As I watched the resuilts come in from the ILCA 6 (Laser Radial rig) Worlds scores come in from Vallerta, I was certain that I’d be reporting overall wins for my friends Bill Symes in the Legends (75+ year old) class and Al Clark in the Grand Master class. Alas, a black flag DSQ in this morning’s first race and a third in the last race cost Symes the overall win. He had, after all, a nearly perfect scoreline. Clark had a tough final day as well, but finished off a hard fought victory. Congrats to both of them.Here’s the press release:
Vallarta, Mexico – Although Hurricane Blas threatened to steal the breeze, the wind gods prevailed on Banderas Bay for the final day of the ILCA 6 Masters World Championships. With the hurricane moving west, two more perfect races were completed under sunny skies and warm temperatures in Riviera Nayarit, Mexico. The 10–12 knot wind put the onus on boat speed and tactics for all the divisions. Downwind technique was also critical – those able to catch the waves most efficiently could make big gains on the fleet.
The final day brought a shake-up in the Legends division, for sailors over the age of 75. American Bill Symes who was unstoppable throughout the week, was caught over early in the first race of the day allowing fellow American Chris Boome to take the win and move into a tie for first overall heading into the last race. In the final race, Boome managed to sneak ahead of Symes and clinch the championship by one point over Symes.
Australia’s Jeff Loosemore added to his incredibly consistent event to win the Great Grand Masters division by a comfortable 25 points over former Olympic gold medalist, Miguel Noguer of Spain.
Allan Clark of Canada closed out a hard-fought victory in the very competitive Grand Masters division, with the overall championship decided in just the final race. After a capsize on the first leg, Clark’s victory appeared in jeopardy, but Australian David Luketima’s fourth place in the final race was not enough to close the difference for the win.
Great Britain’s sailors Ian Gregory and Jon Emmett closed out the championship in style, winning the Masters and Apprentice Masters divisions by comfortable margins.
A thank-you goes out to the Vallarta Yacht Club and all the volunteers, staff, and event sponsors for an unforgettable week of sailing.
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.
Ed. Note: This was news 3 months ago, but it’s still news. Cruising, after all, is timeless. Furthermore, this is one of sailing’s great honors and we as Northwesterners can be proud and impressed by the Niemans’ achievements. This is the press release from the one and only CCA. -KH
Ginger and Peter Niemann have been named winners of the 2021 Blue Water Medal by the Cruising Club of America for two sailing circumnavigations that took them to the high latitudes, north and south. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the second trip around the world included rigorous non-stop passages while returning home to Washington state.
The Niemanns exemplify the spirit of adventure and determination represented by the Blue Water Medal, which has been awarded regularly since 1923 to “reward meritorious seamanship and adventure upon the sea displayed by amateur sailors of all nationalities, that might otherwise go unrecognized.” Past winners have ranged from Eric Tabarly and Sir Francis Chichester to Rod Stephens, Webb Chiles and Eric and Susan Hiscock.
The Niemanns’ first voyaging boat was Marcy, a 47-foot sloop they converted from a schooner. From 2006 to 2010, Marcy took them west-about from Seattle almost 50,000 miles around the world, including rounding the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn.
In 2017, they departed Washington State on Irene, a 52-foot fiberglass ketch. Taking the opposite direction, east-about, through the Northwest Passage and staying in the northern hemisphere, they never crossed their first track around. Becoming the 30th U.S.-flagged vessel to complete the Northwest Passage transit, Irene touched Greenland, Newfoundland, and the U.S. East Coast before crossing the Atlantic to Ireland.
After touring the U.K., Atlantic Europe, and the Mediterranean, they found themselves suddenly stranded in Turkey when the COVID-19 pandemic began. Like international cruisers everywhere, they were stopped in their tracks, previous plans irrelevant. Unwilling to leave Irene, they considered staying in Turkey; sailing back home across the Atlantic; or heading home to the Pacific Northwest through the Suez Canal. They chose the third option, negotiating a landfall in distant Batam, Indonesia. Their of-necessity-non-stop voyage across the Indian Ocean during the monsoon to Indonesia required extraordinary perseverance. It was rough, as they had expected, but at least their worries didn’t include pirates, who were unlikely to be out and about in the challenging weather.
Two non-stop months and nearly 6,000 miles later, the Niemanns arrived in Batam, only to find that their permission to stay in Indonesia had been revoked. Nearby Singapore let them stay but they couldn’t leave the boat. They lived onboard at the Changi Sailing Club for five months. In all, they spent nearly 300 days aboard, unable to go ashore in any country. On February 2, 2021, they departed on the long cruise home via Japan and the Aleutians.
Despite the truly unique challenges posed by the pandemic, Peter and Ginger persevered, cheerfully adapting to a seemingly endless onboard quarantine and making lengthy passages in extremely difficult conditions.
They have coped with challenges posed by wind and weather, taken on the high latitudes in the Arctic and Patagonia, and found a way to successfully navigate the pandemic to complete a second circumnavigation in extraordinary circumstances. Their teamwork, courage, good humor, flexibility, and innovative spirit are evidence of their exceptional personal and sailing mettle. During these uncertain and difficult times, their persistence and ingenuity is truly inspiring, and the Cruising Club of America is proud to present them with the 2021 Blue Water Medal.
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 old skipper and 2-time Mini Transat finisher Craig Horsfield is at it again, this time in next year’s Class 40 The Race Around. Yes, a doublehanded around the world race. He’s teaming with other experienced sailors to make this happen as a Corinthian effort. There are lots more photos on Craig’s Facebook site. We’ll be following this closely and posting here.
Horsfield has shared this video. Check the shape of his new ride!
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.
Bill Symes of Portlland, Oregon, once again claimed a championship at the world championships just completed in Barcelona, Spain. (ILCA is of course the class formerly known as the Laser, and there was an entertaining mix of Laser and ILCA logos in the sails!) Symes did it with 10 firsts and a third. He opted out of the last race, which gave fellow Oregonian Rob Hodson a chance to win the final race. Results here.
The ever humble Symes was interviewed early in the event, where he cited “a lot of good breaks” for some wins. Well, 10/11 firsts is a bit more than good breaks.
Other notable US finishers included “Legend” Peter Seidenberg, who again won the Legends class (aged 75+, Seidenberg is in his 80s), Robert Hallowell who won the ILCA 7 Grand Masters class, and Ernesto Rodriguez, who won the ILCA 7 Masters Class. For more information, and plenty of pictures of older ILCA sailors still sailing at a very high level, check out the web site.
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 Buchan legacy extends. Carl won the International Masters regatta, put on by the San Diego Yacht Club this past weekend. The picture of the happy crew includes some very familiar faces, including Carol Buchan. Carl was just inducted into the Sailing Hall of Fame, joining his father Bill. That those two exemplify sailing at its best is no news to us, but it’s sure nice the folks on other other coast recognize it!
This post tells the story of the regatta. Carl won it with a race to spare, then handed his boat over to a competitor with equipment issues on another boat and sat out the last race. Yes, sailing at its best.
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.
When it comes to setting up or sailing a boat, few can compete with Bruce Schwab. A renaissance man, Schwab has raced singlehandedly around the world twice, rebuilt the 30 square meter Rumbleseat in magnificent fashion (and won 1996 Singlehanded Transpac in it), and founded Oceanplanet Energy, a very forward-looking company with energy solutions for life afloat,.
And when it comes to legendary boats, few can complete with Improbable. Designed by Gary Mull and built of Kauri, Improbable was a completely different take on the then-new IOR measurement handicapping system. Relatively skinny and light, Improbable raced successfully in many places around the world including England and Australia. She eventually came to the Pacific Northwest where Bruce’s father (and Bruce) sailed her.
It’s best to let Bruce tell the story, but many of us old salts have it in the backs of their minds to do the same thing with some iconic racer.
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.
Keith Whittemore has certainly made his mark in the J/24 world, winning the Worlds et. al. He’s a regular at the Italian National Championships.
His renown in that country’s J/24 world leapt a few more notches in the past couple of weeks when he gave his friend Fabrizio the winning J/24 Furio. This is how to bring the world of sailing together. Thanks, Keith, for showing the best side of our sailing community to the world. Here’s the video – KH
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.
Isn’t it great when PNW sailors get out there in front? KH
September 26, 2021. Annapolis, MD. — Eight teams representing their respective US Sailing Areas from regions around the country vied for the Lloyd Phoenix Trophy this week in Annapolis, at the 2021 U.S. Offshore Sailing Championship. Skipper Steve Travis, from Corinthian Yacht Club of Seattle, and his crew came out on top after two days of racing, scoring 10.5 points overall after three distance races and one buoy race.
“It was a fun race and a fun event…. Good people, a great venue — an interesting venue — and it’s one of the best events that is run,” says Travis.
Close behind Travis was Bob Fleck and his crew from Fishing Bay YC with 10.75 points, followed by the Navy Offshore Sailing Team, skippered by Ensign Don Poirier, with 12.25 points.
The regatta, which was slated to run Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, was hosted by the U.S. Naval Academy Sailing Squadron and sailed aboard Navy 44 MK II Sloops. To kick off the weekend, on Friday the fleet completed one bouy and one distance race, with Fleck and his crew winning both and in the lead at the end of day one, followed by Poirier, then Travis.
“The finish of race two was held right off the Robert Crown Sailing Center seawall providing a great spectacle for those ashore,” said Jahn Tihanksy, Director and Head Coach of the U.S. Naval Academy Offshore Sailing Team, and also chairman for this event. “[Fleck] extended to a commanding lead to take the bullet while Poirier and his Navy crew held second.”
Racing was interrupted on Saturday due to a lack of wind. However, competitors came out ready to race on Sunday and in a freshening breeze completed two distance races. It was in the final race that Travis and his crew were able to take the lead, overtaking Poirier and the US Navy Sailing Team midway through the race to secure their overall win.
“We had a decent start, and thought we had a good shift, and it turned out to be not such a great shift,” says Travis of the final race. “We rounded the mark in third, and the boat in front of us [Navy] took his kite down and put a jib up, which ended up being not the right thing to do. And then the lead boat jibed away, and when he came back, he was behind us. From there, it was just a reach to the weather mark. Then it was shifty, inside the harbor with 30 degree shifts…it was stressful to hang on… but we did it.”
The Notice of Race requires competing teams to have a certain amount of consistency in their crew arrangements — A minimum of five competitors on each team must have raced together (including the designated skipper) in a minimum of five regattas in IRC, ORC, ORR, PHRF, Offshore One Design, Offshore Level Class Racing or Portsmouth Numbers rating systems in the past 36 months. They are also required to sail with a U.S. Naval Academy Midshipman from the varsity offshore sailing team aboard. The overall winners of the Championship had Midshipman Keegan Steele aboard, and the second-place finishers, skippered by Fleck, were joined by Midshipman Cade Gelhar.
“They sailed a great race and are great competitors, and are a lot of fun to be around and they represent the US Navy very well,” says Travis of the US Naval Academy sailors who partook in the events of the weekend. “Our Midshipman was very good, and helpful to us in beating his buddies on the Navy boat.”
The U.S. Offshore Sailing Championship is a biennial event. The winner of the Championship is awarded the Lloyd Phoenix Trophy, named for a US Naval Academy Graduate who served in the Civil War. After resigning and going into business he became a yachting enthusiast and Rear Commodore of the New York Yacht Club. The Trophy is on display in the Robert Crown Center at the United States Naval Academy.
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 a roaring start to the Fastnet Race in England. Winds gusting into the high 20s, with wind against current producing some really angry chop. Our PNW team aboard the First 40 Jazz had a good start and apparently worked their way to weather out of the Solent. Their class, IRC 2, was the last to start and faced the most challenging winds and waves. The hard beat will go on for a while, but a large high pressure zone is moving north and may produce lighter winds in the days to come. A couple of notes – there are about 50 boats in Jazz’s class, including about 10 First 40s. Here is video of the IRC Class 2 start, beginning with about a minute to go before the gun goes off.
A couple more notes – If you want to track the race, the link is https://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/en/2021-tracking-player. My friends at 48 North have a nice piece on the Jazz team. There are lots of battles on the course, with several multihull classes going at it, IMOCA foiling 60s and Class 40s. Around one quarter of the fleet is sailing doublehanded. This is the first time the race will finish in Cherbourg, France, and apparently there is no small amount of trickiness right until the end.
If any of you have further insights, please send them to me. I’ll be covering my friend Brad Baker and the Jazz team closely.
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 pretty safe to say that for most of us, sailing is critical to feeling alive. But as performance sailors will tell you, pushing one’s limits in big breeze is about feeling really alive, whether it’s on an Opti going 7 knots or a foiling cat going 25. Andy Mack, a performance sailor if there ever was one, pushed his limits on the Columbia River Gorge on Labor Day in his RS Aero. He told his tale to fellow Aero sailors and has graciously allowed us to share it here. Read on! -KH
Feeling Alive
By Andy Mack
Andy Mack
Around 2:00 pm on Labor day I was noticing the breeze from the east was picking up and started to think maybe it would be worth considering trying to make a run at the Hood River YC 20/20 record, Hood River to Cascade Locks. The last record was set in 2014 by Bill Summerfield and crew on his Express 27, 1:54:38. Doing the math; for 20 miles you need to average better than 5.73 minutes per mile, which is an average of 9.1 knots. After pulling up the charts and a calculator for some quick estimates, I figured it could be possible in the Aero. The challenge to being successful is to be able to keep the overall average speed up high enough to make up for the typically slow first 3 – 4 miles where the wind is barely enough to get on a plane. You start out at a deficit to the average since the wind builds as you go west through the Gorge, so you have to be really cooking in the second half to make up for the early lost time. I did some quick estimates for where I would need to be by what times for the first half, after that, it doesn’t really matter. Just get there in one piece. It can get pretty sketchy for the second half, not much time to think other than 100% focus on staying upright and in one piece. This day was especially unique. The forecast was for a once in a 50 year easterly blow. The i-windsurf forecast had estimates of 40 – 50 knots. How likely was that going to happen? I was convincing myself that those peaks would be further west of Cascade Locks, not through the mid-Gorge corridor.
I sprung the idea of the downwinder on my wife, Jaime. To my surprise, she thought it was a great idea and said to “go for it”. She offered to help support me in a power boat, but I talked her out of it. Once I’m in 20+ knots the RIB could be a liability. The next best plan would be to track me through my phone location and meet me at the other end. Worst case, I could haul out in Viento or one of the other beach launches. I’ll call for help if I need it. Everything is within 30 minutes by car. So, I packed my dolly in her car just in case.
I’m not the most tech savvy, other than I can run an app on my phone. I had made sure “Find My Phone” was working for Jaime to track me and “Race Qs” to record a GPS track record. Then, I put my Velocitek SC-1 in the cockpit, which I hadn’t used in about 11 years. No video or GoPro on this excursion. If I had more time to prepare I would have put one on my boom. Another non-typical added environmental condition was forest fire smoke that had started to blow in from the east from fires in eastern Washington. Visibility was down to about 3-4 miles. Air quality was starting to be problem, I thought I could deal with it for a couple hours. I was a little concerned about not being able to see barges coming upriver before they could be a problem. However, since it was a holiday, there may not be any barges on the river. Air temperature was about 80 degrees, water temp around 72 and not much current. I decided to go without a spray top or insulating layer. In hindsight, a helmet would have been a good idea. I have a few different rig sizes to choose from and decided to go with the 7 square meter rig.
When I went down to the marina I sent a message to the HRYC group that I was planning to go for the 20/20 record. A few minutes later I got a message that a Moore 24 had already left to go do the run too. Oh great! I wish I knew this ahead of time, I would have tried to join them for at least a little safety in numbers. Maybe I’ll see them with their rig down or some other carnage.
4:00 I rigged up and shoved off the Hood River Marina dock into the smokey Mordor looking scene.
I spent 5 minutes getting mentally ready, setting my phone tracker, watch countdown set to 1:54:00, just under the last record, then deciding the best position on the start line and angle to begin my run. Double checking with myself if this is really a good idea. Of course it is!
4:07:50 Bore off and went for it. I had some nice initial puffs over 15 knots and flat water, hitting 12 knots over the bottom. That was a good start.
4:10:50 I was hit by a puff which must have clocked to the south a little and caught me off guard, leading to a deathroll. That was dumb! Fortunately, I was able to climb over the rail and get on the board quickly while the boom was still up in the air. I lost a little time. As I got back upright I heard some cheering from some people that had walked out to the tip of the sand bar to enjoy the awful weather and air quality conditions. Immediately after recovering I was hit again by a 20 knot puff, sending me back up to 14 knots.
4:12:00 I had to luff up for a few seconds to put the main halyard back in the sail pocket. I figured I better stop now to take care of it before the wind got too crazy.
4:17:00 Mile 1, I needed to average better than 6 minutes a mile to break the record, I was over 1.5 minutes behind.
Slow going the first 2 miles.
4:25:30 2 miles down, passing by the Hatchery Buoy, 4 minutes behind the average. My mantra for the run was to focus on keeping my average boat speed up over 10 knots, “Keep the average up”. As I was going through the corridor from the Hatchery to Viento, the halfway point, the wind was steadily picking up over 20 knots, my average speed getting closer to 10 knots and trending up. The waves were kicking up too keeping me cautious to not stuff and wipeout.
4:45:34 First heavy air jibe, resorted to a chicken jibe. I didn’t want to risk another capsize to keep my average up. The waves were getting bigger, forcing me to slow down and steer around more. I was easing my vang a little for safety, trying to keep control over where I had to steer to avoid stuffing the bow.
4:50:19 Waves and gusts were getting bigger, forcing me down the troughs into the backs of bigger and bigger waves, I had to resort to burning speed by luffing up to avoid stuffing. Not fast, but still better than a capsize.
4:50:07 Chicken Jibe #2. My strategy was to stay to the leeward side of the channel on the Oregon side of the river as much as possible to avoid shifty and disturbed wind on the north side of the channel. On final approach to Viento Park, it was WINDY, gusting well over 30 knots, waves were getting bigger. My goal was to pass Viento before 5:00.
4:58:15 Passing by Viento, the midway point. Now, I was about 5 minutes ahead of the record and feeling kind of crazy, but more confident I could make it. As I was cruising by the park I only saw one windsurfer braving the conditions, and he was headed back to the beach in retreat.
Lulls were 20 knots, gusts up into the high 30’s. As I made the commitment to proceed past Viento I was extremely focused on not dropping the mainsheet, oversheeting to reduce power and keeping the loads balanced, easing vang to let the top of the sail twist off, pulling controls on and steering with deliberate precision. Stuffing waves and filling the cockpit was a regular occurrence at this point. After I passed the park, to my surprise, I experienced much flatter water, and the boat lit up planning much more steadily, helping the average. For 20 minutes I almost never dropped under 10 knots and hit one peak of 16.3 knots. This section was a blast.
5:20:00 Settling into the start of the Home Valley stretch where it can get squirrely from the wind pinching between Wind Mountain and the Oregon hillsides. As I was passing by the Wyeth park and launch area I looked to my leeward side and realized I was only about 3 boat lengths from a long native American salmon net. At least it was strung along the current, not across it. The thought of running over a net in these conditions was not a good one.
5:23:00 Conditions were now getting very lively. I was hitting new high speeds, surging to 15 knots then hitting 16.5, with a short burst to 16.7, my peak for the whole run. And then, I don’t know what happened. Next thing I know, I’m in the water and my boat is pitch poled in front of me completely straight up in the air with only one foot of the bow in the water. That would have been a cool photo! My first thought was to start swimming towards the boat quickly before it blows away from me. The next thing I realize, my ride is falling back towards me, on to me. I managed to not get hit in the head by the port side rail as the boat fell back down into the water. My left shoulder and thigh took a blow from the hull or rail. Fortunately, I was able to quickly reach up and get on the board and get going again. Needless to say, I was a little shaken up wondering how much windier it was going to get and what else could go wrong. At this point, I was straight across from the Home Valley park boat ramp. As I looked down river the smoke was obscuring the next point where I would be hanging a left into the Cascade Locks/Stevenson stretch. As soon as I got going again the breeze dropped, big lull. More encouragement to keep going!
5:30:00 the breeze came back on hard. I have been out in big breeze and waves many times in the Aero, but this was different. I was worried there was a lot of potential to brake something as the puffs kept getting well over 30 knots, driving the bow down and loading up the rudder. I did my best to not push it too hard. Hiking off the back corner was helpful and necessary to keep the bow up.
5:31:21 Any time I felt the boat was getting overloaded I purposely rounded up to burn off speed and unload the rudder. As I bore off and got going again down the Home Valley channel, I was in more of a “safety” mode, trying to stay in control as the puffs got bigger and the waves were stacking up.
5:34:34 A huge gust hit me, I jumped to 16 knots again, stuffed the bow and capsized. This time I was getting concerned about what to do next. Once I got the boat back up, I cranked on controls to flatten my sail as much as possible. In the process, I was hit by a huge puff, and had to hike out just to stay upright while I was luffing on a beam reach angle. Not good! When I looked out into the channel it was knarly; big breaking waves, with the gusts blowing the tops off the waves. There was no way I would be able to go upwind in these conditions. With no boat launches or beaches nearby to pull out, I had no choice, but to keep going. I bore off in the next lull, with the belief I may be able to still make it. Success! I proved I could still bear away and survive. It didn’t take long before I had to do another round up to slow down. Then I decided to tack to stay closer to the Oregon shore. One of the awesome features about the Aero is, it’s very light. The downside is it doesn’t carry much momentum through tacks, especially when it’s blowing over 25 knots. The tack took me two tries to complete. Worst case scenarios were starting to cross my mind. Where could I bail out? About now, I knew Jaime would be either close or already in Cascade Locks to pick me up. As I approached the Oregon shore, I knew I didn’t want to get too close to the lee shore or shallow water, so I tacked again and bore away.
5:42:48 Capsized again. Shifting priorities, I have given up trying to break the record and focused on trying to survive and keeping my boat in one piece. I noticed my rudder was starting to kick up a little, so I had to cinch down the tie-down line. If the rudder kicks up too much, it increases the weather helm and could over stress the rudder and rudder head. I managed to bear away again in a lull and kept going. I was thinking, if I could just get downwind another quarter mile I could duck into the coves at the east end of Cascade Locks for shelter. Once I got going again, I kept in control enough to keep pushing towards the finish. In these conditions, when I was stuck going up the face of a wave, all I had to do was sheet out a little to power over the wave and sheet in again to slow down on the backside. Now that I was pointed towards the Stevenson kite launch area I knew I was almost home free. This section was 7 minutes of high averages and almost no dips below 10 knots. As I approached the Stevenson boat ramp area a few kiters were ripping around, smiling, having a ball as I was trying to loosen up and enjoy myself. The wind had moderated a little more, gusts in the low to mid 30’s, lulls around 20. The tracking data of this 25 minute section really revealed the extreme up and down conditions and wave action.
5:53:24 As I was bombing towards the Stevenson shoreline I found the lull I was hoping for and went for a legit jibe, barely landing it. Knowing I was potentially on final approach to the Cascade Locks beach, no more jibes were necessary, I was starting to relax a little more and enjoy the ride. I looked at my watch one more time and realized I could still potentially make it under the previous record. Hard to believe it was possible with all the flailing around I had been doing. Port jibe was more challenging with the wind and wave angle, I was having to spin up a couple more times to keep from going down the mine in the big puffs. At least I was getting quicker at the recovery and bearing off again. The last four minutes were really fun, with higher averages and awesome surfing conditions. As I came up on the Cascade Locks park I was thinking a photo or video to capture the occasion and accomplishment would be cool. Nope! Just me, myself and I. With the smoke filled air and gale force winds, who would want to be going for a walk to the beach on a day like this?
6:01:07 I finished this crazy adventure! Broke the old record by a little over a minute. Nothing broke on my Aero and I was in one piece.
Jaime got there a few minutes after I landed at the dock. She had pulled off the highway a few miles back looking for me when the phone tracker showed me flailing around. She took these pictures while looking for me. Not much to see with the heavy smoke screen. By the time she took these I must have got my act together and carried on. When she met me at the dock, she said I looked like Gollum; pale, shaking and my eyes bloodshot from the smoke.
I didn’t realize until a couple days later how hard my boat had hit my shoulder.
The Moore 24 “Nice One”, owned by Andy Estcourt, with crew Sean “Doogie” Couvreux, and Mike “Spike” Slater managed to smash the record by a little over 10 minutes, 1:43:20. The bruise was Andy’s take-home from the adventure.
The Moore 24 “Nice One”, owned by Andy Estcourt, with crew Sean “Doogie” Couvreux, and Mike “Spike” Slater managed to smash the record by a little over 10 minutes, 1:43:20. They left Hood River an hour before I did, around 3:00 pm. When I look at the wind data and my GPS track, I am confident if I had left when they did, it would have been a very close race. Nice run and perfect timing guys! It doesn’t hurt to leave the task to a couple of veteran pro’s and an experienced Gorge sailor. I hear they had their own harrowing experience during the second half of their run.
Obviously, it was not blowing 20 – 30+ knots yet, cocktail hour on the back deck!
Final Conclusion: I am completely impressed with how well the Aero is built and handled these extreme conditions. I now know I can trust my boat to hold together, should I end up in these kind of conditions again. Looking at my recorded track I followed very close to rhumline, only crossing the river four times and staying close to the channel to maximize the current push. While I am disappointed I missed the new record, set an hour before me. I can look at the data and know if I had not capsized, I would have easily saved 10 minutes. If I had left an hour earlier, I would have had about 10 knots less wind on average, which would have made a big difference. It was a bit much to expect to survive every massive puff and pearl into the waves ahead of me, which lead to most of my capsizes. Maybe the 5 rig would have been easier to control in the 25+ knot conditions. I’ll have to test this out for future attempts. All I can say is, this experience left me Feeling Alive! I loved it! Can’t wait to try again next year and beat the new record.
