All photos by Jan Anderson. Check out the rest on her Smugmug site.
I got the chance to see the last race of the 505 North Americans, and wouldn’t you know, it was the worst of the series, or so I’m told. The light wind everyone feared had held off pretty much the first three days, but this last penultimate race was the kind of Bellingham Bay Race that leaves a little to be desired. It was, however, fun to watch. Douglas Hagan got off to a commanding lead after being the starting rabbit and getting all the way out to the favored right side of the course. Carl and Carol Buchan worked from a disastrous start and you could almost hear the drums beating as they moved their way up through the fleet. In the end they came up a bit short and Hagan held onto a well-earned victory.
In the end, young Riley Gibbs and Reeve Dunne edged Howie Hamlin and Jeff Nelson for the top overall spot. Hamlin couldn’t be too disappointed or surprised, as he set up Gibbs with a boat and a great deal of mentoring along the way.
But the bigger aspect of this event was its success as an event. 50 boats (well, 49 on the water but who’s counting) competed, and by all accounts it was one of the best regattas in a long time.
The Bellingham Yacht Club faithful got it all right. They promoted early and got the club and class excited about the event. They lined up sponsorship without sponsorship being the focus of the event. The race committee did a great job. There were plenty of shoreside activities. They set up a spectator boat. Kudos to Mike Poulos, Paul Pihl and I’m sure man others who pulled this off.
For those of you who don’t know, not only is the 505 the sexiest (IMHO) boat around, it’s one of the most cohesive set of sailors around. They love helping each other find new speed, they love promoting the class to other (including new) sailors, and they appreciate the spark plugs in the class that keep it going. Any class that has annual food fights as part of its history has got to be a lot of fun.
I’ll be writing up a short piece for Sailing World on this event, which will appear in the magazine sometime later this year.
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.
Corinthian Yacht Club’s second annual POD (Pacific One-Design) Regatta proved a great success with Stars, a healthy pre-nationals 505 fleet, Melges 24s, J/24s, J/80s, J/105s, three 6-meters and RS Aeros on hand. A couple of Lasers snuck into the Aero fleet as well, but clearly the lack of a Laser class was a disappointment to the District Secretary (me).
The conditions were awesome for Sunday’s races. Cool and breezy, with the courses out far enough to get some waves. There must have been some tired sailors when all was said and done. Kevin Welch and the Mikey team put together an exceptionally strong regatta in the Melges class, while Carol and Carl Buchan won the hard-fought 505 class. Dan Falk continued his winning ways in the RS Aero class with David Brink putting together a strong first regatta in the boat to finish second.
It’s great to have a viable spring one design regatta, and equally great to have Jan Anderson’s photos to look at. Go to her smugmug site and support the great work she does. In the meantime enjoy these photos:
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.
Houses have their “kids’ rooms,” fitness clubs and some stores their “play areas” and recreational clubs their “bouncy houses.” Boats have, or should have, their “kid’s time down below.” Kids seem to do OK in limited spaces, as long as they get to bounce off things.
Amara had the appropriate wingspan for Slipstream’s interior. Gabe was just just thoroughly happy, and I’m pretty sure he started the jumping thing. Charlotte was flying already. One of the subsequent landings was not so great.
Of course there are the problems of hard edges, breakable items and the motion of boat that can throw off the timing of even the best of jumpers. But, for the most part, you can send the willing little crew members down below where they can take off their life jackets and heavy clothes and get goofy. Mom and dad and their buddies from work can hang out on deck and enjoy a beautiful sail.
Two things to look out for. Kids discover forehatches in a hurry and love climbing in and out. And unless you’re keeping watch, they might end up on the foredeck unbeknownst. A rule about life jackets on deck usually slows that process down enormously.
The second thing is one has to keep an eye on the action down below. Yesterday Becky asked me if I thought the three kids below were were being safe enough. “Sure,” I said, “I think…” (Blood curdling scream here mid sentence) Yes, as I was mumbling how safe they were, little Charlotte jammed a foot on one of those jumps. She survived, and in fact it only took about 10 minutes for her to be back to her bouncy self. I admonished Gabe that jumping across the boat should not be done and it had to stop. I think it even did stop. At least there were no more screams. And I’d guess that all of our little crew members will be a little more careful in the future.
Another beautiful evening on Slipstream with everybody going home happy. I probably won’t tempt fate by saying “Sure, they’re fine” immediately. Maybe a five-second delay would do it.
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.
Nigel Barron, sailing on a J/105 reports a drifter of a Race to the Straits start, with the 8 o’clock starters still hovering about Meadow Point when he got started. From there it was a drifter up to Point No Point, where the fleet largely parked it up. We have this on good authority of Scott Malone, watching from shore.
Keeping Marrowstone to starboard.
Nigel and team packed it in. “Very impressed if anyone will make it to the halfway finish spot at Double Bluff.” Nigel and team opted for the “iron genny” method and headed for the Portage Canal shortcut to Port Townsend. He didn’t sound unhappy – “I’ll take blue skies and a day on the water!”
Ah, but wait. This from our friend Joe Bersch reporting around 4:30 that there’s a beautiful 12 knot northerly at Carkeek that filled in. Maybe there were some (halfway) finishers.
Add your comments in the space below or email them to me and I’ll work them into a future report.
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 is the start of SYC’s Tri-Island Series and it is once again going to be interesting. As you can see from the Saturday morning chart we have a weak ridge of high pressure that developed over the area today after a weak front passed through this morning. The rule for the Pacific Northwest is that the first day that ridge builds is going to be the best day for wind and sure enough, we’ll have small craft advisories in the Straits with the wind backing off after midnight. Since this isn’t a very strong high pressure system and it’s not very round you can expect it to be pushed around by the next low pressure system which shows up on the Sat PM chart. As the high shifts to the other side of the Cascades you can expect the northwesterly in the Sound become more northerly and northeasterly. This will cause that down slope compressional heating which brought us those record high temps earlier in the month.
Saturday A.M. Surface Map
Saturday P.M. Surface Map
What does this mean for the race? The tides really aren’t that bad as we’ll be starting in the weak flood of the day (.24knts in Admiralty) with the slack occurring at 1042 and going to the big ebb of the day which will help us get up the Sound, out of Admiralty and into the Straits.
TIDAL CURRENT for Admiralty Inlet
0942 .24 Flood
1042 Slack
1512 2.13 Ebb
1854 Slack
2200 1.8 Flood
0112 Slack
0442 2.23 Ebb
0854 Slack
1036 .56 Flood
The problem will be the light and variable winds in the morning which will persist until early afternoon with a northerly showing up at Pt. Townsend about noon and then working its way down the Sound by 1300-1400hrs. The key will be to make the most of the wind you have and then find the river of current that is running the strongest in the direction you want to go. When you can start to smell the pulp mill at Port Townsend, work to the west where there will be more wind and as you work up Marrowstone Island the port tack puffs will be lifts. You should still be in the ebb and from the Marrowstone Light it could be one long port tack all the way to Minor Island. If you find yourself on a course for the Pt. Partridge Light, or you find the true windspeed starting to drop, take a short hitch to the west to get back into what should be a building westerly, 15-20 knots by 1700 hrs which is the when the big boats should be at Smith Island.
Click on any image to enlarge.
Saturday 0900 MM5
Saturday 1100 MM5
Saturday 1200 MM5
Saturday 1300 MM5
Saturday 1400 MM5
Saturday 1500 MM5
Saturday 1600 MM5
Saturday 1700 MM5
Saturday 1800 MM5
Saturday 2000 MM5
Saturday 2200 MM5
Sunday 0000 MM5
Sunday 0100 MM5
Sunday 0300 MM5
The nice thing about running this race in spring is that the kelp hasn’t had time to reach any kind of length or become that keel grabbing forest that occurs in the late summer and early fall. Just remember, it can grow at a rate of 18” per day in ideal conditions. Regardless, give the west side of Smith plenty of room as there is a monster rock out there which is well marked on the charts and it is shallow with 3 and 4 fathom patches that are dotted with rocks.
The slack in Admiralty is at around 1900 hours which means you should have both flood tide and wind (8-12 knots) to take you back down the Sound. The reach from Smith Island back to Admiralty might include some two wheel reaching in 15-20 so make sure everyone is hiking hard and clipped in. If you can’t carry the kite, move the lead out to the rail and if you have a genoa staysail, get that up.
The run from Pt. Partridge back down Admiralty will probably be in a more northerly than northwesterly which will transition to a north-northeasterly as you get past Pt No Pt. The key on this leg will be to stay in the max flood and don’t get too far into corners. The breeze will probably stay out of the east-northest from Pt. No Pt back to the finish however you’ll want to have all eyes out of the boat and watching for holes as you get closer to Shilshole.
The big boats are projects to finish 0030 to 0200 hrs Sunday morning.
Ed. Note: Racers, be appreciative! Bruce can’t be on the race course this weekend and wrote this up anyway!
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.
We human beings think that if we just build a better mousetrap, the problem will be solved. And, not by coincidence, if we’re the individuals to come up with it and market it, we might just make money in the process.
In the last hundred years or so, a lot of people have built better mousetraps than that old spring loaded knuckle-rapper that I grew up with. And a lot of people have come up with great boats.
A modern dual purpose boat, the Jeanneau 349. With it’s lazy jacks/built-in mainsail cover, non-overlapping furling jib and asymmetric kits on a short sprit, what’s not to like?
Even before Garry Hoyt went on a holy mission to make sailing easier, sailboat and equipment manufacturers have been hell-bent on making sailing easier.
If you look at today’s cruisers, cruiser/racers and flat out racers, they’re really really nice and well suited to their purposes. They’re better boats. I’ll use my 1979, 12,500 lb. C&C 36 (which by the way I love more every time I go out) as a kind of baseline. Take your pick of a similarly-sized boats. Hunter, Catalina, Beneteau, Jeanneau, Hanse – to name just a few. Where are actually some things I like better about my plastic classic, but there’s no getting around the fact the new boats are very good indeed. They’re roomy, comfy and sail fast. If you haven’t been to a boat show lately, go. Better yet, ask a salesman to take you for a sail.
With new sail handling systems and modern sailplans, the new boats are easy to handle. No athleticism necessary. There are in-boom furlers, electric winches, autopilots that steer better than we do, electronics that can put us safely into a slip without ever having to actually see the dock with our eyes.
The Catalina 355 has a layout best suited for two couples.
These boats are positively palatial in volume compared to the C&C 36. They’re fuller in the ends (and sometimes even the middle), and all that area is devoted to living space. There are huge double berths, massive heads and galleys with ample space to cook for all the kids that are not going to be there. Interestingly, a lot of the layouts are clearly two-couple layouts. I tried putting my two boys in the vee berth. Let’s just say we called that experiment “There Will Be Blood.” Oh, for a good pilot berth or two.
My C&C 36 has pointy ends. No room for a athwartships double under the cockpit – not even close.
That’s right, kids may appear in the marketing materials, and sometimes even on boats, but you don’t see enough of them on real live sailboats. I’ll save that discussion for another day, but for now let’s just say there’s a lot of other things we parents are pressured into doing that have nothing to do with sailing. Resistance to those pressures may not be futile, but it’s not easy.
In 1979 my parents and I raced and cruised our C&C 27, sometimes 1000+ miles in a short Midwest season. When I speak to long time sailors about the good old days, almost invariably they reminisce about dubious and dangerous adventures on open boats, or cruising with the entire family (including three kids and a dog) on a 20-something footer for three weeks at a time. Our 27 felt like a cruise ship for my small family. Kinda begs the question why my boys can’t share a vee berth.
Garry Hoyt’s Freedom Yacht line pushed the “simple-is-better” thinking. This 25-footer was set up so a singlehander could do everything from the cockpit.
Hmmm, it might not be too big a stretch to say there’s an inverse relationship between ease/comfort and enjoyment.
I’m not saying we should all go looking for an Ericson 27 or equivalent for a good time. There’s no need for that. But if anyone tells you that you need a fancy boat to enjoy sailing, they’re full of bilge water.
And as far as racing, boats are also far superior to what was. Carbon, with all its lightness and stiffness, is becoming more common. The days of runners/checkstays and an inventory of 16 headsails are long gone.
Today’s racers, like this J/111, are great racing platforms. Even with the throttle open downwind, they’re steady on their feet.
One person can now three around a bagged genoa where it used to take three. Asymmetrical chutes on sprits mean ordinary humans can do bow without putting their lives or dignity in danger. (Though I confess I rather miss that challenge). Sails have near perfect shapes built in.
All-out racers and racer-cruisers are getting farther apart every days, but both types have improved markedly.
If it were a simply a matter of making a better mousetrap, there’d be no ailing in sailing. The mousetraps out there are very good.
One could make the argument (and I’ll make it here) that the emphasis on making better boats has not enticed more people to sail. The new boat sales numbers certainly bear me out.
The emphasis on making better boats, however, has driven up costs a lot, and those costs are making it prohibitive for many people to pick up sailing as a pastime. Anybody cruising the net or magazines might easily think that they need a $200K, 35-foot “entry level” cruising boat. It might as well be $2 million to a lot of the people in what’s left of the middle class. It just ain’t gonna happen.
Things have changed financially. “Disposable” income is getting disposed of on house payments, Lexus payments and those $500 summer camps their kids have to get into this summer while the parents work and nobody’s going sailing. Oh, that $200K might pay for small part of a four-year college education. But again, this is a topic for another day.
For now, let’s just say the boats per se are not the problem. The price of boats, or lack of “disposable income” depending on how you look at it, certainly is part of the problem.
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.
OK, this appeared on the Bic Youtube channel, and is clearly promotional, but there’s a lesson here. Kids just want to have fun. The Bic guys get it. Maybe they can make a keelboat and set some unregatta rules for us big kids.
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.
You know what’s more addictive, infuriating and pointless than talking about the current presidential primary circus? Talking about what’s ailing sailing and racing.
Yet, that’s what I’ll do. Give a guy a blog and keyboard…..
The first question is, IS sailing ailing? After all, the marinas are filled with sailboats. At this time of the year there are races nearly every day somewhere in my home waters of the Pacific Northwest. Cruisers head out to near and far destinations every day. And the high school sailing scene is healthy and growing, the Sail Sand Point community boating center is thriving and the sailing schools around town often sell out. Talk about sailing with someone and 9/10 times their eyes light up and they say they’d love to sail.
Ah, but it IS ailing.
This photo and the shot of the Coronado 25 “Better Days” were taken at Leschi Marina on Lake Washington in Seattle.
For several years, less than 1% of new boats sold in Washington have been sailboats. Yep, on that score we’re statistically pretty insignificant. I’m not sure what it is in the rest of the country but I’ll be the numbers are similar.
And those boats in the marinas? Take a good look at them. How many look like they’ve been sailed in the last week, month, year, even decade?
The racing fleets? In terms of participation, most of today’s races in the Northwest are mere ghosts of what they were “back in the day.” The “day” being the 1970s-1990s when there were fewer people to draw from, the equipment (including the boats themselves) wasn’t nearly as user friendly or fast, and the clothing wasn’t nearly as warm. Today there are 70 boats when 20 years ago there were 150 and 10 years before that there were 300.
Bless those people who think that sailboat racing is doing OK. It’s simply not.
There are bright spots to talk about, and I certainly will in the future on this blog. And I’m hoping that readers will share information about the bright spots I know nothing about.
My goal isn’t to rail against things (that’d be about as productive as commenting on Trump). I want to figure out why sailing’s ailing and if something can or should be done about it. Bear with me as I piece my thoughts together as they come to me and as time allows.
Here are some of the tacks I’ll take in the coming posts. Working titles, sequence and existence of the following are subject to change and the whims of the author.
Ailing, Not Dead
The Boats are Not The Problem
Culture is the Problem
Why the hell should it cost so much? Or does it?
Any idiot can work on a boat, and many do
Can somebody please kill the America’s Cup and 007?
Kids, They’re Not the Future, they’re the Present
Racing: Yeah, I’ll be talking about handicapping among other things
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.
What’s the most prestigious regatta to place in? The trophy top flight sailors around the world, professional or amateur, would actually put on their mantel? America’s Cup – no, no, no. Olympics – yeah. Volvo Ocean Race, that’s a pretty safe bet. Star Worlds? Yep, that’s the one.
Brian Ledbetter and Josh Revkin trucking upwind. Jose Oquendo photos.
Designed in 1911 but with one of the tweakiest rigs around, the Star demands technical knowledge/precision, tactical sophistication, strength, fitness, and some financial resources. And that’s just to sail it at a high level locally. The Worlds are a few turns of the turnbuckle up from there. Just to get one of these around the course is a challenge, and to compete at Worlds is a sailing milestone.
In finishing a strong third at the Star Worlds in Miami last week, Brian Ledbetter has joined an exclusive list of sailors to do that. He did it with East Coast crew Josh Revkin, with whom he’s been sailing in the rarified Star Sailors League pro series in Europe.
Ledbetter’s finishes of 5-20-2-2-7-9 were remarkably consistent given the depth of talent in the 72-boat fleet. Other Northwesterners racing included Derek DeCouteau (56th) and Larry Whipple (69th, having finished only one race) and Dave Branch and Kate Schalk (71st)
As great a finish as this is, Ledbetter (Sailing Director at Seattle Yacht Club and double Olympic Silver Medalist in the Finn) still has to win one of these to keep up with his father-in-law Bill and brother-in-law Carl, each of whom have a Star Worlds win to their credit. Hold that, Bill has three of those, plus three seconds and a four thirds.
Maybe there’s something in the air around here that creates great Star sailors?
If you’d like to see Stars in action, they race on Thursday night at Shilshole. An extremely active Budd Inlet group wet sails classic Stars in Olympia, and is very welcoming to folk who want to try one out.
If anyone has a correction, addition or comment for this post, please do so in the space below!!
The 2016 World Championship Victory was claimed by the US Team, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada. Silver for Diego Negri & Sergio Lambertenghi and Bronze for Brian Ledbetter & Joshua Revkin.
The final race of the Star Worlds 2016 was crucial as there were five contenders in the running and only one point between the first place, Diego Negri & Sergio Lambertenghi and second place, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada.
Light winds on Biscayne Bay delayed the start of the last day of races, but at 12.30pm, the wind climbed to 7 knots and the Race Committee completed the sixth race, as scheduled.
After four attempts the Race Officer ordered a black flag and the start was good except for ten star sailors that were over.
The battle began at the starting sequence when Augie Diaz and Diego Negro chased each other fighting for the control of the start line.
A pack of boats arrived at the windward mark with Paul Cayard leading. Brian Ledbetter was winning the regatta with a mid-fleet position because Augie and Diego where far behind in the sixties.
The day was a shifty one so concentration and patience were required for the entire race. The Race Committee had to call for a change course for several of the legs during the afternoon as the wind oscillated first to right and then to left in this position changing game.
On the third leg, Augie Diaz & Bruno Prada did a great job reading the shifts recovering from a 60th to a 7th by the second windward mark.
From there, it was all about tactic as Diego was close behind them. The US Team pushed Diego and Sergio to the wrong side resulting in Diego finishing 7th and Augie finishing 5th.
The points were just enough for Augie and Bruno to be crowned Star World Champions.
Luke Lawrence & Ian Coleman won the last race of the Worlds with Paul Cayard close behind them.
Augie summed up the last race: “An incredible feeling!!! Not sure if I deserve it, but I take it. We did a great job the last race. Bruno did an outstanding job of coming back, time after time, after we have gain big advantages. In fact, in the middle of the last windward leg I thought that Diego was winning the worlds, because we had a big right shift and we went a very far right and he was right behind us and we won, he got second, so he would win the worlds. I just feel very fortunate, it’s a group of elite sailors that I really don’t know if I belong to but I am very very happy and I have to thank God, I have to thank Bruno Prada, my father for helping me so much for my sailing career and it’s a great feeling to be a World Champion.” And he affirms that Bruno Prada is a Gold Medal Maker.
For Bruno Prada this is the fourth World Championship Title after sailing with the Olympic Medallist, Robert Scheidt. He has been sailing with Augie for seven years and he feels that a dream came true: “One of my big achievements was winning a Worlds with Augie Diaz. To win a Star World Championship you have to be in a special week and definitely we were in this special week. We started doing good races, getting confident and for a reason that I cannot explain, some energy, everything that we do worked well. It’s a little bit of plan it but sometimes you plan it and it doesn’t work.”
Bringing together the world’s best athletes competing in the 2016 Star Class World Championship in Biscayne Bay showcased high-performance sailing at its best.
The 6 races staged over 6 days delivered a sensational World Championship. Event Chairman summed up, “We are 72 tries from 13 different countries, we had a wonderful opening ceremonies, with the flags being carry by Coral Reef youth sailors by the national anthem, 6 wonderful weather condition with one race each condition. I feel very proud of what we did, we did a true world championship and we had a very dedicated crew, a 42 people on the race committee every day, and it is a very sacrifice when you consider that it was so many consecutive days. We couldn’t have done it with the wonderful sponsors we had and the Race Committee that has worked for six month to prepare for this week.”
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.
My friend John Cahill has been racing the Ross 930 Gaucho very successfully, consistently and quietly for many years. It was great to see him win Class 5 at CYC’s PSSR (Puget Sound Spring Regatta) this past weekend, fittingly by a single point over rival Here and Now. John even answered my request for a report on the event! It’s a great read, you can tell it was a fun weekend of good, hard competition. In short, PSSR at its best. Results for North Course and South Course.
Oh, and enjoy Jan Anderson’s photography, both here and on her SmugMug site. Yep, once again I’m going to remind everyone to go buy her photos.
John at the helm with Alex Simanis focused on the main on the nimble Ross 930 Gaucho.
By John Cahill
First off, fantastic conditions for April racing on Puget Sound: relatively warm, dry sunny days with somewhat light air on Saturday, but not bad (by our standards). At times we felt like the race committee would be crazy to try to pull off a race in existing conditions, but we were surprised how good the racing turned out to be and how fortunate we were that they got races off (and stopped running them) when they did. As usual, the south course got better breeze and more racing than the north course (not sure why that is but it seems fairly consistent from year to year).
On Gaucho we got off to an unfortunate start by being called over early on the first race. We were shocked when they called our numbers and sure that they called the wrong boat over but didn’t have any time to ponder it so we turned back to restart. We managed to stay in the best of the available breeze on the first beat and had good boat speed (for us) in the lighter breeze. This allowed us to claw back into the top four boats around the first mark. We found another shift on the run and finished 2nd for the race (we were very lucky not to be buried deep right at the outset). After several delays we got two more races in the afternoon, again in light air, and pulled off a respectable 1st and 3rd to keep us in the hunt for the first day. I felt we did a great job of picking up the shifts which helped tremendously. Much credit for this goes to Alex Simanis from Ballard Sails for his help. At the end of the day we were tied for first (ahead only by a tie breaker) and only one point ahead of the 3rd place boat. Tight racing but really fun, this is what it’s all about!
The J/105s had a great showing.
Class winner? Absolutely.
The Melges 24s had a eight boat fleet and close competition
We live in a pretty special place.
PSSR, San Juan 24 style.
A passenger ferry was spinning around (sea trials?) with its waterjets making things quite interersting for the fleet.
Absolutely again controlling her class.
Gaucho leading downwind
A very orderly and close 105 start.
Sunday was a new day, 10+ knots in the morning which was more than we saw all of Saturday. Our class was a dogfight for the lead position between the top three boats. In the first race we got off the start line cleanly at the pin end on the first race and managed to lead all around the course with clear air for the win. The second and third races were more of the same and with consistent starts, going the right way and good boat speed, we were able to get two more bullets. Just when you start feeling good things started getting harder, after a less than ideal start we could only manage a third in the 4th race of the day.
I have to say we were really hoping the race committee would call the racing for the day at 3pm but the CYC race committee never considers stopping racing in good breeze, so on to race #5. Shortly before the start we got into a position that forced us to tack close in front of a starboard tack boat. We threw the helm over hard but they called foul and even though we didn’t think we had broken a rule, we likely would have had to gone to the protest room which is an uncertain outcome. We decided to play it safe and do our turns, putting us in the back of the fleet sailing away from us after the start. Much to the crew’s credit, no one gave up. Like in the first race, we fought our way back into 4th by the 1st mark of a twice around race. We picked up one more place on the next legs and rounding the last windward leg were in 3rd. Once again we noticed something the three boats in front of us hadn’t considered, a different leeward mark was closer to the far end of the start finish line than what we had been sailing to most of the day. We took the shorter route and managed to round the last leeward mark in 2nd and closer to the top boat. From there it was a short beat to the finish and we managed hang on to be second over the line. On corrected time, we placed second in that race only 2 seconds ahead of the 3rd place boat for the race. If we had been 3rd we would have been tied for first for the regatta. Quite a weekend for us indeed!
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.
But the bigger aspect of this event was its success as an event. 50 boats (well, 49 on the water but who’s counting) competed, and by all accounts it was one of the best regattas in a long time.
For those of you who don’t know, not only is the 505 the sexiest (IMHO) boat around, it’s one of the most cohesive set of sailors around. 
They love helping each other find new speed, they love promoting the class to other (including new) sailors, and they appreciate the spark plugs in the class that keep it going. Any class that has annual food fights as part of its history has got to be a lot of fun.
