4-6 hours beating in 12-18 knots of breeze all the way from Seattle, with a boost from a strong ebb much of the way. The winners, of course, had something to smile about. But the staggered start (starting times reflecting each boat’s time allowance for the race) meant that the slow boat crews got to watch as much of the fast boats came thundering by.
Kirk Utter and crew Pete Dorsey didn’t get to enjoy that. Since Utter’s early 1970s Cal 33 Teaser II is one of the not-as-fast boats at a PHRF of 153, he was one of the early starters. And in a breeze upwind that Lapworth design just rolled on through the earlier starters and stayed well ahead of the later starters. “She just loves that stuff,” reported Utter. Carrying the #1 from start to finish, Teaser II showed a lot of folks who weren’t born before her that old boats are not necessarily slow.
Following Teaser II, the next monohulls in were Carl and Carol Buchan’s Madrona and Frederic Laffitte’s Kyrnos which finished virtually overlapped.
Boomer Depp’s video from Saturday:
The multihulls flew in the conditions. The Corsair F28R Aliikai was first to finish of all the boats, and Corsair F31R Freda Mae was the second catamaran in.
The winds were perfect for those non-overlapping headsail boats that could keep up the performance by flattening out the main and not change headsails (or have to sail with the wrong one up!) Boats like Madrona, the J/120 Shearwater and the J/105s all thrived. Boats like the Evelyn 32 Poke and Destroy and a trio of Santa Cruz 27s were stuck changing down to #3s when the wind built and changing back up to #1s as the wind lightened up near the finish.
There was the usual puzzle of fitting everybody into Point Hudson, and nearly all the fleet fit. The classic Q boat Grayling had engine issues that required a tow.
Somewhat surprisingly, there were at least three collisions out there including one between Mark Brink’s Tonic and the quarter tonner Bingo that resulted in Bingo‘s DSQ.
The Return Leg
The race back to Seattle presented a different challenge – the beautiful northerly of Saturday teased the fleet with some great conditions that disappeared at times and the wonderful tides of the day before played havoc with the fleet, especially getting around the Double Bluff buoy.
The orca J-pod made an appearance in Admiralty Inlet, presumably to help Dieter Creitz with his orca science project at school.
The conditions meant a lot of gybes seeking out the right breeze while staying out of bad current. It took a toll on all these shorthanded crews, especially in the flying sails classes, and especially in the flying sails/singlehanded class. In that class, Different Drummer‘s Charles Hill figured neither he nor anyone else was going to finish the full course by the 7pm time limit, so he quit just a bit early. Sure enough, Bill Gibson on Latitude stuck it out, and finished before the deadline to take the class win for the weekend.
Jan Anderson’s photos. Click on any to enlarge and by all means visit her site to order yours. Click to enlarge.
Teaser II, charging to weather on Saturday.
Nate and Dieter, father and son.
Ben and Jennifer Braden in Moore Uff Da
The Express 27 Thumper with Andy Schwenk doing, well, something.
Carl and Carol Buchan on the way to winning overall.
The fleet working upwind near Point No Point.
Grayling on Sunday.
Slick spinnaker on Sunday.
Teaser II playing the shore Sunday.
The ageless (and pampered) Mara.
Blue Martini
Poke and Destroy
That was a theme for much of the fleet on Sunday. Where few if any were expected to finish the full course, several did in a building southerly. “It was really weird,” Alex Simanis reported. “We were trying to stay away from Edmonds but ended up there and did quite well, finishing within the time limit on our light #1.”
Not so, however, for everyone. Father Nate and son Dieter Creitz missed finishing the full course by 7 seconds, with Dieter counting down the time. As nobody finished in Class 5, the class was scored for the halfway finish and Three Ring Circus won handily anyway. There were no finishers in classes 2, 4, 5, 6, and 11.
But it was Ben and Jen Glass on the lightweight Ocelot that mastered the light downwind work on Sunday, finishing about 25 minutes ahead of Madrona among the fastest monohulls. Madrona had a fresh crew, with Dalton and Lindsey Bergan stepping in while Carl and Carol Buchan stepped away.
The results show a familiar list of winners including Madrona overall, Al Hughes on the ex-BOC boat Dogbark in the non-flying sails class, Moonshine, Tonic, Dennis Clark (btw, Dennis, give the boat a name), Poke and Destroy, and several others. But the thing that is truly special about this race is how welcome everyone feels, even the skippers who aren’t the serious types and the boats that haven’t seen a new sail in 15 years. There were kids, dogs, dodgers, grills hanging off about half the rails, moms and pops, and liveaboards. There’s no doubt each and every one adjusted their expectations for the racing part and had a great time pursuing them.
Accident For Dan Randolph, Recovery Expected
Dan Randolph on Saturday.
The details are still a little unclear, but our fellow racer Dan Randolph suffered a serious accident while motoring his Farr 30 Nefarious home on Sunday afternoon. Randolph and a crew member apparently hit a gray whale, hard. Randolph was sent flying forward into the boat, and reportedly broke some ribs. He was in the hospital Monday. At this time, I haven’t been able to get many details, but I’ll be seeking those out in the coming days. Our thoughts are with him.
UPDATE: I spoke to Ray Hines, part of the Nefarious team (apparently they refer to themselves as “Nefarians”). Dan is scheduled to be out of ICU today, and had surgery yesterday to repair internal bleeding and perhaps more. He is expected to recover. His crew Scott Petersen suffered some cracked ribs, but Dan got the worst of it when he hit a corner of the companionway, and subsequently blacked out. It happened near Meadow Point, so Scott was able to get to the dock where help was waiting, as was a ride to Harborview. No news on the condition of the whale, but the boat appears undamaged.
The Question
Now, regarding Nate’s question about when will other clubs notice and copy the success of Race to the Straits.
I’m pretty sure they have noticed. In my experience, the traditional clubs have a hard time changing course. It is not like destination racing and shorthanded racing haven’t been mentioned before. (they have, multiple times) But there’s something special in the Sloop Tavern mindset that the leaders responded “why the hell not?” and just did it. Make no mistake, it’s a logistical challenge get all the staggered start times, provide the not-usually-a-racer crowd with ratings so they can do this one event, dealing with the folk in Port Townsend (who are eager hosts). Add to that a pizza punctuated skippers meeting and the big dinner Saturday night, and it’s a lot of work. But it sure seems the STYC folk are having fun doing it!
Maybe the task is too daunting for clubs used to doing everything from Seattle?
I’ll add a question to Nate’s: When will the sailors come up with some new courses and new formats? For whatever reason, the round-the-buoys race until you drop thing just isn’t as appealing to many keelboat sailors as it used to be while the less predictable, more organic racing like RTTS, Round the County and Van Isle 360 thrive. Personally, I think there are places for both. But in the end, no matter how intransigent the clubs are, it’s the sailors who get to decide. Want more shorthanded racing? Multiple stages? Season Championship series? Build it and they will come. Or not.
Is there the will to energize the racing scene with some altered or new events? Perhaps not. Last fall’s sailish.com survey indicated there is the will.
But judging from the scene at Port Townsend Saturday night and on the Sound both days, the excitement seems to be there.
A Quick Slipstream Word
Slipstream on her way to finishing at the halfway point on Sunday and hoisting herself to second place.
A quick congratulations to my boat partners Joe, Becky and Charlotte. As I predicted in Bruce’s weather outlook, Charlotte managed the tactics on the return trip to lift our C&C 36 Slipstream‘s finish to 2nd in the non-flying sails class.
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 Wet Wednesday and we have some great regional videos to see. I’m very excited about the first one from Jeremy Bush. He worked on the Over Tacoma video from last week, and then did another combining onboard footage with drone shots. I think it conveys a lot about what evening racing in the PNW is all about.
Then from our northern friends we have a slick sponsored Blackline Marine THRASH regatta video from the Victoria, BC regatta April 21-22. We don’t have a report from the regatta, but the results are here.
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 wasn’t looking good for the Smith Island Race last Saturday. After an 0900 start the long and short course fleets (with a couple of exceptions) were bunched up, stuck south of Point No Point with 0-1 knots of wind, facing a flood. None of this was a surprise to Bruce Hedrick, who’d suggest lunch in Kingston would be a good option (it was). A few boats, starting ironically with the fastest boats, had already withdrawn. Nor’wester had somehow managed to drop an anchor in about 400 feet of water.
It was the first race in Seattle Yacht Club’s annual Tri-island Series, complete with separate long, short and cruiser/racer courses. The Long Course takes boats all the way north to Smith Island and return.
Many more boats withdrew before a mild but steady northerly filled. But fill it did and gave those that stuck it out a good, albeit light air, race.
The fleet was now down to a handful of boats, none of which had the speed to break too far into the lead. The ORC “O” class had abandoned completely, but ORC “1” still had two stalwarts, Jim Marta’s Eye Candy and Justin Beals’ Sadie Mae. On the PHRF side, Grace, with Grace, Bravo Zulu, Freja, Lodos and DarkSide were closely bunched going around Point No Point.
In the mix were the short course boats, except for the Flying Tiger 10M Izakaya which was clear ahead. Izakaya was the lone starter in the Sportboat class. Skipper Iain Christenson solidified his lead by heading to the Whidbey side early, rounding the Double Bluff buoy well ahead of her class. In the end, she won overall by just five seconds over Thomas Andrewes’ Davidson 29 Madame Pele. Pele had worked hard throughout the drifting conditions, taking advantage of every zephyr using an effective drifter.
In the cruiser/racer division, the Beneteau 345 Lightfoot ran away with the victory. This fleet continues to gain momentum, and there are now two classes.
Back on the Long Course, it became an entertaining battle. Onboard Grace, we went for the Whidbey side of Admiralty Inlet, and for a while it looked to us like the defining winning move, but when we came back wiht the rest of our fleet, we’d actually lost ground. As night fell, the northerly held, turning to a westerly as the fleet close reached to Smith Island. Eye Candy, Freja and Bravo Zulu were around first followed by Grace and with Grace (yes, a bit weird on the names) rounding overlapped at the east end of Minor Island. The persistent J/109 Lodos wasn’t far behind. It was a beautiful moonlit reach back to Admiralty Inlet where the wind lightened once again, but did not die completely.
The Long Course boats all finished the next morning, led by Grace but with Lodos and Bravo Zulu correcting to firsts in class and overall.
It was a hard but good race in that Pacific Northwest kind of way, with maddening light winds much of the time, adverse currents and a relentless cold. All that said, it was a beautiful sail with opportunities to get ahead, great competitors and some of the most challenging waters to figure out anywhere. For those interested, I’ve philosophized a bit about this kind of sailing in a separate post.
Results here. The full photo albums here and here thanks to Alex Kimball, who also provided the photos here.
The Class “0” start
DarkSide and with Grace, two boats that made it to Smith Island.
Eye Candy, first to finish in the ORC division and Crossfire
Lodos, long course overall winner, before the start
Nooka, from the cruiser/racer division, at the 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.
Allan Johnson steering Andy Mack’s J/122 Grace before the start of the Smith Island Race.
“What does everybody think? Are we a dying breed?” It was in the 22nd hour of the Smith Island Race, which had been a drifty, damp and cold affair. We were leading the remaining fleet and spirits were actually pretty high, if a little drained.
Dan Falk posed the question in a way only Dan can, in his resonant, confident tone. Even though the conversation didn’t go into the philosophical direction it could have, it certainly got everybody thinking. Well, it got me thinking.
Keelboat racing has certainly faded in North America in recent years, in some places like the Pacific Northwest more than others. The many reasons have been discussed ad nauseam; expense, a time-pressed culture that doesn’t allow for this time-consuming sport, handicapping issues, et. al.
But I don’t think Dan’s question was about keelboat racing in general. I think it was about the whole overnight/long distance question. The “fleet” we were leading consisted of seven boats. It was only a fleet of 21 to start with, a far cry from the dozens (hundreds) that used to do this race back in the 80s. The short and cruising courses had another 25 starters but with the time limits they were assured of at least being home for a late dinner.
No, the question was, was the breed of sailor who’d stay out all night in the cold, hanging on in a race for up to 30 hours, dying. On the face of it, the answer would seem yes. The skippers and crews of the two TP52s and R/P 55 pulled the plug on the race in the afternoon, though even with a few breaths of air the time limit would not be a problem for them. There are tough, skilled and very competitive crews on all those boats, but they made the understandable choice to head home.
I’m sure they slept better than we did and got a whole lot more chores than we did as well. But there wasn’t one among Grace‘s crew that regretted staying out there. We all traded emails affirming that the next day. Even one crew who couldn’t make it chimed in on the thread wishing he’d been there. We were first to finish, and third overall on corrected time. While it would have been great to win on corrected time, the competition wasn’t at issue.
It’s something other than competition that kept us going and made us happy looking back. Sure, it’s the camaraderie, the use and honing of skills, the being out there in nature. Yada yada. But for me there’s something more to it than that, and it came clear to me because it’s been a while since I’ve raced overnight. For me it was the chance to do a mini restart. Life ashore is full of routines, challenges and expectations. Life at sea, especially with relative strangers, is full of changing and challenging conditions (without anybody but Neptune to blame), new conversations, physicality – even if it is an oppressive cold like the other night.
You come out of it reset. Tired, cold, sore, probably behind on the to-do list, but reset to face life ashore with a new set of eyes. Chances are there are some new jokes rolling around your head, even if you can’t tell some of them ashore.
This region used to be a mecca of overnight racing. It was at a time when the navigation, boatspeed and even attire weren’t nearly as good as they are today. I never got to enjoy the Around the Sounds and Great Equalizers, but they sound like they were lots of fun. There were hundreds of boats out there, even in humble little 25-footers that were of dubious construction with crews with minimal experience. Have we changed that much?
I submit we have not. I think sailors have just forgotten about the joys and challenges of overnight racing. I believe they’ve been told too often about the discomforts and not enough about the camaraderie. I believe the racing culture has taken a temporary course toward competition and comfort rather than adventure and camaraderie.
There are plenty of long distance races that are not only thriving, but are bursting at the seams. The Mackinac races in the Midwest, ARC on the Atlantic, Fastnet, Sydney Hobart and many others are hitting the limits. In Europe there’s an abundance of overnight racing. In our area, Swiftsure has been losing ground but it’s still strong, and it could flare up at any time to the fleet sizes of the 1980s. Then there’s the R2AK, set to start in about a month. Now, that’s discomfort that dwarfs a Smith Island Race on 40-footer, but now in it’s fourth year it’s come to full maturity with no signs of slowing down.
So, if you shake your head at those of us who stumble in, cold and really really hungry some morning, think again. The best part of racing might not be the competition, or getting home to a warm bed. The best part might be eating lasagna on deck in a drizzle while listening to that joke that would never be told on shore. You return to the dock as a person reset – which is just as important now as it ever was.
No, we’re not a dying breed. I’m pretty sure we’re just in hibernation.
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.
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.
Jan and Skip Anderson don’t aren’t always lucky enough to pick the right day to photograph on a 2-day regatta, but sometimes they hit the nail on the head, as they did for CYC’s PSSR last weekend in Seattle. Maybe they read Bruce’s forecast. The event, which features as many buoy races as is reasonable given the conditions, rewards refined crew work and tactical course management.
Here are some of Jan’s shots. Click to enlarge, and by all means go to her site to buy some!
J/105s
More J/105s
Charging the line
Going Ballistic
What’s it rate?
Shrek.
San Juan 24s still at it
Raven leading Crazy Ivan
J/80 Raven
Crazy Ivan and Underdog
Even CYC’s Race Fleet Captain Matt Wood struggled when reporting Saturday’s racing: “Saturday posed significant challenges for both the competitors and the Race Committees, as the highly vaunted Puget Sound Convergence zone made a strong appearance. Racing started in southerlies which began backing to SW then West before dying and allowing a Northerly to fill in later in the day. Unfortunately races changed into reaching parades as 90 degree shifts plagued both courses.”
They may have been parades, but several races were sailed and, hey, we don’t sail because conditions are always postcard-perfect.
Sunday was another story. It was breeze-on from the north, bright sunshine and there were even some waves to play with.
The big boat ORC fleet was a complete no-show, and the PHRF turnout was sparse. The decline of handicap fleets in this event continues, but there were four healthy one-design classes (J/105, Melges 24, J/80 and San Juan 24). The J/24s sailed the weekend before and the Moore 24s were a no-show for the CYC event.
As usual in a multi-race series, there were no real surprises in the winners circles. Shrek made a return to the racecourse but had to accept second place to the well-tuned Absolutely in the “big boat” class. The Sierra 26s Uno and Dos were walking away from PHRF Class 2 after the first day and handily finished the job on Sunday. Jerry Diercks, David Brede, Bryan Rhodes and Ken Johnson (on a tie-breaker) won their respective one-design classes. Results here.
A clear bright spot on the Seattle racing scene is the J/80 fleet. The design is one of the early sport boats with minimal cabin space and an asymmetrical spinnaker standard. Seven J/80s completed all the races, and it came down to the last race to determine the winner. Clearly, there’s more to this fleet than just wins and losses. Bryan Rhodes of the J/80 Crazy Ivan reports after his great duel with John Sezer’s Reckless:
I don’t have my boat in the (Sail Northwest owner-club boat setup) club, nor does John, but we are the two exceptions. It’s a great program for owners and has been a big boost to growing the local fleet. For example, there’s Lek Dimarucot, who owns Underdog. He started racing on Monday nights on one of the club boats and then purchased Underdog and put it in the club.
As for the J/80 fleet, I’m the fleet president and joined the J/80 North American Class Association board last fall. It’s been helpful to meet with other board members and learn what they are doing to grow interest in the J/80. We are implementing many of the things that have worked for other fleets – getting together after racing on Monday and Wednesday nights, having an annual Fleet Series with a set schedule of events, and staging larger events in the J/80 West Coast Championship that was raced during PSSR. It’s added a social aspect to the racing and fits into the active Northwest lifestyle that so many live in the Seattle area to enjoy.
PSSR was a great event despite the fluky winds on Saturday. We had five boats take a first place in seven races. The starting line was a lot shorter than some of the recent events, which, combined with the strong ebbs, made for some interesting starts. The regatta came down to the last race and we barely edged out John on Reckless by a few seconds. I wasn’t sure we had won the race until I asked the race committee. In that race he rounded the first leeward mark in 4th or 5th place but made a huge gain on the next windward lap. He’s a tremendous competitor.
-Bryan Rhodes
Thanks, Bryan, for taking the time to send in the tale of the J/80s. Your efforts to make the J/80s a fleet and not just a bunch of boats is clearly paying off.
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.
