Borrowed this from the Live Sail Die website. Oh to have this happen when sailing a dinghy! After pushing your heart back down out of your throat you’d have a tale to tell! Is it just me or is that dolphin checking out the sail trim on that Opti? They caption it:
You don’t get this on the golf course! Or the rugby field, or the cricket pitch! That’s right, dolphins are only found jumping around in the water, and usually where sailing is taking place. Check out this amazing capture by Gauthier Thomas – GT Sailing, who was out coaching Optimist sailors when all of a sudden, a dolphin wanted in on the action!
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.
The plight of the declining orca population is more than just keeping boats away. Most experts agree it’s about the food supply. Chinook salmon are pretty tasty to a lot of animals; orcas, people, seals and another quietly increasing group – harbor porpoises. Those cute little guys that cruise around giving our kids something to spot while we’re sailing – They may be another factor in the challenges for orcas according to Christopher Dunagan..
Most of us have heard that harbor seals eat Chinook salmon, which are the preferred food for our beloved Southern Resident killer whales, an endangered species whose long-term survival could hinge on getting enough Chinook.
The number of harbor seals in the inland waters of Washington state now totals somewhere around 10,000 or slightly higher, according to the latest estimates by Steve Jeffries, a marine mammal biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But did you know that harbor porpoises, which eat many of the same things as harbor seals, now number around 11,000 in the same general area? That’s according to a recent study for the Navy led by research consultant Tom Jefferson.
I have to say that those numbers came as a major surprise to me, and I began to ask questions about what all these porpoises in Puget Sound might be doing to the food web, which involves complex interactions between salmon, seals, porpoises, orcas and many other species.
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.
Many of you (actually thousands on social media) have heard of the dramatic turtle rescue by Doug Frazer and the crew of OxoMoxo during the Vic-Maui Race. Without a doubt, the rescue and social media presence of this rescue will have lasting, important effects far beyond the race results.
More and more sailors come back from the Pacific Ocean and other waterways shaking their heads at the plastic in our oceans. Back downs are common. But nothing brings home how bad things are quite like a peaceful, timeless, blameless animal caught up in our mess.
Frazer, a former division 1 water polo player and a California state lifeguard, didn’t hesitate in deciding to try to rescue the turtle. Here’s how it went down, according to the man himself:
I jumped in without hesitation and then remembered that the favorite dinner for tiger sharks is turtle! I thought the poor little beggar was dead but he moved and took a breath when I touched him. The guys kept the boat hove-to until I could drag the whole mess to the stern ladder. As they were pulling him to the boat he swung towards my tender white love handle with his beak open and looking to defend himself from old white men. Luckily he fell off and swam away before he got his pound of flesh. It was really fun to get in the water. The derelict fishing gear has its own habitat of small fish, invertebrates and critters. I believe that this actually attracts other larger animals that may become entangled.
I feel that most of the large trash we saw was fish nets, ropes and fish tote baskets. I believe the only cure for this is to either pass the cost of clean up to the consumer or may require boats to bring as much net home as they take offshore. If they lose some, then they should go pick some up. Just a thought.
Here’s the dive, and a few photos from the rescue:
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.
Doug Frazer and his crew on OxoMoxo aren’t likely to win this year’s Vic-Maui, but they have had the race’s biggest moment. Deservedly so. If you haven’t already heard, the crew of the Seattle based Swan 391 saved a sea turtle from a fishing net in mid ocean. It’s testimony both to the state of the Pacific Gyre and the stance we as sailors must make in defense of the oceans. Social media has enthusiastically picked up the story, which is great. Read on – it was a well-done big deal to save the turtle. Here’s the scoop from the Vic-Maui Race website and OxoMoxo’s navigator. -KH
OxoMoxo and the Lucky Turtle
Today, July 10, Vic-Maui International Yacht Race competitor OxoMoxo saw a sea turtle entangled in a ghost fishing net, took down the spinnaker, stopped the boat mid-ocean over 900 miles North-North-East of Hawaii, freed the turtle from the net, and removed the net from the water so it could not continue ‘fishing’.
Congratulations from Vic-Maui to skipper Doug Frazer and the crew of OxoMoxo, a Swan 39 sailboat from the Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle.
Caring for our ocean environment is a high priority for all sailors, and for our sport governing bodies including Sail Canada, US Sailing, and World Sailing. If we don’t, who will?
The longer version of the story, courtesy of the boat’s navigator Marc-Andrea Klimaschewski, with some editing:
I was down below at the laptop (hoping to find a Snickers bar which was still cold enough to eat – we were following the old rule of navigation – if the butter starts melting you are too close to the center of the High) when I heard a call from the cockpit that we had just sailed past a sea turtle which was alive and stuck in a fishing net.
Our skipper, Doug Frazer, decided very quickly that we were going to go back to free the turtle. We were beam reaching (90 degree apparent wind angle) with our spinnaker and genoa staysail in 12 knots of wind at the time, making 6.5 – 7 knots of boat speed. I stepped up the ladder in the companionway and got the lazy spinnaker sheet handed to me in preparation for a letterbox takedown. We letterboxed the kite, turned the boat around 180 degrees, and sailed upwind with the staysail and main. I got swim fins and a diving mask ready for Doug, and we pretty much executed our standard man overboard drill. Reinhard Freywald was driving, and he positioned the boat just to leeward of the turtle and stopped the boat.
Doug donned the mask and fins, and jumped in the water (he had mentioned he wanted to take an ocean swim but had missed his chance yesterday evening when we were becalmed), grabbed onto the fishing net and pulled himself back towards the boat using the Lifesling that we had deployed. When Doug made contact with the boat, he handed off the fishing net to Preston Morgan on deck who was able to pull the net off the turtle’s flipper. We didn’t want to get too close to the turtle since he looked angry and wanted to bite. Doug climbed back aboard the boat using the swim ladder. That’s the last we saw of the turtle, as he swam away from the boat. We turned back to our original course, packed and re-set the spinnaker. Once we were back sailing in the right direction, we had a round of rum and have been sailing on a reach since.
We have a video of the operation which we can share when we reach shore; the limited bandwidth of our satellite uplink does not allow us to upload it now.
The entire rescue was (in my opinion) performed in a very seamanlike manner and completely under sail. Great crew work.
As far as the back story goes: Doug’s sister Sherry’s spirit animal was the Honu, or sea turtle. Doug used to live in Hawaii for a while. When Doug’s sister passed away from cancer he got into sailing (and back into boating) and bought his first sailboat boat (a Hunter H170) which he sailed with Stefan Damstrom (who is also aboard). After the Hunter, Doug bought an international H-Boat (Sisu) which Stefan now owns and sails on Lake Washington and Lake Union. After outgrowing the H-Boat, Doug bought Oxomoxo 4 or 5 years ago, already thinking about doing Vic Maui. You know the rest of the story… here we are in the middle of the North Pacific Ocean, racing to Maui in the Vic-Maui International Yacht Race.
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 won’t have Victoria, BC to kick around any more. At least with regards to dumping their raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Yep, despite a few mutters remaining about lack of scientific evidence warranting a sewage treatment center, it shall be done. I saw a major piece of it on a visit over the river and through the woods to Grandma’s house in James Bay, the quaint neighborhood just to the south of the Inner Harbour.
A nearly 1 kilometer pipe bisected James Bay for several weeks as the city was readying for the great pull, when the pipe will be fed underground under the outer harbor seabed from Ogden Point to McLoughlin Point. For those interested in the details, there’s a great Times Colonist article on the topic.
My mother-in-law and others have paid a price. For several weeks the buses stopped running in front of her apartment, so she’s had to walk a distance, traversing a rickety temporary staircase over said pipe, with her wheeled grocery cart in tow. The good news is that the pipe will go to its permanent home this week and the street will be clear! The treatment plant isn’t scheduled to be operational until 2020, but the project is moving along.
A local artist took the opportunity to provide a little art that will likely be buried forever.
Kudos to Victoria for getting this done. It’s the right thing to do. And it’s a great way to get out from under a whole lot of jokes.
Click image to enlarge.
Sewage art.
Sewage art.
Total length, 940 meters the residents will enjoy seeing the last of.
The business end of the sewage pipeline
Lift and roll near the business end.
Residential stairs but no buses.
UPDATE
The job was completed Friday, and an unknown sailish reader contributed these photographs. That’s the end of the pipe in the launch pit, an amazing bit of engineering to get that pipe from Ogden Point to McLoughlin Point.
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.
The idea of designating Puget Sound a No Discharge Zone has been floating around for a long time. So, now it’s been done. We’re officially the nation’s largest NDZ. And I gotta say, part of it stinks.
Folks, and particularly non-boaters, should know that dumping untreated sewage into the Sound was already illegal. This only changes the rules for vessels that are discharging treated sewage, stuff that’s already been cleaned by a marine sanitation device at least to a certain degree. The decision in itself is not too upsetting. I certainly hope that smarter minds than mine have figured out that cleaning up the already partially cleaned-up sewage is worth the added burden of enforcement and the administrative costs. It seems to me there’s probably more pollution sources to focus on. From a recreational boater standpoint, it affects a very few boaters who will have to swap out their USCG approved marine sanitation devices and replace with holding tanks. It’s going to affect commercial operators the most and some of them are going to have some serious plumbing projects coming up.
One thing I don’t see in the announcement was any effort to increase or improve pumpout facilities. Hey, you want boaters to use their holding tanks – make it easy for them to pump. And if the folks behind desks wonder “what’s the big deal, don’t we have plenty?” then rest assured they’ve never tried to cruise with a family of four and an 18 gallon holding tank on a sailboat that motors along at 6 knots. Commercial mobile pumpout services may benefit, but I’m not sensing any momentum for the state to make it easier for vessels to comply. In my experience, the decision to be responsible about pumpouts has a lot less to do with the law than with what the skipper and crew think is right, and what is practical. Convince them, then give them the tools. I’m a born-again pumper myself.
You can access this map of all the pumpouts in Washington at www.pumpoutwashington.org.
The part of this that irks me is the tacit implication that boaters are responsible for a large amount of pollution and that the state is fixing it. In listening to the local radio station gobble up and regurgitate the press release, I could see how a non-boating listener might get the impression that finally, those boaters won’t be able to pump their poop into the Sound. Our marine industry and we boaters have been at the forefront of environmentally responsible policies for a long time. I’d suggest when your friends bring up the topic at the next environmental fund raising dinner you attend, just chuckle and say, “It’s fine, but that move had a lot more to do with the Department of Ecology wanting to look good rather than do good.” Then shift the conversation to wondering if King County will invest in some new float switches for the waste treatment facility or risk another 235 million gallon spill off Seattle’s Discovery Park.
And regarding the 10s of thousands of comments they heard in support of the proposal, if you frame something like “Wouldn’t you like to protect shellfish, public health, and water quality” it’s easy to gather support. It’s also that easy to perpetuate a myth that boaters are wanton polluters.
Here’s the official press release from the Washington Department of Ecology:
OLYMPIA – It’s official, Puget Sound is now off limits to vessel sewage.
Washington State Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon signed into law the Puget Sound No Discharge Zone on Monday, April 9.
“This is a historic day for the protection and restoration of Puget Sound,” said Director Bellon.
“Puget Sound is an icon of the Pacific Northwest. Its cultural and economic importance cannot be overstated. It’s the lifeblood of our renowned salmon, shellfish and orcas. Stopping the release of vessel sewage into our waters is absolutely the right thing to do,” Bellon added.
The new rule takes effect May 10 and bans the discharge of any type of sewage (blackwater), treated or untreated, within Puget Sound. There is no change to graywater requirements. Vessels looking to empty their loads will need to use a pump-out station or wait until they are out of the NDZ.
In establishing its first no discharge zone, Washington joins 26 other states and more than 90 no discharge zones in the U.S.
The new rule also establishes geographic boundaries, how to close marine sanitation devices, effective dates for certain commercial vessels, and enforcement authority.
The NDZ boundaries include all marine waters of Washington State inward from the line between the New Dungeness and Discovery Island lighthouses, to the Canadian border, the fresh waters of Lake Washington, and all the water bodies that connect Lake Washington to Puget Sound.
“Making Puget Sound a no discharge zone for vessel sewage connects a missing piece in our strategy to clean up and restore the Sound,” said Heather Bartlett, the water quality program manager at Ecology. “Our shellfish beds, swimming beaches, and protected areas are especially vulnerable to bacteria and viruses in vessel sewage. This will prevent pollution from impacting these areas and protect human health and overall water quality.
The Washington Department of Health expects to upgrade or open approximately 1,000 acres of commercial shellfish beds for harvesting near marinas with the establishment of the NDZ.
The rule comes after a robust five-year public outreach and evaluation effort, including multiple public comment periods. To put the no discharge zone in place, the Department of Ecology had to submit a proposal to the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2014, the draft proposal alone drew more than 26,000 comments, of which more than 25,000 were in support and about 525 expressed opposition or concerns. In 2016, EPA received more than 40,000 comments in support of Washington’s proposal. EPA approved Ecology’s no discharge zone proposal in February 2017.
Ecology’s website contains information on pumpout options, including locations, for boaters and vessel operators. For more on the Puget Sound No Discharge Zone, visit Ecology’s website and for additional information, visit pumpoutwashington.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.
Northwest sailors Chris and Randy Shuman are putting another spin on cruising into retirement. They wrote the following from their trailer en route or in Mexico. It’s an appealing form of cruising for sure.
About a month ago, in one of their first post retirement adventures, Chris and Randy took to the high seas for two voyages in one of the Star Clippers Sailing tall ship fleet, first a 22-day transatlantic crossing and then a 6-day Caribbean passage. Far from having to climb the yardarms, they were the onboard honored academics. Randy is an oceanographer, and was asked to give some lectures along the way. Chris taught a potpourri of creative classes. Not bad work, especially since Randy’s enthusiasm for the waters haven’t waned since entering retirement.
So, for those who could do with a little learning, relaxation and warm waters , give it a read and close your eyes. And no worries about the yardarms. The furlers up there are push-button.
The Particulars
The ship: 4-masted barquentine Star Flyer
Built 1992,Belgium
Length: 366 ft
Beam: 50 ft
170 passengers, about 70 crew
She has a sister ship, the Star Clipper, and the company has a larger full rigged square rigger, the Royal Clipper and a new ship the Flyer Clipper that is under construction.
The Star Flyer and the Star Clipper are barquentines: square rigged on forward mast, fore aft rigged on other 3 masts. 5 jibs, 5 square sails on forward mast. Square sailed are set and struck by horizontal furlers in the yards, controlled from the deck by a push button remote. The two middle masts have a staysail and a fisherman, aft mast has a triangular jigger or spanker. These are controlled from the deck by hand by the sailing crew of about 8 sailors.There is a full time rigger/sailmaker who mends sails on deck with his machine. Sails are Dacron, many built by Doyle Sails.
Life on Board
The ship almost always has sails up but also often has the main engine running. The ship needs to meet tight schedules at ports for the guests but also wants to sail for economy and pleasure of the passengers. Most of the passengers chose this ship to experience sailing on a big square rigger.
Passengers are often longtime sailers with many Americans, Germans, Brits. French, English and German are the official ship languages and announcements and printed materials in all three.
The food is generally upscale, served in one dining room in one sitting. Excellent table service for dinner, great breakfast and lunch buffets.
Activities: there are basic exercise classes, shore excursions when in port, talks by the captain, mast climbing, lots of book reading, cards, beer and cocktails, lying in the sun……The ship has on board paddle boards, a small sailboat, snorkeling gear and inflatables to take passengers to isolated beaches for water activities and barbecues.
When the weather is good passengers are able to climb out on the bowsprit netting and go aloft on the forward mast. When you go aloft you have a climbing harness and are belayed by a crew member.
Chris and Randy
We did two cruises. Our job was to provide entertainment on sea days when there are no port visits.
The first:22 day TransAtlantic in November 2011, starting in Malaga Spain and ending in Barbados. There were 16 sea days, including 12 days on the crossing. Ports included Malaga, Tangier, Madeira, Cadiz, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Bridgetown. In the afternoons Randy taught oceanography and marine biology every sea day, topics such as waves, tides, currents, winds, birds, plankton, and plate tectonics.
Chris taught arts and crafts in the mornings, including drawing, paper bead making, card making and digital photography.
Second:6 day Caribbean transit, Panama to Grand Cayman, December 2017. We were scheduled to stop at San Andres and Providencia, two Columbian island off the Nicaraguan coast. However strong wind and seas from the north slowed our progress making our course a dead beat and compromising the island anchorages. So we spent 4 days beating and finally reaching as the trades reestablished.
On this trip Randy taught coral reef geology and ecology, waves and tides. These were relevant topics as many of the guests planned to snorkel on the trip, the large waves that we faced for days, and the contrast between the large tide range on the Pacific side of the Canal and the very small tide range on the Caribbean side.
From Chris…..
Chris at the helm.
On the transatlantic crossing the sails stabilized the ship but it still rolled a lot.It generally was a comfortable motion and lulled us to sleep but at times we would be in the dining room and feel a big roll coming.It was entertaining.Everyone at the table would pick up their wine glass in one hand and water glass in another and wait until the roll subsided.Conversation would hardly pause and then we would all put them back down.
People ask how we felt being so far from land in the middle of the Atlantic.You don’t feel the vast space of the whole ocean because all that you can see is a 5-6 mile radius around the ship.
My favorite thing was being out on the bowsprit netting, 20 feet ahead of the ship, watching dolphins play in the bow wave.
I also liked the early mornings when no one was on deck and as we neared the Caribbean, the occasional squalls.We would sail into one, the wind would blow hard, the rigging would strain and the warm rain gave everything a fresh water rinse.
From Randy. . .
Randy roughing it on a square rigger.
I enjoyed being on deck and watching the crew handle the sails and rigging. Trimming the sails or setting a new sail took several crew between 5 and 20 minutes. The deck crew were mostly from the southern Indian state of Goa. I also enjoyed spending long stretches in the bowsprit netting, suspended over the waves and watching the whole ship charging ahead behind me.
Oneadded benefit of being the lecturer was that most people knew who I was and were always stopping me with questions on deck and at meals about what they had seen on the ocean that day.
Fair winds in your land cruising, friends. We’ll have nice cold Puget Sound water waiting for you when you get back.
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 was an auspicious start to racing in 2018. Three Tree Point YC’s Duwamish Head Race, which has had it’s weather/finishing/shortened difficulties over the years came through with a fine day of racing last Saturday. It was a fast race, especially for the big boats, but there wasn’t a lot of a maneuvering and a limited number of tactical decisions to be made.
A strong current was pushing boats over the line, but soon the fleet was flying along the West Seattle waterfront beaches. The boats gave the Saturday morning walkers at Alki a bit of show as they headed to, and then from, the Duwamish Head Light. A medium air reach across Puget Sound was straightforward.
After rounding Blakely Rock, the larger boats that managed to stay west enjoyed a more westerly angle and came into the finish without tacking. Any of those that footed off found they needed to tack up around Three Tree Point Point. Many of the later, smaller boats had more of a beat.
The fast race combined with the time on distance scoring skewed some of the results, with the advantage going to the slower-rated boats. Keep reading to get a report from Image in the middle of the fleet. Results here.
Here are some of Jan Anderson’s photos. See more and buy them here.
Madam Pele
Darkside
The chaos of the start.
More chaos including McSwoosh losing a tack line.
Crossfire leaving Rainier in the distance.
Class 3 winner Equus.
Mist
The newest (and oldest) of the Northwest’s three-boat TP 52 “fleet” is Steve Johnson’s Mist (formerly Braveheart and Valkyrie). Johnson put many miles under his old White Cloud‘s keel, and wanted a new challenge. A TP 52 is certainly that.
The Duwamish Head race was part of that learning curve. Mist was over early at the start (“I’m not used to a boat jumping up to 12 knots that fast,” Johnson explained) and then had to chase Crossfire around the course the rest of the way. And the way the time on distance handicaps worked out both boats found themselves down in the standings.
At this point in the Mist program, that hardly matters. “Sooner or later we’ll learn how to sail it to its rating,” Johnson says. Right now he’s still adjusting to the TP52 speeds. One of the adjustments is the challenge for driving the beast – it demands laser-focus. As Johnson puts it, “there’s not a lot of forgiveness.” Another adjustment Johnson has to make is the flat out speed. “It changes your perception of how big Puget Sound is.” Indeed.
The team, basically the same White Cloud crew with some additions, is learning jib trim with the in-hauler set as close as 5° off center line, which is about 2 degrees less than White Cloud. The current crop of TPs on the Mediterranean are set at about 4.5 degrees.
One of the more interesting aspects of a TP52 program is access to sails. Johnson hopes to set up “a relationship” with a Med TP program to have access to their “old” sails that might have as little as a few short hours of use. Mist‘s inventory was already pretty good thanks to one of those relationships with Sled.
Mist is in relatively good condition, but there have been some annoying breakdowns including a broken outhaul in Round the County. Built as a late first-generation/early second-generation TP52 as Braveheart, the stout boat was built for ocean racing with ring frames and a sturdy rig. But as with any boat, there’s maintenance and modifications to be made. One of the first things on Johnson’s list is to set the galley up with a foot pump to fill water bottles from the water tank, as opposed to lugging aboard (and disposing of) water bottled in plastic. Environmentalism is in, folks.
Currently the long range plan is to do the usual Northwest races with an eye toward the Van Isle 360 in a year and a half.
Image
Alert reader Marc-Andrea Klimaschewski chimed in with his own Duwamish Head Story, specifically PHRF-7. Sounds like the class had a close race and there was a happy crew aboard Image. Here’s Marc:
PHRF-7 had a fantastic race last weekend. Having 6 boats with similar ratings out gave the Image crew a really nice benchmark and allowed us get a good read on our boat speed.
After a port tack approach to the start line we held a position to windward of the fleet, reaching a little longer with the #3 jib up. We were the last boat to set our spinnaker which allowed the J/29s to pull away but we managed to stay close to Les Chevaux Blacs and Folie a Deux. Once we were certain we could lay Alki beach the kite came up and we had a nice reach down. About a third of the way to Alki, Absolutely and a bit later String Theory passed us to windward and we got a good look at Crossfire flying towards Alki. With the wind moving slightly more behind us, we moved the our A-kite from being bow tacked to the spinnaker pole and squared it back a little which required us to set up the reaching strut – that’s the fun of being the old school boat in the fleet. At Alki Pt, we were a tad late to jibe towards the Duwamish head mark (partially due to our pole magic) which cost us some precious boat lengths and moved us back to last place in the fleet.
After ducking the yellow trimaran Ruf Duck the broad reach towards the Duwamish head mark went without a hitch. We were a little late getting the #1 on deck and set up so we had to round the mark bald headed which got us stuck in dirty air. As soon as we noticed we would not be able to lay Blakely Rock, we did two tacks putting us to windward of the rear end of the fleet which really helped with boat speed. We reached Blakely Rock together with Folie a Deux, tacked to starboard right with them and a 20 minute drag race ensued. We managed to sail slightly higher and slightly faster than them, eventually passing them and forcing them to foot toward the middle of the course to find clear air. Shortly after this, we had a prime spot for watching the orca pod (ed. note – how cool is that?!) that was moving north.
We needed to put in two additional tacks before the finish line, probably due to the wind dying down temporarily but spirits were high, especially when we sighted Les Chevaux Blancs and Folie a Deux behind us.
All in all, the entire crew of Image enjoyed the race a whole lot. After spending more than two years building crew and skills as well as slowly converting the boat from a full on cruising boat (featuring her original 1982 sails) it seemed like to work was paying off and we got some good boat on boat action.
It’s absolutely great that readers chime in from all parts of the fleet, in particular from older boats that are enjoying the racing every bit as much as the boats with 5-degree sheeting angles! Keep sending your stories, videos and photos and I’ll keep posting 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.
Does this strike anyone else as a good solution to the bottom paint problem? I certainly wouldn’t mind going into a “boatwash” every 4-12 weeks (recommended intervals), and for sure before every big race! The Swedish company Drive-in Boatwash™ is producing these units. The Clean Boating Foundationhas a nice post on the company 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.
Kaitlyn Van Nostrand recently assumed coaching duties at the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center on Lake Washington. She’s also a dedicated environmental pro, currently an account manager at Republic Services. She’s been working with Sailors for the Sea for following their Clean Regatta guidelines, and last weekend’s Milfoil junior regatta was deemed “Clean.” It sets a great example for other sailing and yacht clubs to follow, and by the sounds of it, it was more fun than chore. Here’s Kaitlyn’s report on the event, borrowed from an email to Sailors for the Sea.
We had a great Milfoil Junior Regatta with both sun and wind last Saturday. There were 26 participants sail in 4 fleets (Opti, Laser, V15 and FJ) from 7 different clubs in the Seattle area. We had our sailors from Mt. Baker be on our green team wearing green t-shirts with me. They rocked the pins on their life jackets. 🙂
Happy Milfoilers!
Our first place trophies were re-purposed ones that I found in the boathouse from the 1970’s! I removed the plaque on the front (may reuse them for other awards later), put a Sailors for the Sea Sticker on them and they came out great. Our participation awards were mugs for Optis and glasses for the other classes that I got from Goodwill. Stickered them as well, they looked awesome! Each participant received a sticker too.
Our office staff was great in helping with our water bottle station, communicating to sailors they needed to BYO water bottle and we ran a nearly zero waste event since our lunch was pizza and we composted the plates and pizza boxes. 🙂
Looking forward to passing on our Clean Regatta lessons to other clubs on the Northwest circuit to get more clean regattas registered for next summer.
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.
