Well-known and highly experienced Seattle racer (and skipper of the J/125 Hamachi) got a literal taste of Lake Michigan during the recently concluded Chicago to Mackinac race. The fleet was blasted by severe storms, so much so that the elapsed record was shattered by the Andrews 80 Maverick. Here is a video of interviews with the skippers of the Callisto and Madcap, skippers of the boat Dougherty fell off and was rescued by respectively, and Dougherty himself. These are very interesting interviews as they show how today’s MOB equipment and procedures facilitated a quick and successful rescue at night.
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 must be said that the sailing and racing seems to have come up a notch in the Pacific Northwest in 2023. There’s a little more participation and a little more anticipation in the air before races. There are plenty of season champions and boats of the year out there, and I’d love to cover them all. Or at least a bunch. But time being in short supply, here are my STAPYs for 2023.
I’ve invited others to name their favorites, and now I’m inviting all the readers to chime in. Surely you can think of someone deserving of a Totally Arbitrary award. Remember, as a STAPY it doesn’t have to be a race winner or an expedition cruiser type. It could (and should) be someone who supports the sport or their fellow mariners, sets an example or provides inspiration.
Justin and Christina Wolff
The Wolffs have put an amazing program for the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 Red Ruby they own with Jonathan McKee. Perhaps their most jaw-dropping achievement was finishing second OVERALL in the 600+ mile Rolex Middle Sea Race. The first place boat? The 93’ fully crewed Wally Bullitt. The time difference? 24, count ’em 24, seconds. Here’s a little video of the couple after the finish:
In what seems to be an irreversible trend, doublehanded racing is gaining momentum. McKee and Peter Isler won the ORC doublehanded championships in Barcelona, Spain. Maybe Red Ruby will help as a springboard to the already growing doublehanded racing community in the PNW.
Adam, Daniela, Gunner (8) and Teddy (4) Lawrence
Easy Day under spinnaker for the first time.
You probably haven’t heard of Adam Lawrence. I certainly hadn’t when he inquired about my Swiftsure Yachts listing, the Swan 46 Freya. The cruising world was new to him. But true to his US Navy background, he approached it methodically and thoroughly. Adam recognized Freya’s solid construction and appreciated the pilothouse that Swan Fans wrinkled their noses at. That unique feature, Adam knew, would be a great place for his boys.
From overhauling the plumbing to renaming the Swan Easy Day, Adam and his team set an example I will point cruiser wannabes to for years to come.
Here’s the first of what I hope will be many videos.
Dan Falk
Dan Falk
Dan won the RS Aero Worlds (9 rig) in Sardinia this year. It’s the second year in a row he’s done it. (Last year was on the Columbia River Gorge) He did it while sick and dehydrated, overcoming those issues plus a collision that knocked him out of a race.
That’s only one reason for the STAPY. He remains the mainstay of the Seattle RS Aero fleet, which is premier RS Aero fleet in North America. It also must make the rest of the world sit up (again) and wonder just what it is about the salmon we eat that makes the pointy end of the Seattle dinghy fleets so tough. During CYC’s PSSC Awards dinner, he bent over backward to applaud his training partner Keith Hammer for a well-earned victory. Dan is the kind of sailor that drives this sport. He sails hard, gives back and looks out for his fellow competitors.
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 real stories behind race results are generally way more interesting that the results lines. Take the recently concluded RS Aero Worlds sailed in Sardinia July 26-30.
It would be easy to look at the results and say, “there goes Dan Falk winning another Worlds” and leave it at that. True, but there’s so much more to the story. On the first day, after sailing two solid races and competing at the front during the third race, Falk scored a DNF. It turns out that was a major collision. As he crossed in front of a boat from another class while on a run, Falk’s leech loaded, perhaps in a puff, spinning him into that other boat. A hole in the other boat was the result (Aeros are not exactly bulletproof) and Dan’s day ended.
On the evening of the second day, illness hit. Food poisoning? Other competitors shared the similar illnesses. Regardless, it was a sleepless night as Falk’s body got rid of absolutely everything not tied down in his stomach. The next day he faced a choice between being miserable in his hotel room or being miserable on the water, and he chose the latter. To make matters worst, there were lack of wind delays and the fleet spent seven hours on the water. That’s time spent about 6″ off the water, which is a long day for sailors at 100% health.
Class winners, including Dan Falk on the right.
He faced the final day in a haze. Not even fully aware of the results (he was virtually tied with Madhavan Thirumalai for the lead), he needed to win the final two races to win the regatta. Sailing in a weakened conditioned, but completely relaxed, he did just that.
That win and several other impressive performances cemented the Seattle RS Aero fleet as a powerhouse. Last year the fleet dominated the worlds, winning all three classes (differentiated by sail size) in the Columbia River Gorge Worlds. This year Keith Hammer finished third behind Falk in the “9s,” Jay Renehan was 4th in the large “7s” class, and young Dieter Creitz was second in the new “6s” class.
There was a good mix of conditions, and with air temperature in the 80s and water temperature around 70. Family members not sailing enjoyed the beaches and general aura of Sardinia.
Stepping back from the Seattle story, there are few things worth noting. RS Aero is thriving in Europe. More than 120 sailors showed up for the event. The variety of sail sizes, particularly in the lower ranges, have made the boat accessible to a wide variety of sailors. For instance, one might wonder why there were “5” and “6” classes, but those were two of the largest fleets. That also meant that juniors and smaller women could more easily compete.
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 Chicago Mackinac race is known as one of the greatest races anywhere in the world, and with good reason. Conditions change with frightening speed, chunky waves test boats and, moreover, crews and the quality of racing is top notch.
The white boat in this Yellow Brick tracker image is Baby Blue approaching the Mackinac bridge and finish line at the Island beyond. All the other boats in the image are from Class 6 (her class), Class 5 (bigger, “faster”) and Class 4 (even bigger, even “faster”). Baby Blue won her class handily and finished 6th overall in the under 40′ Mackinac Cup division.
Paul Bieker’s 40′ Blue design caught people’s attention when she appeared a few years ago sailing around and in front of much larger boats. This year, the Bieker designed and Jim Betts built Baby Blue rocked the Mac fleet with a resounding Class 6 win. In the process, she beat all the supposedly faster Class 4 and Class 5 boats boat for boat.
Congratulations to Peter Heppel, Evan Walker and the largely PNW crew. Hopefully we can get some first-hand comments about the 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.
Bob Perry with a Portuguese water dog shirt. Very fitting.
Of all the PNW sailing luminaries, Bob Perry has probably had the biggest impact of all. His induction to the Sailing Hall of Fame is well deserved.
First of all, Bob’s designs are everywhere. And even when cruisers are not of his design, it’s not too hard to detect Bob’s influence. Secondly, Bob’s boat reviews in Sailing Magazine have educated and entertained sailors everywhere about yacht design. Who among us have not pored over his reviews? Finally, he moved with the times and enjoys a large online following, with sailors engaging with him constantly. And he does love the discourse. His enthusiasm and creativity has not waned and he continues to surprise with the projects he takes on. For instance, I just learned he redesigned the interiors for the Farr racer turned offshore trainer/adventure boat Falken for 59 North.
I’ve had the great good fortune to edit his column in Sailing Magazine for several years and now sell his designs as a broker. I’m proud to call him my friend.
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.
For those of us looking for inspiration to keep sailing (and living life to its fullest) into “maturity,” we need look no further than solo sailor Jeanne Socrates. She’s set records as the oldest singlehanded circumnavigator via the five great Capes and first woman to circumnavigate starting and ending in North America. I’ve had the great good fortune to write about Jeanne in the past and even talk to her by satellite phone while she’s offshore. She’s at it again at age 80. This time it’s not intended as a record breaking circumnavigation, but more like a Pacific cruise with stops along the way, ending up in the Antipodes. She calls Victoria her home port much of the time, so we get to claim her as part of the PNW community.
Jeanne asked me to help drum up some subscribers to her Youtube channel. Yes, folks, she’s a Youtuber. It’s the least I can do. Subscribe here.
In the meantime, here’s Jeanne as she overcomes a less than trouble free 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.
It’s not often that a sailboat racing article that’s not the America’s Cup gets into the New York Times, but that’s exactly what happened. We’ve been following Greg Slyngstad’s Bieker-designed Fujin since its launch and through its dramatic capsize, and now that Todd Slyngstad’s HH66 Nemo isn’t hindered by Covid, we’re bound to see some great multihull racing in the Caribbean in the coming months and beyond. See David Schmidt’s article here.
Here’s a taste of the piece to get you started:
Brotherly Love Has Its Limits When Sailing
By David Schmidt
It’s an old sailing joke that whenever two or more sailboats are within sight and on similar courses, they are informally racing.
Now, imagine that you are sailing in a world-class regatta and your brother owns one of the other yachts.
Nemo
That is facing Greg and Todd Slyngstad, brothers who are scheduled to race their high-performance catamarans in the same multihull class at this year’s Les Voiles de St. Barth Richard Mille.
The brothers grew up in San Jose, Calif., and learned to sail on Monterey Bay as children, but serious racing came later. Greg, 67, and now retired, moved to Seattle almost 40 years ago and spent his career in the tech industry, including at Microsoft, Expedia and Kayak. Todd, 58, and the youngest of the family’s eight siblings, lives in Santa Cruz, Calif., and he owns a grading and paving company.
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.
For anybody who’s been wondering what the Globe 40 was all about, and get a taste for these impressive boats, Take a look at this video. Seattle’s Craig Horsfield, who was on the Amhas team that finished second overall, is featured several times in the video.
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 final leg of the Globe 40 race is coming to a conclusion, and the PNW’s own Craig Horsfield is holding on to the lead with 450 miles to go.
Craig Horsfield
This leg has had very challenging conditions from the start. It is ending as it started, with a match race between the two Globe 40 overall leaders, Horsfield’s Amhas and the Dutch team aboard Sec Hayai. To win the round the world race overall, Amhas would have to put a boat between them and the Dutch. That seems highly unlikely, since the third place boat is 300+ miles behind.
Here’s the most recent press release:
After suffering in recent days in the Azores the passage of a front generating winds up to 60 knots, the competitors of the GLOBE40 will have to face today and Monday a new depression on arrival in the Bay of Biscay with winds up to 50 knots and seas up to 10 m deep in the northern part of the Gulf. Faced with this situation, the leader of the AMHAS stage yesterday decided to slow down voluntarily to get behind the hardest part of the phenomenon.
Amhas is pink, Sec Hayai is orange.
A difficult choice, as Craig Horsfield explained to us “We’re going to try to slow down, we’re going to look east by slowing down. We only have one mainsail and 3 reefs. Above all we are disgusted after all these days of racing and hard work to get a lead that we have effectively stopped for now. It is hard to do and to accept”.
GRYPHON SOLO 2, which passed through the Azores yesterday, expresses the extreme harshness of these moments: Joe Harris “Last night was the most difficult night of our entire trip around the world. The wind and sea state continued to build until we were in 9m seas and winds gusting to 60 knots. We had prepared with 3 reefs in the mainsail and the staysail, which worked well up to 50 knots of wind. But the gusts overhead rocked the boat hard and made Roger and I, huddled in the cabin, wonder if we were going to get knocked down and rolled over. It was scary. We were both thinking of life rafts, EPIRBs and rescues. But eventually the 60 knot gusts died down and we were able to continue…. It makes you think.
SEC HAYAI in second position maintains a significant lead over GRYPHON SOLO 2 (284 miles this morning)..
The first arrivals in Lorient are scheduled for Wednesday 15. (photo Roger Junet)
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.
As if PNW dinghy sailors didn’t know it already, Portland’s Bill Symes is a Laser sailing legend. And he just won the Legends class at the ILCA Master Worlds in Thailand.
For those of you unfamiliar with the ILCA Masters Worlds, it is a truly amazing gathering of older sailors still fit and ambitious enough to sail the seminal singlehander at the highest level. The age groups are Apprentice Master (35-44), Master (45-54), Grand Master (55-64), Great Grand Master (65-74) and, you guessed it, Legends (75+). And while the older sailors may not have the physical tools they once had, there’s an amazing amount of fitness on display and they are no less competitive than 18 year olds. They may, however, be a little nicer to each other on and off the water.
A start
This impressive annual gathering happens at carefully chosen locales around the world, with an eye toward keeping the ILCA (Laser) active worldwide. The locations are also chosen for good sailing conditions.
Bill Symes has been at the top of the masters classes for decades. Last year he missed on a Legends win with a black flag in the first race on the last day.
Symes wasn’t the only PNW winner. Al Clark of Vancouver BC won the Grand Master title. Like Symes, Clark had his worst race in the first race on the last day, but managed to hold on to a two point lead for the series win.
I’d like to make a few observations. In the modern sailing culture of faster, faster, faster, anything less than foiling seems ho hum. I doubt any of the foiling folks had any more fun, or experienced any more intensity, than these masters going at the more sedate Laser pace. While there’s nothing wrong with pushing the envelope and foiling, the fun to be had on inexpensive dinghies should not be dismissed. Also, one might think that there would be only a handful of “old folks” with the fitness and will to do a 6-day Laser regatta. The Legends class had 20 participants, the Great Grand Master class had 32. Those are great racing fleets. Finally, half the Apprentice class, including the winner, were women.
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.
