Corona Virus Break

I originally posted this on swiftsureyachts.com. Email me about any of these boats and I’ll put you in touch with the appropriate listing broker in our office.

While Swiftsure Yachts has earned a reputation for selling high quality offshore cruisers, racing is in our blood. In fact, everybody at Swiftsure has spent plenty of time calling shifts, sitting on the rail and packing chutes. And sometimes we get to sell racing boats too!

Racing has changed over the last few decades and in particular this year. While much of the racing has been cancelled nationwide, it’s starting up tentatively all over. Masks are the new foul weather gear, and crew size (which had been shrinking already) is sometimes limited to folks in the same household. While there is certainly a pause on the fully crewed, massive party events, racers are still enjoying the heart of it — sailing. And, in some ways, maybe enjoying it more than ever.

Right now, Swiftsure Yachts has several wonderfully race-worthy boats listed, and, importantly, many of them do double duty as cruisers as well. As with any yacht purchase, it pays to be careful and get some expert help along the way. Our current listings are a good indication of the variety of racers to consider.

Firefly may be the definitive top-drawer racer-cruiser. Built in 2000 by Morris Yachts (now part of Hinckley) and designed by Chuck Paine, she is the New England boatbuilding answer to what a racer-cruiser should be. On the inside, the finish is impeccable, with white bulkheads offset by bright finished woodwork throughout. There’s a large aft cabin, well separated from a comfortable forward cabin. The main salon features a centerline drop leaf table that seats the whole crew, plus port and starboard pilot berths for racing. The galley and navigation station, both bathed in light from the large cabinhouse windows, are exceptional. The deck layout is optimized and updated, and the carbon mast flies a very complete and current suit of North sails. The keel was designed by Jim Taylor, and Firefly is the proverbial “freight train” upwind. Firefly has raced in the Caribbean, England, the East Coast and most recently notching up line honors, and proving her downwind abilities, in the 2018 Vic-Maui Race (with Swiftsure’s Brad Baker doing the navigating!). Firefly is competitive under everything from PHRF to IRC, and will be the envy of nearly every skipper in the raftup.

Le rêve is a completely different kind of cruiser-racer. The Beneteau Oceanis line isn’t known for racing, but Le reve is proof a well prepared Oceanis can more than hold its own. Outfitted with all the usual cruising amenities, she is a thoroughly modern cruising platform. The cockpit is spacious, with twin wheels and an arch that keeps the mainsheet out of the way. That same arch secures the aft end of the dodger. The three-stateroom layout provides plenty of room for a family or group of friends to enjoy comfortable cruising, and the forced air diesel heating assures comfort in the off-season. A bow thruster makes Le reve easy to handle even in tight marinas. But the owner wanted to race it as well. With advice from experienced racers, he dialed in the boat with a formidable suit of North Sails, adjustable headsail tracks, in-haulers and a state-of-the-art constrictor clutch system, all giving the crew the tools to get all the performance they could out of the boat. Le reve responded by winning the 2018 Swiftsure Race, among many other victories.

Ocelot started life in 2006 as a Tom Wylie-designed unstayed cat rigged racer. She was later modified by Tim Kernan to have a more conventional rig, which has served her well after her move to the Pacific Northwest. With a displacement of only 9,000 pounds, she’s “powered up” and more than holds her own in the prevailing Pacific Northwest conditions. In fact, she nearly won the Race to Alaska in 2016. Accommodations are minimal but comfortable for overnights and short cruises. Ocelot is certainly one of the best dollar/knot opportunities available!

Night Runner is the proverbial wolf in sheep’s clothing. The 42-foot Bob Perry design is known, and feared, throughout the Pacific Northwest. She has been enormously successful for the past 30-plus years. Perry worked closely with the original owner Doug Fryer to come up with a medium displacement, long waterline hull amply powered by a big rig and long bowsprit. Fryer also planned to cruise extensively, which he did to South America. Night Runner’s performance surprised many over the years. Competitors learned quickly not to be fooled by her traditional looks and beautiful wooden topsides. Night Runner is one of the more unique and original boats to ever race the Pacific Northwest circuit, and could happily continue that tradition here or sneak up on a fleet in another area.

Fortuna represents the final refinement of the cruiser-racer approach pioneered by C&C Yachts. The 2007 C&C 115 is outfitted with a 2017 carbon mast, a carbon spinnaker pole and a full racing sail inventory. Below decks, the interior is imminently cruise-worthy with a large aft double, spacious galley, roomy main salon and an aft head. Racing in the same PHRF rating band as the J/35, J/109 and Express 37, Fortuna comes in at a size where there’s great competition in closely matched boats.

Papa is another French boat with a turn of speed. The Jeanneau 349 was ordered with the Performance Pack with a fathead mainsail, furling spinnaker with Seldén bowsprit and a 6’5” keel. Her performance has impressed us here at Swiftsure during sea trials. She accelerates nicely, is close-winded and has plenty of effective waterline with its broad aft sections. What may be more important, she’s set up for a short-handed sailing and with a 110-percent headsail, she’ll be easy on the crew. Papa may be perfect for today’s limited crews and casual racing.

Brilliant is a stellar example of the J/100, an elegant daysailer with a turn of speed. Light, with a modestly sized rig and non-overlapping headsail on a furler, Brilliant is easy to sail, and easy to sail well. The interior has minimal accommodations, but a marine head and inboard make this 33-footer a nice retreat for the occasional overnight as well. For casual and particularly shorthanded racing, the J/100 is an elegant solution — easily handled and maintained, yet has a really good turn of speed and a place to sleep.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

Covid 19 has taught, or rather reminded, us about how vital sailing and racing are and how to make it happen without all the trappings normally deemed necessary. Of course, generally speaking the events are not considered racing, because that implies someone’s on the hook if anything goes wrong. Call them practices, or sailing in company. But as anyone knows, it’s fun to make your boat go faster than the other boat.

It would be hard to find a better sport for the Covid 19 world we’re living in. We’re outdoors (unless you’re spending too much time in the cabin with others!) in the fresh air where transmission of the disease, even without masks, seems to be very unlikely. We’re not putting the public at risk. We’re getting exercise and enjoying the outdoors. Early on there was some appropriate consideration of putting emergency response professionals at risk if they’re needed to help. But if there are several boats sailing, and we look out for each other, that possibility is minimized.

In a bit of a “back to where we started” grass roots movement, Pacific Northwest sailors have found a way to get on the water however possible. I think there’s something to be learned in all this – basically a reminder about how we the sailors can control our sport’s trajectory.

The Canadians have held several events already, including the West Vancouver YC & Royal Naval Sailing Association Race, which we covered here on Sailish.com. In Victoria, BC there have been several practices, thoroughly photographed by Andrew Madding, who posts on Facebook.

On the singlehanded dinghy scene, which is close to my heart, the Seattle Laser and Aero fleets and Corinthian Yacht Club have put on several weeks of practices off Shilshole Bay Marina. Jared Hickman has used a CYC Whaler and done superb job of setting marks and keeping the 20 RS Aeros and 15 or so Lasers getting in lots of practice. The RS Aero fleet is truly remarkable, with a who’s who of racing out there including Olympic champions, college sailors of the year, world champions, national champions and a lot of sailors drawn to the boat’s performance.

The Laser fleet mostly consists of young (!!) sailors in Radial rigs. Without the other organized events such as soccer and Ultimate Frisbee, sailing is a great option. Hopefully they will see it as a great option moving forward. John Beaver’s four kids are all sailing Lasers and he’s done a great job in photographing these events. If you wonder if singlehanded sailing is alive and well, check out these photos.

Even while the virus continues to grow, sailing is getting back in gear. This past weekend Jason Andrews and the Hamachi team organized the Salish 200 series of events, which sent appropriately undercrewed boats around some of the islands we have in abundance. Several notable boats made the trip, and even though (or because!?) crews were limited to 5 on each boat, there was an exceptional amount of interest. Hopefully we can share a race report.

And Seattle Yacht Club is proceeding with it’s Snooze and Cruise event from Seattle to Port Madison. My colleague Ryan finally got to take his new boat Coho across a start line! His infant Ernie did the tactics on this liveaboard boat. Kids racing with their parents – that’s how many of us, including me, started.

CYC Seattle is starting up its weeknight racing next week on Puget Sound and Lake Washington. And Sail Sand Point is opening in a limited way. Basically, rising infections or no, things are opening up. And certain evidence it pointing to outdoor activities, and sailing is an inherently socially distant activity, does little to spread the virus.

One of the most important things I see in all this is that idea that we need clubhouses, professional PROs and teams, beer tents, swag, and awards ceremonies to make sailing appealing is just plain wrong. Sailing and racing is attractive in and of itself. That other stuff is great, but first and foremost sailing is great, and that’s something that we should all remember even when the Covid crisis is over. Sponsorship might be hard to come by for a while, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop doing what we love. When I hear we need so many thousands of dollars to put a race on, well, that ain’t true. You need two boats and gumption. Guess what, there are a lot more than two boats out there and plenty of gumption.

I’d love to help get everybody out there. If you have a series or event you’d like me to promote, just email me.

Sail on.

Kurt Hoehne

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.

Once again Jan and Skip Anderson have provided some visual entertainment in the form of photos from the 2012 and 2013 Swiftsure races. Even as we start to emerge from stay-at-home, it’s worth a look back. Makes you want to get back out there, eh?

Speaking of stay-at-home, let’s share more cruising and racing stories about emerging! Let’s use this tragedy to remember what’s important and motivate us to do and enjoy more of it. Just email sailing story/photos me.

The following photos are courtesy of Jan Anderson, who makes it out for the Swiftsure starts no matter the condition. There are lots more photos of these and other recent Swiftsures here. I chose these few to remind us of some of the more beautiful, well known and memorable ones.

Kurt Hoehne

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.