Author: Mike Powell

Laser Pacific Coast Championships

Mike Powell 505 Dinghy, Laser Sailing 0 Comment
Laser Pacific Coast Championships

Bellingham Bay saw 23 Laser standards and 41 Laser Radials from mostly BC, WA and OR plus one brave soul from CA line up to race on a weekend that proved to have most wind ranges to contend with.

Saturday morning started sunny with 10-12kts out of the south dying as the day went on to finish in about 3-5kts, the Standards got 4 races off and the Radials 3 as they had to re-start several times due to general recalls. Races were championship length running around 50-60 minutes which favored the fit when the wind was up.

  • Standard rig start.
  • Working the Bellingham breeze.
  • Sammy Farkas, working hard and loving it.
  • The Radial podium with Hanne Weaver, Maura Dewey and Al Clark.
  • The requesite 505 planing under spinnaker photo.
  • 505 action.
  • Radials rule.

Sunday started with a weak easterly, never a good thing in Bellingham Bay but as competitors arrived the expected sporty southeasterly kicked in and we had 18-24kts with quite bumpy sea states for most of the day until the last Radial race where it eased to around 10kts. Standards raced another four for a total of eight races and Radials four for a total of seven.

In the standards the Canadians swept the podium with Ian Elliott from RVYC dominating the fleet with six bullets a 2nd and a 4th place throw out for eight points, Mathew Stranaghan, WVYC, 2nd (Also first youth) with 22 points and Tony Martin, JSCA, in 3rd with 29.

In the larger Radial fleet, which was also packed with the region’s strong youth contingent, Maura Dewey, RVYC, Al Clark, RVYC and Hanne Weaver, SYC/RVYC could be seen swapping leads and racing bow to bow around the marks both days. The final points showed how close the competition was as they finished with 12,14 and 15 points in total. Cameron Holland, RVYC came in 4th overall and also the first youth racer.

The BYC operated two full race courses over the weekend as we also had the annual Dale Jepson One Design regatta happening with a fleet of 15 505’s and 6 FJ’s. With over 30 volunteers and 10 support vessels on the water it was a large undertaking for our club, which was handled well. PROs Mick Corcoran (DJOD) and Blaine Pedlow (PCC’s) managed both race courses.

A big thank you to our event sponsors; Samson Ropes, The Port of Bellingham, Stones Throw Brewery, West Coast Sailing, West Marine and the host Bellingham Yacht Club.

Mike Powell & Mike Poulos, Regatta Chairs

Results here; http://www.regattanetwork.com/event/19445#_newsroom

Ed. Note: For permission to use this text or photos, please contact Mike Powell at mike@mikepowellphoto.com.

PITCH – Racing and Sun for Those Who Came

Mike Powell Racing 0 Comment
PITCH – Racing and Sun for Those Who Came

PITCH has nearly always tossed something the sailors’ way. Great big fleets once upon a time (Pacific International -IOR- Ton CHampionship), great racing, great -sometimes really great- breeze, great parties. Those who made it to Bellingham this past weekend got to enjoy that outstanding Bellingham hospitality and two days of great racing. While the fleets aren’t nearly as big, there’s still a good time to be had in Bellingham Labor Day weekend. And check out the menu of the regatta feast. Thanks to Mike Powell for once again writing about the event, even though  his attention was pretty well locked on the telltales on his own J/33 Keet much of the time, and when they weren’t he heard a chorus of “Focus!!”

By Mike Powell

Twenty five boats came to Bellingham Bay for the 2018 KarMART USA BYC PITCH Regatta. They were split into 5 fleets including a Martin 242 one design fleet. Conditions on Saturday started with fantastic breeze in the mid to upper teens for the first two races and slowly eased as the day went on to light wind as the early fog burnt off and the sun came out to close the day. Sunday was similar with less early wind but always with a racing breeze and enough consistent shifts that paying attention to the compass was a good idea. Race committee lead by Charley Rathkopf got off 8 races for each fleet with a short line for small fleets the starts were tight and exciting.

The most hotly contested fleet was Class 5 between Stephanie Schwenk’s Wild Rumpus and Erik Yaremko’s S2 9.1 Flying Circus matching identical scores at the end of the regatta with Rumpus taking the win with the most recent 1st place finish. The other fleets sorted themselves out with strongest boats taking picket fences or close to while the other positions moved up and down the leader board as the weekend went on.

Photos by Jan Anderson. More here.

Saturday saw the the fast fleet of Wicked Wahine, Absolutely and Bat Out Of Hell sent off on a medium distance race around Eliza Island after a couple of buoy races. Like so many island races, they ran into glassy conditions on the backside and ran out of time to finish the race. Everyone else raced windward/Leeward courses and rarely waited long to start the next race. The party, as always, was on form with help from my favorite local pub, Stones Throw Brewing plus burgers, Tr-Tip and Monica’s famous Mole’ Chicken being on the menu over three nights of socializing at the Bellingham Yacht Club. Thanks to all the racers that made the effort to come to the Bay and race and great work by the BYC volunteers running the event, cooking and keeping a square course, thank you one and all!

Bellingham Yacht Club Youth Regatta

Mike Powell Uncategorized, Youth Sailing 0 Comment
Bellingham Yacht Club Youth Regatta

Mike Powell is putting a lot of energy into sailing these days, from hanging on a 505 wire to racing offshore on leadbottoms and campaigning his own J/33. He’s also giving back to the sport running the youth program at Bellingham Yacht club. Finally, he’s an enormously skilled professional sports photographer (shooting 13 Olympic Games is on his resume’…). –KH

101 Youth Sailors, 76 racing dinghies in 6 different classes, 50 races completed, 6 support and RC boats, multiple coaches and ribs on water and a team of dedicated volunteers feeding everyone morning, noon and night. That’s what the Bellingham Yacht Club did Aug 11-12 for its annual Youth Regatta which is part of the North West Youth Racing Circuit and the best attended so far. It takes a lot of work starting months before the event takes place and doesn’t finish until the last pizza crumb is cleaned up and the results, stories and photos are posted. Thank you one an all for your efforts, rather than making a long list of names I’ll leave it there, you know who you are and your work is appreciated.

Click here to see the rest of Mike’s great photos. Click on any of these to enlarge.

The weekend gave us everything from high teens and big seas to calm and light but we always had race-able wind, the RC kept the starts moving and no one complained about there not being enough races. Watching over the fleet as rescue/photo and general boat about town gave me the best seat in the house to see how dedicated these youth racers are to the sport.Everyone on the water from the brand new to racing green fleeters to the 29er Skiff sailors put everything they had into their racing and it showed in fierce competition, big end of the day stories and joyful smiles, it was a pleasure to watch.

Results can be found here: https://www.regattatoolbox.com/results?eventID=TCpekqntlM