South Sound Series

Halfway Duwamish Head

Kurt Hoehne Racing, South Sound Series 2 Comments
Halfway Duwamish Head

Once again, Bruce Hedrick called it well in advance. The break in the rain was nice, but unfortunately it was a break in the wind as well for the racers that braved the Duwamish Head race on Saturday.

I don’t have any from-the-water reports, but Bruce was watching from his house in West Seattle and gave regular updates of the fleet’s slow progress. There are a few things of note. Three TP 52s came out to play. Alex Simanis has picked up with the Henderson 30 Sabrosa where he left off with Poke and Destroy, and Iain Christenson’s GREEN Farr 36 Annapurna can be clearly seen from all over Puget Sound. It’s also worth noting that John Bailey sailed Sir Isaac in the single/doublehanded class. That’s a lot of sails for two people. (Ed. note, I’d mistakenly called Sabrosa by the name Selah earlier. Oops, sorry. Selah is the J/100 with the red chute owned by Tad Fairbank, and it won the single/doublehanded class.)

Here are the results.

Following are Jan Anderson’s pictures. The rest are here.

Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 Jan. TTPYC Duwamish Head Race

Bruce Hedrick Bruce's Briefs, South Sound Series 0 Comment
Bruce’s Briefs: Wx for 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 Jan. TTPYC Duwamish Head Race

You can’t say we didn’t warn you about the rain and the wind. As of today, we are 2.7 INCHES of rain ahead of where we should be on a normal year and it’s only the 8th.  Plus, there’s more coming. Just not until Saturday night and we will then have a series of fronts come into the area well into next week.

Today’s surface analysis chart shows a pair of fairly ominous low-pressure systems. One is to the NW of us at 985mb with another one due west of us at 964mb and moving our direction. Note that both systems have the labels of Hurricane Force and if you look at today’s’ sat pic you’ll see it really does look like a hurricane! A closer look at today’s chart shows the front that came through this morning and a noticeable gap in the isobars which is why we have light air over the Central Sound. This will continue into tomorrow with the wind finally starting to build late tomorrow afternoon or early evening. Tomorrow’s forecast chart shows high-pressure building over the area which will drive that big low-pressure system towards SE Alaska. The attached frontal system will drag over our area late tomorrow or early Sunday.

  • January 8 500 mb
  • January 8 Surface Analysis
  • January 9 Surface Forecast
  • January 10 500 mb
  • January 10 Surface Forecast
  • January 11 Surface Forecast
  • January 12 500 mb
  • January 12 Surface Forecast

Yesterday and today were very much the same as far as the wind on the racecourse goes with more wind on the east side of the Sound and by more I mean 3-5 knots with zero on the west side of the Sound.  The good news is that there isn’t much tide but it will be pretty much against us all the way around the course.

Tidal Current at Alki

0830      Slack

1042       Max Flood           .35 knots

1242       Slack

1700       Max Ebb               .87 knots 

There won’t be a lot of wind but at least it shouldn’t be raining. The 500mb charts show that upper air flow is primarily zonal with the jet stream to the south of us. This will continue to direct frontal systems into our area probably for the foreseeable future. In other words, more rain is on its way.

Be safe, stay healthy, and enjoy the day. 

Winter Vashon, Duwamish Head

Kurt Hoehne Racing, South Sound Series 2 Comments
Winter Vashon, Duwamish Head

Winter Racing is on. We didn’t get any reports on Winter Vashon back in December, but we did get pix courtesy of Jan Anderson. Some of them are below and the rest are here. You can see the results here plus registration info for the remaining races.

These days any racing is great racing and the results seem to have lost their importance while we navigate Covid. That said, it was wonderful to see Smoke and Terremoto back on the race course. As Bruce Hedrick predicted, the race ended on a shortened course.

Tomorrow is the second race of the South Sound Series, the Duwamish head race. About 50 boats are signed up, and there are always some good stories coming from that race. Bruce will put his prognosticator’s hat on and put out a weather outlook later today. Hopefully there’s not quite as much wind as we’ve seen a few days ago (50-60 knots in places!)

I’d love to relay some of the stories that come from the Duwamish Head race. Just email me.

Toliva Shoal Race – Shortened Course Makes for Fun Race

Kurt Hoehne Racing, South Sound Series 0 Comment
Toliva Shoal Race – Shortened Course Makes for Fun Race

As Bruce predicted, it was a pretty light day in the southernmost of South Sound races. For those who braved the cold, they got to enjoy a gentle breeze, shortened course and a chance to be merry (or get back north) afterward with friends.

Dave Knowlton, skipper of the non-flying sails class winner Koosah, says “It was a great race!!  They thankfully shortened it at Toliva Shoal! Boats from up north just kept going and the Oly boats motored home!!

The Antrim 27 Redline skippered by Kyle Reese-Cassal won PHRF 5 and overall. The J/35s and Express 37s enjoyed some near level racing with 6 boats in Class 4. Results.

Photos as usual by Jan Anderson. Click here for more.

  • Redline!